Reviews current intonational research that is relevant to teaching and presents implications for pedagogy. Argues there are two primary reasons for a lack of innovation in intonation teaching materials: 1) Current materials are based on an inadequate view of the functions of intonation; 2) materials lack a communicative purpose. (Author/VWL)

Argues that oral grammar correction in second-language classrooms produces overwhelming problems both in making corrections and dealing with their harmful side effects, and that the practice should be discontinued. Research evidence suggests that oral correction does not improve learners' ability to speak grammatically, and no good reasons have…

To test hypothesis that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs, 12 children in each of three age groups (2-year olds, 3-year olds, and 4-year olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial, final, and initial. Results suggest English-speaking children's acquisition of a…

Presents the linguistic characteristics of a boy (AZ) with specific language impairment. AZ illustrates the linguistic characteristics of grammatical SLI. Morphosyntactic investigations reveal that all inflectional forms are present but are not used consistently. (Author/VWL)

Discusses whether markedness is at work in second-language acquisition in the same way it is in first-language acquisition when Korean speakers learn English as a second language and English speakers learn Korean as a second language. Results are discussed in terms of no access to universal grammar, partial access to universal grammar, and access…

This study analyzed the spontaneous speech of eight Israeli children (ages 3-6) with congenital neurological syndromes (NS) and cognitive impairments. Comparison with language-matched controls found no differences on 10 grammatical variables and slight differences on 3 semantic-pragmatic variables. Findings suggest a mechanism functionally akin to…

Argues that the history of punctuation in the English-speaking world offers tangible evidence for the evolving interplay between speech and writing. (Author/VWL)

Tests the effect of Contrastive metalinguistic input (CMI) on acquisition of grammatical aspect in English by English teachers and student teachers who were able to recognize the difficult target language structures but who avoided production. Results are interpreted within a cognitive framework of second language acquisition as indication that…

Investigates fifth-grade children's expectations for stories in relation to knowledge of literature/reading ability. Shows "high readers" included more high-level story propositions and structurally important story information than did low readers; students who included structurally important story information scored higher on knowledge…

Notes evidence that backward readers might have difficulties with spelling morphemes. Compares a group of backward readers' spellings with control groups matched on chronological age and reading level. Finds that backward reads are behind their age group in correct spelling but no worse than groups at the same reading level. (DSK)

Discusses extending the "Witch's Hat" technique with the Problem-Solution pattern and the dialog projection technique to help learners comprehend and produce basic narrative discourse in English by developing awareness of the rhetorical structure of stories. Discusses benefits of the combined strategy. (RS)

Two experiments examined the sensitivity of children (ages 3 to 5) with specific language impairment (SLI) and normally developing children to grammatical morphemes, such as articles and auxiliary verbs. Findings indicated that the children with SLI were sensitive to grammatical morphemes, and that comprehension failure may reflect short-term…

Investigates whether inflectional morphology is rule-based or whether the assumption of pattern association is more adequate to account for the facts, arguing for the latter based on analysis of acquisitional data. Review of earlier literature on the subject examines experiments with German- and English-speaking children and supports the schema…

Examines George Herbert's sonnet "Prayer" to argue for the integration of literary and linguistic approaches to the critical appreciation of poetry at both A/AS and university levels of the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Presents a model analysis of the sonnet and discusses why its distinctive linguistic and literary features…

Investigated the interface of form and function in the acquisition of negation in Cantonese-speaking children. Data--from the Hong Kong Cantonese Child Language Corpus--were longitudinal spontaneous samples of eight children aged 1.5 to 3.8 years. Main issues in the study were the sequence of emergence of negative markers and the acquisition of 11…