Most studies on task-based language learning focus on the oral performance of advanced level learners of English as a second language (ESL), while little research examines the written performance of beginning language learners in non-ESL contexts. This exploratory study aims to address this gap, by examining the effect of pre-writing tasks on…

The research project reported in this chapter consists of three studies in which syntactic complexity, lexical variation and fluency appear as dependent variables. The independent variables are task complexity and proficiency level, as the three studies investigate the effect of task complexity on the written and oral performance of L2 learners of…

A study was conducted to examine some of the cognitive and linguistic factors that influence metaphor comprehension in young children. Presupposing that (1) the similarities between the topic and the vehicle in a metaphor comprise the metaphor's ground, (2) salience is the degree of prominence of a characteristic in relation to a concept, and (3)…

Analyzes the late babbling productions of a French child and compares them with data from similar studies of English and Thai children. Shows that although the French child and his English counterparts share some universal phonetic preferences, a selective, language-specific phonetic acquisition takes place during the babbling stage. (Author/MES)

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences among four oral language elicitation probes used to collect language samples from young children. Ten kindergarten, ten first-grade, and ten second-grade children provided the oral language samples. Each class was divided by sex, and five boys and five girls from each grade were randomly…

The authors respond to Dresher and Hornstein's article (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December, 1976) on artificial intelligence (AI). The dispute between linguistic theorists and AI researchers is based upon their different aims; while AI researchers develop programs capable of intelligent behavior, transformational linguists study the characteristics…

Argues that the second language acquisition process involves two models, providing complementary accounts of different components which could be combined. An integrated model is proposed that would carry the acquisition-learning distinction of the Monitor Model while including the Neurofunctional Theory, which uses the distinction to describe the…

Compares the language generated by different kinds of oral communication activities. Areas of comparison include: speed of speaking, frequency of turns taken, and frequency of self-correction. Results indicate that the relative degree to which a student draws on his communicative and linguistic resources seems to be related to the communication…

Finds that reading-disabled fifth-grade children were inferior to control groups in their ability to assign words to semantic categories, identify first phonemes in spoken words, and judge morphologic relationships between word pairs. Concludes that the developmental reading-disabilities syndrome includes a deficit in linguistic skills necessary…

The paper investigates the problems of assembling, describing and computerizing corpora, defined as collections of "texts assumed to be representative of a given language, dialect or other subject of a language, to be used for linguistic analysis." Specific reference is made to the formation of the Brown Standard Corpus. The formation of…

Presents the theory of general language proficiency and looks at the construct validation of cloze tests and C-tests. Describes the defects of classical cloze procedures. Gives an example of the C-Test and discusses its empirical validity. Concludes that C-tests are authentic tests of the construct of general language proficiency.

A study was conducted to determine whether children give evidence of using any of six comprehension strategies and whether children of same and different ages use different strategies. It was studied how comprehension performance can best be predicted by other facts about the child, including his language and his language input. The six…

Investigates the influence of linguistic structure on non-linguistic cognition by comparing Russian and English behavior on tasks involving the color blue. Russians, who differentiate this region into "dark blue" and "light blue," were expected to separate blues more often than English subjects for whom the colors belong to one lexical category.…

American and Canadian research is reviewed concerning the language needs of native primary students entering English schools from homes where a language other than English is spoken, and a study is reported that contrasted the language performance of children entering school from homes where only English is spoken and from homes where a language…

This study focused on linguistic analyses used in the PIF Project (Project in Error Analysis, Interlanguage Studies and Contrastive Linguistics), an ongoing study of learner language and a project in foreign language pedagogy. For the project, 120 Danish learners of English were divided into 12 groups representing different Danish educational…