Argues that it is misleading to represent pragmatism in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) as a unified discourse offering ideological support to an unexamined educational, academic, and sociopolitical status quo. The article appeals for reflectively pragmatic approaches towards formulating and investigating issues in EAP and all language…

Reviews research addressing the relationship between native language skills and success in learning a foreign language. Describes four components of a language-based model for diagnosing foreign language learning problems. Highlights three major intervention strategies for at-risk foreign language learners. (53 citations) (MAB)

Explores mental health, adjustment, and acculturation among Amerasian refugees as they attempted to adapt to American culture. Findings did not support the literature on refugees, which indicates males are most at risk regarding acculturative stress. No significant correlation between effective spoken English and employment on stress levels was…

Explores and illustrates the ways in which the Chechen language and culture are preserved in Jordan, despite a passage of almost 100 years since Chechen first arrived in the country. Examines the relationship between language maintenance and the non-linguistic processes that affect the outcome of the language situation. (Author/VWL)

Describes English reading processes among native and non-native English speakers, offering a set of recommendations for teaching English learners to read in English. The paper discusses diversity among English learners and notes the importance of considering English language proficiency, prior knowledge and experiences, and primary language…

Compares the use of a print and multimedia program to teach Spanish to second through fifth graders from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Showed that achievement and proficiency of students using print or multimedia materials did not differ at posttest. A small but statistically significant difference in achievement emerged at the…

Explores ways of measuring implicit and explicit second language (L2) knowledge and examines the relationship between these measures and measures of general language proficiency. Factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution, reflecting a clear distinction between measures that incorporated a time constraint and those that did not. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the effects of reading mystery novels on Hong Kong adult learners studying English for the purposes of pleasure or career development. Results show that novel readers made substantial proficiency gains, and that there were important motivational benefits as well. (Author/VWL)

A differentiated model of acculturation was used to assess the relationship of acculturative styles to school adaptation among a group of 110 refugee adolescents from the former Soviet Union. Acculturation was assessed with respect to both American and Russian cultures and, within each culture, distinguished among language competence, behavior,…

Repair behavior in university-level students was investigated to determine if students who study abroad use repair behavior differently from students who do not. The Mexico group (N =24) studied Conversational Spanish at La Salle University, Cancun. The U.S. group (N = 9) completed the same course at Friends University, Wichita, Kansas. Pretest…

This study reports on Japanese university-level EFL teacher N50 and student N660 reactions to the notion of making English an official language, as proposed by an advisory board to Prime Minister Obuchi in 2000. The study also reports on beliefs about English language learning and teaching in general in terms of goals, proficiencies of Japanese…

Investigates use of a functional approach to discourse analysis--knowledge structure analysis, which focuses on meaning, form, and function simultaneously--to evaluate both writing development and content learning. Examined written texts in science, produced by English-as-a-Second-Language students with limited to intermediate English language…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to communicate with parents in an "understandable and uniform format ... in a language that parents can understand." But with a student population representing 131 countries and speaking 81 major languages, the Cobb County, Ga., Public School District was finding it difficult to meet…

This study investigated the acquisition of speaking skills in an online distance education course of 19 first semester Spanish learners. The possibility of oral development in a strictly online course was examined based on students' pronunciation production in two types of recorded speaking activities and in two real-time conversations. Students…

For immigrants and refugees, access to a national or majority language is an important issue. According to its immigrant language training policy, Canada offers its newcomers language instruction for the purposes of settlement and integration. One important aspect of settlement and integration involves literacy. Our study examined the concept of…