While teaching written communication to international business school students in Korea, the author received an email from a student to lacked thoroughness and clarity. He decided to use the email as a learning opportunity for his students to rewrite it. He discovered that while the results were good, there was an inability to write in a register…

A study was conducted to examine the differences in narrative essays produced by skilled and unskilled EFL student writers. Twenty-six Japanese university students participated in the study. They were told to write a narrative story based on six-frame pictures. The students were classified into two groups, skilled and unskilled, according to the…

The present study aimed at analyzing writing errors caused by the interference of the Persian language, regarded as the first language (L1), in three writing genres, namely narration, description, and comparison/contrast by Iranian EFL students. 65 English paragraphs written by the participants, who were at the intermediate level based on their…

Studies indicate that cultural properties of texts affect reading at the content and textual levels. However, research has not adequately addressed the effects of the cross-cultural pragmatics of discourse on readers. Therefore, this study explored whether or not cultural factors play a role in reading comprehension by comparing Turkish and…

The distribution and form of negatives in Japanese as compared to English in the simple declarative sentence, in the interrogative sentence, in different speech styles, in indefinite negatives, and in complex sentences. (SC)

The premise that diglossamania, which is a pressure for second language learners to produce in English the equivalent style of the mother tongue, and which in turn leads to an artificial style, is discussed. (HP)

This handbook offers a detailed description of the structure and rhetorical effects observed in various genres of Japanese discourse. Drawing on Japanese "bunshooron" and incorporating results of Western discourse studies, the book covers principles of overall rhetorical organization, including"ki-shoo-ten-ketsu," topic structure, "danraku," and…

In recent years, T-unit analysis has been applied in second language research to characterize the syntactic nature of linguistic input and to assess the syntactic maturity of the learners' written production. This measure has been seen to provide an objective and reliable method of determining the overall complexity of language samples. However,…

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to teachers' classroom language as a variable in the formal learning process. The language used in class by teachers assumes additional importance in formal second language learning situations, where the target language as used by the teacher is not only the means for conveying content, but also…

Reports on an experiment investigating the modifications in lexicon, grammar, and phonology, made by language teachers as they related to varying levels of proficiency, and are compared to "foreigner talk." (AM)

Formulaic speech, expressions learned as unanalyzed wholes and used on particular occasions by native speakers, is contrasted to "grammatical" sentences using novel combinations of words in the second language classroom. The speech produced by three limited English-speaking children in an English program suggests that formulaic speech…

This paper examines the factors which govern the use of infinitives and gerunds after verbs and uses American literature and periodicals since 1945 for examples of this usage. The analysis was undertaken in order to clarify this usage for those teaching or learning English as a second language. Studies yielded three general rules for the use of…

This third and final volume builds on the previous two volumes prepared for use in the Foreign Service Institute programs of Arabic instruction for members of the United States Foreign Service and is intended to be used with the help of a native-speaking Arabic instructor and with tape recordings. This volume is intended to provide recognitional…

This volume is the first of two volumes of a basic elementary course in Indonesian (Malay). The aim of these materials is to prepare the student to communicate and read Indonesian as a native speaker does. The books are designed to be used with the help of a native-speaking informant who furnishes the model of speech for students to imitate. The…

This volume is the second of two volumes of a basic elementary course in Indonesian (Malay). The aim of the materials is to prepare the student to communicate and read in Indonesian as a native speaker does. The books are designed to be used with the help of a native-speaking informant who furnishes the model of speech for students to imitate. The…