This article constitutes the first empirical assessment of methodological quality in second language acquisition (SLA). We surveyed a corpus of 174 studies (N = 7,951) within the tradition of research on second-language interaction, one of the longest and most influential traditions of inquiry in SLA. Each report was coded for methodological…

Design and technology education provides children with opportunities to create solutions to specific needs in innovative ways. This paper reports on research that focused on the language that the children used when they were involved in a design and technology activity. In accessing the results of the language study, the findings suggest that the…

In this article, we begin by delineating the background to and motivations behind Firth and Wagner (1997), wherein we called for a reconceptualization of second language acquisition (SLA) research. We then outline and comment upon some of our critics' reactions to the article. Next we review and discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and…

Suggests that research on language and social interaction can best proceed by engaging in the puzzle-solving enterprise that characterizes normal research. Systematic explorations are needed of the language phenomena deemed relevant by the respective paradigms. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that there are various methods that can be, and are used to study language and social interaction in its different guises; asserts that this is a good thing. Discusses some of the different meanings that "language" and "social interaction" have in research and concludes that the language-social interaction intersection is not unitary.…

Suggests that language and social-interaction research should pay more attention to practical metadiscourse in general, and in particular to what happens when theorized concepts of language and social interaction are used for practical purposes. An abbreviated empirical example is provided that illustrates one way in which theorized concepts in…

The goal of this epilogue is to use the methodological contributions of the studies presented in this special issue as a starting point for suggestions about methodology in conducting future interaction research. As is the case in most developing fields, interaction research develops methods internally as it continually borrows and extends…

This investigation explored the conversational practices and conversational rule-conformity of children aged four, six, and eight. Procedures included observation of the conversational behavior of children in classroom interaction among peers and a controlled laboratory investigation of the conversations of 18 children, of varying age levels, who…

An interactional approach for studies of English as a nonnative language is proposed. The approach entails the adoption of ethnomethodological perspectives on social knowledge, combined with conversation analytic interests in detailing the locally managed character of spoken interaction, and introducing the term "lingua franca" English to describe…

Argues that differences at the level of the categories of language alternation as they are observed in the literature are not mere terminological differences, but rather reflect theoretical and methodological differences. Adopts a praxis view of language, arguing that the notion of code and that of language are not necessarily equivalent.…

This article begins by arguing for some bridge building in ESOL research between what is often seen as a quantitative/qualitative dichotomy. Instead of taking up a position on one side or the other, the differences are construed as different ways of seeing, depending upon the nature of the research questions asked. As a qualitative researcher by…

Topics addressed in this review include ethnology and traditional dialect study, philology, linguistic conversion analysis, and interaction within the social sciences. Finland's size affects these research activities and research on spoken interaction is shifting to group projects with a common focus. (Contains 68 references.) (JP)

Uses techniques of the study of conversational analysis in oral language in the study of American Sign Language conversations, and concludes that such conversations are structured in ways that parallel those of spoken language. (FL)

A comparative study was conducted in two factories in the Montreal area which were in the process of changing the official language within the factory from English to French. The objective of the research was twofold: (1) to analyze the language use and behavior of the employees; and (2) to develop research instruments appropriate for evaluating…

In speaking a child sometimes makes constructions in which a sequence of separate utterances expresses a semantic relation not expressed by either utterance. These "vertical constructions" are the main point of this study. Previous studies of construction in child language have largely dealt with sentences. In this study, sentences are…