Several methods illustrating how textbooks traditionally teach the use of pronouns in discourse in Thai are examined and criticized in this study. Examples of how "referential identity" and "lexical identity" are interrelated are provided. It is pointed out that (1) the semantic features of age, gender, and relationship are not sufficient to…

Tape-recorded conversations provide a basis for analysis of fixed expressions, cliches, filled pauses and false starts in spontaneous speech. The meaning of these findings for second language learning and instruction is discussed. (CHK)

An overconcern with the niceties of usage can undercut English teachers' efforts to eliminate public doublespeak. (JH)

This study proposes that avoidance of a structure by a second language learner can only be claimed for instances where it can be demonstrated that the learner "knows" the avoided language form and that native speakers are expected to use a particular form in that context. Research is reviewed, particularly a study by J. Schachter (1974) in which…

Standard measures and techniques are needed to establish resemblances and differences among languages. A determination of the degree to which one lanquage or dialect differs from another requires the examination of language universals. To study what languages have in common, attention has to be given to the physical, psychological, and social…

This study of the linguistic acts of assenting and confirming is inspired by an attempt to create instructional materials for the learning of spoken English as a second language, with communicative competence as a goal. Observations are based on several hours of informal conversation between native speakers of English, mostly students and…

A major implication in the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages concerns classroom interaction in which students should participate. Ideally, this interaction should be identical to interaction in real-life communication situations that students will encounter. A prerequisite for determining whether these situations are in…

This article discusses the incompatibility between the goal of communicative competence (defined more narrowly as minimal approximative communicative competence) and current practices of syllabus design, and suggests more relevant alternatives. Foreign language instruction is still dominated by the teaching of language structure for its own sake,…

A role-playing procedure for elicitation of speech acts was designed to study aspects of the communicative competence of second language learners, namely, their language variation with respect to deference when the age and sex of the addressee are systematically manipulated. Sixteen Spanish-speaking adult learners of English as a second language…