This paper discusses an ongoing experiment in teaching the communicative values of intonation to second-year students in an English department at a French university. The communication needs of the learners are described in terms of academic activities (e.g., formal discussion) and social contact. A basic three-term structure -- opening,…

Three papers intended as preliminary studies to bilingual professional curriculum development are included. "Speech Acts and Discourse Analysis," by Terry McCoy, represents an introduction to discourse analysis as a tool for the language teacher. The notion of a typology of speech acts is set forth, and models of discourse analysis by…

This paper investigates the discourse structure of the practical demonstration, particularly the effect produced by the presence of a visual display. The Practical Demonstration (PD), as used in technical education, differs from the lecture in having a visual display; the speaker carries out an operation as he explains it. This affects the…

Relates research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on the language problems of foreign teaching assistants (TAs) and their remediation. SLA research has not yet addressed specific data on the proficiency level needed for effective foreign TAs. Research needs are outlined. (Author/LMO)

This study explores the different meanings of "ahora" (now) and "ahorita" (right now) in Spanish usage by a migrant community of mushroom pickers in Mexico and the United States. Both terms are used as temporal expressions in Mexican Spanish spoken on both sides of the border. They are discourse markers. After studying groups…

This exploratory study examines the efficacy of Focus on Form (i.e., brief instruction on linguistic forms while learners engage in meaning) at the pragmatic level. Specifically, comparing Focus on FormS (interactions followed by explicit debriefing on pragmatic forms) and Focus on Form (interactions followed by debriefing on meaning), the…

This article examines English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) textbook telephone dialogues against the backdrop about what is reported about real telephone interaction based in research in conversation analysis (CA). An analysis of eight ESL textbooks reveals that the fit between what conversation analysts say about the nature of natural telephone…

Investigated the effect of grammatical and discourse features on rater perceptions of writing quality in evaluating foreign language writing samples. Also investigated differences in rating profiles between native and nonnative speaking raters. (Author/VWL)

Presents data from a cross-sectional study of the use of cohesion in Italian texts written by second-language adult learners and by native speakers. The study's goal was to compare learners and native speakers in their use of cohesion and to observe the developmental sequences in the use of cohesion. Data interpretation is presented. (64…

Analyzes the academic records of 191 nonnative students who took a writing examination in 1991 to assess their performance on the writing examination of Georgia State University. Results indicate that questions remain about the relationship between English proficiency and academic preparation and about responsibilities for academically weak…

Discusses the importance of conversational implicatures in cross-cultural communication and argues that the use of opened-ended questions to study such implicatures is inherently flawed. It is asserted that multiple-choice tests are better investigational devices, and an ongoing investigation of the cross-cultural interpretation of implicature…

The role of cultural context in the communicative interaction of young Inuit children, their caregivers, and their non-Inuit teachers was examined in a longitudinal ethnographic study conducted in two small communities of arctic Quebec. Focus was on discourse features of primary language socialization of Inuit families. (32 references) (Author/LB)

Reviews research findings on second-language (L2) interaction from the perspective of syntactic development. The article argues that better understanding of the role of negotiated interaction in L2 syntactic development requires examining the specific grammatical structures in interaction guided by the criteria of relevance, availability,…

A Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language learner in Taiwan was tutored online by two American preservice teachers. Discourse patterns in the student's essays were perceived very differently by the preservice teachers and the student's Taiwanese instructor. Deeper psycholinguistic analysis revealed connections between the student's linguistic…

This study examines the characteristics and quality of simplification in graded readers as compared to those of "normal" authentic English. Two passages from graded readers are compared with the original passages. The comparison uses a computer programme, RANGE (Nation and Heatley, 2003) to analyse the distribution of high and low frequency words…