Revisits an earlier study on English-as-a Second-Language (ESL) children's emergence into literacy, which was conducted with 5- and 6-year olds at a multilingual K-12 school in Casablanca, Morocco. Discusses the notion of "synchronicity"--a dynamic oneness between teacher and child--as the distinguishing feature of three classrooms were…

Explores the way in which language teachers can diagnose language learners' competence from both a sociocultural and linguistic perspective. Uses two sample "letters of complaint" to consider competence in terms of how well the writers organize and structure their texts in relation to their social purpose and cultural context and then examines the…

Explores the types of annotations intermediate and advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners preferred to use while they were engaged in reading a hypermedia text. Also investigated learners' attitudes towards reading in a hypermedia environment. Participants were 84 adult ESL learners. Participants indicated the hypermedia environment…

Determined language proficiency among multilingual Indo-Fijian primary school children who have the languages, Fiji-Hindi, Standard Hindi, Urdu, English, Fijian, and Fijian English in their speech repertoire. Identifies the variables that affect multilingual proficiency in this group and determines whether classroom practice reflects educational…

Examines linguistic features of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) in Hong Kong. The study is based on a 70,000-word corpus of electronic mail and ICQ instant messaging texts, which were collected from students in Hong Kong. Identified language-specific features that may be seen as new literacy practices within the theoretical…

Describes the nature of culture, and examines the cultural and learning differences between Japan and Great Britain in relation to the communicative approach. Warns of stereotyping that ignores sub-cultures and individual personality. (Author/VWL)

Gives a brief introduction to the history and the present Teaching English-as-a-Foreign-Language (TEFL) situation in China, and puts forward an analysis of methodological trends for he coming years. (Author/VWL)

Draws on qualitative classroom observation data from case studies of three English-as-a-Foreign-Language classes in Hong Kong primary schools. Analyzes four themes relevant to the classroom implementation of task-based learning with young learners: noise/in discipline, use of the mother tongue, extent of pupil involvement, and the role of drawing…

To identify factors that contribute to development of phonological awareness, investigated longitudinal relationships among child background factors, structural oral language, and phonological awareness in children in kindergarten through Grade 2, and a subsample who were nonreaders in kindergarten. Suggests general oral language may contribute to…

Describes the development of a task-based test, Taaltoets Instroom Beroepsopleiding (TIBO), designed to measure whether nonnative adult speakers of Dutch posses the level of Dutch required to enter vocational training in the industrial sector. Focuses on three tensions that had to be considered throughout the process of test development.…

Discusses the comments of 30 in-service English-as-a-Second-Language teachers who participated in introductory lessons in an unknown language (Russian). Comments revealed a high level of anxiety, the need for security before and during instruction, and observations concerning implementation of various cognitive techniques to quickly master the…

Investigation of native Chinese speakers' acquisition of French suprasegmental features found that the subjects not only perceived the different directions of pitch but also placed them in the right categories, in spite of the differences between the use of pitch in tonal and intonational languages. (34 references) (CB)

Analysis of learner language (LL), the foreign-language learner's utterances, can provide insight into the second-language acquisition process. Various models of first- and second-language acquisition are reviewed, characteristics of LL are discussed, and the role of instruction in second-language acquisition is considered. (IAH)

Analyzes the differences in usage of the Spanish preterite and imperfect by native speakers of Spanish and by nonnative speakers of Spanish whose first language is Dutch. Teaching strategies to enhance the learner's awareness of context and sequencing are suggested. (LMO)

Summarizes the literature on self-evaluation of foreign language skills and points out that, although some research results are contradictory, both teachers and researchers could benefit from the use of Krashen's Monitor Model/theory that influences students' motivation and self-estimates of foreign language ability. (Author/CB)