This article proposes that second language learners can use indirect positive evidence (IPE) to acquire a phonological grammar that is a subset of their L1 grammar. IPE is evidence from errors in the learner's L1 made by native speakers of the learner's L2. It has been assumed that subset grammars may be acquired using direct or indirect negative…

This paper reports a study on politeness strategies of Brazilian Portuguese speakers and American English speakers regarding their responses to compliments. The aim of this research is to gain an insight into the politeness characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese speakers by analyzing how Brazilian students react when receiving compliments. It…

This study investigated the views of teachers and learners regarding the timing of grammatical instruction, conceptualized as a distinction between isolated and integrated form-focused instruction (FFI) proposed by Spada and Lightbown (2008). Both types of FFI are described as taking place in primarily meaning-based communicative classrooms. They…

This paper explores ethnolinguistic vitality among Japanese-Brazilians ("Nikkeis"). First, an 18-item questionnaire was administered to 33 individuals who attended a seminar on bilingual studies held in São Paulo. Then, two bilingual "Nikkei" teachers who participated in the questionnaire and who grew up to be bilinguals…

The language learning strategy question has been debated on a number of levels, including definition, the strategy/success relationship and strategy coordination. In addition, awareness has been steadily growing of the importance of taking an holistic view of the strategy phenomenon and examining strategies not just in isolation but as part of an…

Learning a foreign language is, among other factors, based on the perception of one's own development and on undertaking strategies for greater communicative competence, which are founded in autonomous procedures that span the necessity for greater responsibility. As learning a language demands constant study, even after the school period--when…

Cross-border education provides evidence about international student destination choice including the push and pull model of international student choice. The research upon which this article is based, into Brazilian students' decisions to study at universities in the United Kingdom, reveals some particular barriers such as cost, negative past…

This paper reports the results of a study on the use of a learner response system (LRS) by a group of students of English as a foreign language (L2). Via a methodology that included the analysis of survey questionnaires and open-ended oral interviews, the study examined learners' perceptions of the use of an LRS by a group of 30 Brazilians…

This paper analyzes the context of Spanish language teaching in Brazil. We examine the representations of and attitudes toward Rioplatense/Argentinean Spanish and Peninsular Spanish--and toward the speakers of each of these varieties--held by Brazilian learners of Spanish as a foreign language. To provide the context in which Spanish learning…

Purpose: In this study, the authors explored the impact of test language and cultural status on vocabulary and working memory performance in multilingual language-minority children. Method: Twenty 7-year-old Portuguese-speaking immigrant children living in Luxembourg completed several assessments of first (L1)- and second-language (L2) vocabulary…

Bilingualism (Sanz, 2000), motivation (Pintrich, 1989), and language aptitude (Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman, 2000) are crucial individual differences that contribute to successful adult language learning. Since Gardner's (1985) seminal work on motivation, many studies have shown that motivation is dynamic and that it affects language…

EFL learners from three language institutes in Brazil answered the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning--SILL--to self-report how they go about learning English. They emerged as balanced users of various strategies with a tendency to use metacognitive and social strategies to learn the language. This tendency, further reinforced by factor…