The present paper looks at the growing population of Russian heritage speakers from a linguistic and psycholinguistic perspective. The study attempts to clarify further the notion of heritage language by comparing the linguistic performance of heritage speakers with that of monolinguals and second language learners. The amount of exposure to…

In this study, the authors compare the validity of three nonverbal tests for the purpose of identifying academically gifted English-language learners (ELLs). Participants were 1,198 elementary children (approximately 40% ELLs). All were administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven), the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), and…

Intermediate learners of Spanish read a Spanish newspaper article with vocabulary assistance either before reading, while reading, both, or without any such assistance. Reading performance was significantly better for students receiving vocabulary assistance during reading, but not for those receiving it before reading. Reading time of the…

Although the foreign-language profession routinely stresses the importance of technology for the curriculum, many teachers still harbor deep-seated doubts as to whether or not a hybrid course, much less a completely distance-learning class, could provide L2 learners with a way to reach linguistic proficiency, especially with respect to oral…

Generalised access to the Internet and globalisation has led to increased demand for translation services and a resurgence in the use of machine translation (MT) systems. MT post-editing or the correction of MT output to an acceptable standard is known to be one of the ways to face the huge demand on multilingual communication. Given that the use…

A collection of 20 papers describes innovative methods of second language instruction with the aim of promoting change and experimentation in language teaching. The papers are organized under four categories: background, the evolution of the comprehension approach, approaches to a rich acquisition environment, and approaches to a rich learning…

Four experiments evaluate the effectiveness of a two-stage mnemonic procedure, the keyword method, for learning Spanish vocabulary. This method proved highly effective, yielding in one experiment a final test score of 88 percent correct for the keyword group compared to 28 percent for the control group. (Author/RC)

Compares the phonetic transcription systems of Jones (EPD), Gimson, Windsor Lewis and Abercrombie. Discusses the usefulness of transcription systems for foreign language teaching, both in interlingual dictionaries and in teaching contrasts between the target language and the native tongue. (IFS/WGA)

Monolingual dictionaries have serious disadvantages in many language teaching situations; bilingual dictionaries are potentially more efficient and more motivating sources of information for language learners. (Author/CB)

Explores four major areas of differences between first- and second-language acquisition (completeness, equipotentiality, previous knowledge, and fossilization) and argues that the theory of Universal Grammar plays a much smaller role in explaining the second-language acquisition process than current research claims. (Author/CB)

Comparison of human and machine French translations of independent clauses from an English journal article about physics found that automatic translation was generally faithful to the original thematization, although English complexities and lexical gaps caused the machine to lose, create, and garble some themes. The human translation, although…

Examines the production of yes/no questions by native speakers of English and speakers of Singapore English, a non-native regional variety. The findings suggest that what constitutes target-like use remains ill-defined as long as native speaker behavior is assumed, or intuited, rather than documented. (40 references) (GLR)

This article reports on part of a larger study of the impact of strategy training in listening on learners of French, aged 16 to 17. One aim of the project was to investigate whether such training might have a positive effect on the self-efficacy of learners, by helping them see the relationship between the strategies they employed and what they…

Although the literature on language pedagogy encourages the use of pair work in the second language classroom, students sometimes seem reluctant to work in pairs, particularly on grammar-focused tasks. This study investigated the merits of pair work by comparing pair and individual work on an editing task and by analysing the nature of pair…

With the accelerating rate of globalization, business exchanges are carried out cross the border, as a result there is a growing demand for talents professional both in English and Business. We can see that at present Business English courses are offered by many language schools in the aim of meeting the need for Business English talent. Many…