An introductory guide for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers draws attention to three areas of language function: study of language as meaning system, study of individual communicative acts, and study of functions in discourse organization. The latter is useful, since differences in focus of different language researchers have produced…

Supports claim that linguistic and psycholinguistic accounts based on study of English may prove unreliable as guides to sentence processing in even closely related languages such as German and Italian. Results of a test of sentence interpretation indicate that English-speaking Americans rely overwhelmingly on word order, Germans rely on both…

Discusses the linguistic systems of children of Italian immigrants in Australia and the children's mastery of standard Italian and various dialects. Also reviews evidence for claims of the emergence of a new linguistic form labelled "Australitalian." (EKN)

Explored young children's ability to contrast social roles through language, using a technique of controlled improvisation with puppets. Found that from an early age (three or four years) children are aware of a broad range of social variation and are sensitive to the linguistic means of encoding this variation. (PD)

Concludes that sound awareness scores significantly predicated performance of kindergarten children on a sight-word learning task and a decoding-like task. Subjects' knowledge of terminology was unrelated to success on either task. (FL)

Discusses the reported patterns of address of first language and second language Welsh-speaking children. Concludes that it's possible that by adjusting their speech to accommodate the interlanguage of the L2 speakers, the L1 speakers lessen the need for the L2 speakers to go beyond a certain level of competence. (SED)

Indicates that the language in which a multiple-choice question is couched may be a significant factor in student performance. Effects of changing key words, terms of quantity, negative to positive forms, and from passive to active voice are discussed. Also discusses the effect of rewording long or complex questions. (JN)

Warns against the overuse of cohesive conjunctions in writing and recommends that teachers instruct students on contextual use of conjunctions rather than on their random use. (CRH)

Points out that with LOGO, children can teach a computer to make shapes and patterns, including patterns with language, such as poems and sentences. (FL)

This article proposes improving the use of the language lab in second language teaching by increasing the importance of actual spoken language in relation to structural exercises, which may be of an artificial nature. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

The back-to-basics movement and arguments by its proponents are examined with emphasis on proficiency in writing skills. Composition course requirements are discussed along with the need of instructors to teach semantic and logical skills. (LBH)

The differences between the use speakers make of a language in different areas of a country, or in one social class as opposed to another, are nowadays recognized as essential parts of a description of a language. Progress beyond the elementary stage of language acquisition requires the development of sensitivity to the appropriateness of language…

This article describes a brief course in Russian literature for sixth-form school students, designed to provide a review of A-Level texts, to stimulate interest in literature, and to develop a sense of the personal relevance of literature in the students. (CLK)

Discusses the use of language testing in determining the English structure, vocabulary and usage to be taught to immigrant teachers who want to teach in British schools. (RM)

This paper describes task based language instruction (TBLI) in Japanese secondary education, focusing on: (1) "English Education in Japanese Senior High Schools: The Status Quo and the Future" (e.g., teacher centered instruction, teaching four communication skills separately without a real communicative purpose, and the approach of…