This article begins by situating modern-day second language acquisition (SLA) research in a historical context, tracing its evolution from cognitive to social to sociocognitive accounts. Next, the influence of the zeitgeist is considered. In this era of rapid change and turmoil, there are both perils and opportunities afforded by globalization. In…

In vocabulary research there has been a shift from focusing on single words to considering multiword sequences, such as collocations. Despite the general consensus among language researchers that collocation is essential to effective language use in real-world communication, particularly oral communication, language-testing researchers have made…

This article reviews recent studies on English language teaching (ELT) in South Korea, where a great deal of research has been produced in recent years in local journals. In this article we review 95 studies from a pool of some 1,200 published between 2009 and 2014 on English language teaching and learning, focusing on research within the public…

An outline is provided of the contents and boundaries of three areas of competence, or systems of knowledge, that are to be minimally included in a theory of communicative competence: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Grammatical competence is concerned with the rules of sentence grammar and sentence…

Tests the subjective reactions of standard Russian speakers and American English speakers to regional pronunciation. Homogeneously-grouped subjects listened to a series of recorded voices and rated each speaker for various attributes on a numerical scale. These attributes included competence, personal integrity, and social attractiveness. (CK)

This paper examines the nature of dictionaries and encyclopedias, focusing on some of the preparation that has gone into the construction of a dictionary of language testing at the University of Melbourne (Australia). It discusses the purpose of such dictionaries, the nature and size of dictionary/encyclopedia entries, and the readability of…

A study in interlanguage pragmatics investigated the effect of three types of rejoinder (positive, negative, absent) on non-native informants' choices of strategies to perform complaints, requests, and apologies. Results show strategy choice differentially affected by rejoinder type, suggesting that findings from studies using different production…

Reports on a two-part study of second-grade African American students' uses of various forms of the /-s/ suffix, replicating J. Torrey's 1972 study on the correlation of language and educational achievement. Findings suggest the need to reflect diversity and flexibility in design and implementation of assessment and instruction materials and the…

Lectures presented at the 1965 National Defense Education Act Institutes for Advanced Study in English are presented in this book. Selected for their interest to both experienced and prospective English teachers, the lectures are grouped into four categories. (1) Of general interest to the English teacher are John Gerrietts' portrait of the…

Calls into question the data of grammaticality judgment tasks on which several GB-based studies on the second-language acquisition of accusative verbs by Japanese learners of English base their arguments and reports the results of a pilot study. (Author/VWL)

Research was conducted to investigate the development of linguistic competence in early French immersion programs. Fifty-five students in grades 3, 4, and 5 were administered a test of oral production in French. Twenty-seven grammatical features were examined by means of a detailed error analysis. The results show that there was little improvement…

A study investigated certain mechanisms underlying the acquisition of phrasal verbs in English as a Second Language. Subjects were native Finnish- and Swedish-speaking students in Finland, most aged 16-25 years. The subjects were administered a multiple-choice test with each item containing two correct alternatives, a phrasal verb (preferred by…

Problems associated with criterion-referenced language testing are discussed in the context of both standardized proficiency testing and classroom assessment. First, different interpretations of criterion-referencing are examined. A range of approaches for defining criteria and performance levels in second language assessment are outlined, and…

This collection of 14 articles look at the issues in theory and application that arise in the use of simplification in language pedagogy. Articles include the following: (1) "Simplification in Pedagogy" (Christopher Brumfit); (2) "Simplification" (H. V. George); (3) "Fossilization as Simplification?" (Larry Selinker);…

This thesis focuses on the transferability of grammatical competence to grammatically correct performance in the future tense in 10th grade German students who were learning English as a Second Language. The goal was to suggest an empirical contribution to the issue of whether implicit or explicit knowledge of grammatical rules or grammatical…