Governments are challenged with pursuing macro-level interests for the good of the group, while also needing to accommodate and to acknowledge the needs and preferences of people at the micro-level. Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) "English Education Reform Plan corresponding to…

Textual grammar provides a means of examining the relationship between the sentence and the text as a whole, and it is in that context that the problems of learning a second language become clear and that it becomes important for the teacher to understand how the text functions so as to impart it to students. (MSE)

A broader view of grammar looks at text rather than the sentence as the framework for communication from thematic, semantic, and pragmatic points of view. (MSE)

Proposes a discourse-based approach to analysis of coherence in the teaching philosophies of language instructors. Background is provided by the reflective practice model, which highlights social ontology and personal appropriation of foreign language teaching expertise. An exploratory study confirms the utility of examining conceptual metaphors…

The language of argumentation, taught increasingly often at the advanced level of French second-language learning, is discussed. Rationale for its teaching, basic concepts within the emerging discipline, and its relationship to traditional language teaching are examined. (MSE)

Issues in computerized analysis of language usage are discussed, focusing on the problems encountered as computers, linguistics, and language teaching converge. The tools of automated language and error analysis are outlined and specific problems are illustrated in several types of classroom exercise. (MSE)

A series of French language classroom exercises to be used over four class sessions applies principles of semiotics to literary textual analysis. The session themes include decoding and interpreting, reconstructing meaning, sociocultural connotations in the text, and sense of time and space. (MSE)

Children's literature, with its complex structures and discourse strategies, helps beginning language students develop reading strategies and begin understanding discourse strategies in native speech. Tsao's notion of discourse analysis is used to introduce topic deletion in a sample of literary texts. (Contains 25 references.) (LB)

The introduction to discourse analysis is intended specifically to inform second language teachers about aspects of discourse analysis that can be helpful in instruction. It presents the principles seen as relevant to the language teaching context and illustrates them with real spoken and written language data. The first chapter gives a historical…

To gain a sense of good rhetorical structure, what students of writing in English as a second language need to do is not to practice writing paragraphs and essays conforming to particular patterns, but rather to recognize and understand the resources available for indicating relationships between the propositions that make up their own, unique…

Patterns of use of the French particles "bon, (eh) ben, and enfin" were analyzed in a corpus of spontaneous multispeaker conversation. Results show that each particle marks a particular type of discontinuity in the discourse. Turn-initial and turn-medial patterns are described for each. (17 references) (Author/MSE)

For better comprehension and more communicative production among francophones, students of French should be taught the use and function of detached phrases as they are used in popular spoken French. A specific approach distinguishing between appropriate spoken and written usage is outlined. (20 references) (MSE)

The speech introduces a colloquium on the teaching of listening comprehension to students of English for academic purposes (EAP). The colloquium's aim is to address ways that EAP instructors can improve students' lecture listening skills by discussing the types of background discourse knowledge and listening strategies that…

A principal cause of the seeming "foreignness" in the compositions of English as a second language (ESL) university students is discussed, and an approach to correcting the problem is suggested. It is asserted that the English language compositions of ESL students reflect native language rhetorical norms which are culturally based. Discourse bloc…

Eleven brief items providing a range of activities and exercises to help students master the elements of coherence in text and to foster both comprehension and production are presented. (MSE)