This paper argues that the goal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research should be to construct a reliable evidence-base with "engineering power" and generality upon which the design of future CALL software and activities can be based. In order to establish such an evidence base for future CALL design, it suggests that CALL…

This paper highlights the role of speech community members on a series of interconnected projects to document, study and maintain Kokama, a deeply endangered language from the Peruvian Amazon. The remaining fluent speakers of the language are mostly older than 60 years of age, are spread out across various small villages, and speak the language in…

In the last 20 years, technological advancement and increased multidisciplinarity has expanded the range of data regarded as within the scope of languages for specific purposes (LSP) research and the means by which they can be analyzed. As a result, the analytical work of LSP researchers has developed from a narrow focus on specialist terminology…

Background: Children who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under-referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children. Aims: To investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of…

This article critically reviews strategy research on learning Chinese both as a second and foreign language. Through a careful examination of major data bases in both the Chinese and English languages, the article summarizes research in the field and the principal research methods used in the studies reviewed. Moreover, key limitations in research…

Fikkert (1994) analyzed a large corpus of Dutch children's early language production, and found that they often add targetless syllables to their words in order to create bisyllabic feet. In this note we point out a methodological problem with that analysis: in an important number of cases, epenthetic vowels occur at places where grammatical…

Edwards (1992c) concerns data and data use rather than manuals. It presents principles to facilitate reliable archive research in an imperfect world. MacWhinney and Snow (1992) endorse the principles but disagree on important details, discussed in this response. (21 references) (KM)

Presents four principles for archive-based language research: maximum readability and minimum bias; consistent encoding for exhaustive computer search; systematic contrastiveness; and data comparability in elicitation, transcription and coding. Examples from existing computer archives illustrate these and other principles, and strategies are…

Provides critical analysis of Edwards (1992) presentation of a set of examples from the Child Language Data Exchange System as prototypes of bad transcription practice. The analysis argues that Edward's approach causes the development of an overly rigid set of principles that could stop progress in the analysis of spontaneous language samples.…

Notes that the employment of databases to the study of the history of a language is a method that allows for substantial improvement in investigative quality. Illustrates this with the example of the application of this method to two studies of the history of Spanish developed in the Language and Information Seminary of the Independent University…

This paper illustrates the use of corpus-based analytical techniques to address a range of issues in applied linguistics. This approach provides large databases of naturally occurring discourse, enabling empirical analyses of the actual patterns of use in a language and, when coupled with automatic computational tools, enables analyses of a scope…

Defines cognitive approaches to second-language acquisition research first in terms of goals and theoretical orientations, next, in terms of its methods (observations, experimentation, simulation), and last, in terms of its applications. (Author/VWL)

Reports on two experiments comparing the adequacy of naturalistic procedures in emotion-display research with standard procedures. The first experiment explored samples of naturally-occurring emotional speech with free-choice emotion labels, and later with labels from a standard set. The second compared valency ratings of words presented…

Discusses a research project designed by the Italian National Research Council to establish a historical databank of the Italian legal language from its beginning in 960 AD to the present. Outlines processing techniques and problems. Describes specific computer software employed. Seeks to create an information system that retains the richness of…

Discussion of the research methodology of theoretical linguistics argues that linguists studying a small, unrepresentative set of languages defining the content of sub-disciplines in linguistics are engaging in an unarticulated alliance, and that the choice of languages for study threatens the validity of the research. This is illustrated through…