Ways of helping beginning readers to understand the abstract quality of language are discussed. (CK)

Discusses strategies that will provide limited English proficient students with nonthreatening opportunities to acquire vocational and language skills. (JOW)

This study investigated whether misunderstanding of metaphor is attributable to inability to discover the ground, the demands of a particular form of metaphor, or surface aspects of metaphors. Results indicated task demands posed by predicative metaphors proved greater than those posed by topicless metaphors. (Author/DB)

The essentially sociolinguistic position of Bhatt and Martin-Jones on language awareness is assessed and analyzed in terms of applicability to the majority population. The question of whether bilingualism is a linguistic or social phenomenon is addressed, followed by an argument for including this issue in language awareness teaching. (Contains 10…

This paper documents the extent of differences in language proficiency across generations in a continuously changing society. It is demonstrated that each generation produces a specific language proficiency constellation that is directly related to the political and educational situation during the formative years of each of the generation…

Explores the origin of the Test of English-as-a-Foreign-Language, with its distinctive characteristics, in a 1961 conference, and seeks thereby to gain an understanding of how developments in language testing theory--and perhaps theory in general--are blended with the requirements and possibilities of real-life implementation. (Author/JL)

A professor of conservation biology, and champion of the spoken and written word, discusses who is corrupting the English language and why, describing the culprits and suggesting how to remedy the situation (e.g., restore the habit of talking directly to one another; use proper language; hold those who are corrupting the language accountable; and…

A study of 10 U.S. born or raised bilinguals literate in English and their heritage language shows that biliteracy is aided by (1) perceived language vitality from parental, institutional, or peer support for cultural identity and (2) access to heritage-language literacy environments. The social nature of literacy development was affirmed.…

Two studies addressed the role of representation ability and control of attention on solutions to an appearance-reality task based on two types of objects, real and representational. In Study 1, 67 preschool children (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) solved appearancereality problems and executive processing tasks. There was an interaction between object…

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) posits six levels of proficiency and defines these largely in relation to empirically derived difficulty estimates based on stakeholder perceptions of what language functions expressed by 'Can-do' statements can be successfully performed at each level. Though also containing much valuable…

In this paper, two empirical studies are presented in which an attempt was made to explain individual differences in two different aspects of 4-year-olds' suggestibility, that is, their ability to resist false suggestions and memory impairments due to prior misinformation. As sources of individual differences cognitive skills along the information…

Large-class English teaching is an inexorable trend in many Chinese universities and colleges, which leads to a strange and serious phenomenon that most students' English is ironically but vividly described as "the dumb English". Therefore, cultivating students' communicative skills and developing their language competence has become a…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: it primarily intended to incorporate some insights into the newly-explored field of L3A: secondly, it aimed to highlight the significance of translation as a valid language activity in exploring the native language influence on non-native language acquisition process. To this end, it investigated the…

This article offers a critical reflection upon underlying theoretical and philosophical inclinations which manifest themselves through the type of courses introduced in higher education institutions to meet what is perceived to be students' educational needs. Given the fact that this article seeks to promote an understanding of the nature of…

This experimental study was intended to raise learner autonomy among Iranian native speakers of Persian in their L2 (English) and L3 (Arabic) reading comprehension through cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies instruction (CMRSI). The subjects of the study were divided into intermediate and advanced English language proficiency levels and…