Responds to an article on top-down versus bottom-up analyses of interlanguage data in second language acquisition research that argues in favor of using multifactorial frequency data analyses over multiple chi-squares to take into account dependence and interaction of the frequency data. (Author/VWL)

The functional hypothesis of language, based on the assumption that the referential function of language is paramount, is discussed as it applies to interlanguage, the second language spoken by less than proficient native speakers of another language. The presentation includes: (1) a review of the evidence of previous empirical investigations of…

Discusses two complementary traditions in the study of communication and social context and shows how one researcher's theory of context influences the methodologies he or she adopts. Reviews substantive findings of sociolinguistic researchers in four main areas of second-language acquisition and use: interlanguage variation, cross-cultural…

Suggests that interlanguage morphology research contradictions have occurred as a result of a descriptively inadequate variation model. This assertion provides the basis for proposing and applying a multivariate model (acquisition stage, linguistic environment, and communicative redundancy) to an analysis of native Mandarin Chinese speakers'…

Examines two rating scales for assessment of oral proficiency and judges both as inadequate because they are based on an untenable theory of the development of proficiency in a second language and on mistaken intuitions about oral interaction. The paper concludes with a discussion of an architectural, context-dependent theory of second-language…

Evaluates the hypothesis that interlanguage is an efficient means of communicating referential information. The presentation includes review of evidence of the functional hypothesis in different forms of language; description of two studies of spoken English interlanguage of learners from different backgrounds; and discussion of the consequences…