Proposes a linguistic model for an Information Retrieval System (IRS) defined using an ordinal fuzzy linguistic approach. The query subsystem accepts Boolean queries with terms weighted by ordinal linguistic values and the evaluation subsystem returns documents arranged in relevance classes labeled with ordinal linguistic values. The system gives…

Provides an historical sketch of form-focused instruction research, defines what is meant by form-focused instruction, and discusses the main research methods that have been used to investigate form-focused instruction in terms of a broad distinction between confirmatory and interpretive research. (Author/VWL)

Examines whether the "foreign language effect", that is, a temporary decline of thinking ability during foreign language processing, is larger when similarity between a foreign language and a native language is less. The results of two divided-attention experiments indicate that this effect was larger when the native tongue was less…

A trait of the scholarly tradition of France is explication de texte, associated in the past with philology and the translation of classical texts. This tradition reemerges as a compromise between demands of the communicative approach for practical language skills and the broader linguistic and cultural objectives of foreign language learning.…

This compact and well-written book considers multiple language use, some of its quantitative aspects, how people feel about multiple languages, and what society should or might do about multiple language problems. A list of comments, criticisms, and suggestions for revision is included with this largely favorable review. (SLD)

Argues that most pronunciation problems encountered by Cantonese learners of English may be adequately accounted for by contrastive differences. The phonological differences between the two languages are examined, ranging from their phoneme inventories, the characteristics of the phonemes, the distributions of the phoneme syllable structure, to…

Employs the Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) analytic framework to produce pictorial representations of lengthy Chinese and Australian news journal text. Results demonstrate the feasibility of using the RST framework in this type of analysis. (Author/VWL)

Examines the discussion of results in medical research articles to determine the strategies used by the writers to persuade the readers that their research is either new or a development of previous work and that their study is a contribution to a specialist field. Twenty-four research articles were analyzed using Swales moves analysis as well as…

Outlines principles that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) educators can follow in designing effective input-oriented tasks targeting grammar instruction, drawing on the latest advances in understanding of the interaction between internal cognitive processes and foreign-language learning. A prototype CALL application using these…

Letters by German-American writer and political scientist Francis Lieber and American lawyer and linguist John Pickering to Wilhem von Humboldt in Berlin, published here for the first time, give insight into the cultural interaction between Germany and the United States during the Jacksonian era, and may open new perspectives for German-American…

Two experiments investigated how child and adult speakers of English and Kannada (Dravidian) interpret scopally ambiguous sentences containing numerally quantified noun phrases and negation. Results showed that 4-year-olds' interpretations were constrained by the surface hierarchical relations (the c-command relations) between sentence elements…

Contrasts differences in language use across the Japanese workplace, including women's speech. Examines what is referred to as "manifestations of power" among Japanese working women. Explores "resistance to subordination" among female university students who have not yet entered professional or domestic life. Comparison of the…

Explores the possibility that the early predominance of infinitival forms in children acquiring Dutch as their first language is related to patterns in the language input. Analyzed a corpus of utterances addressed by two Dutch-speaking mothers to their 2- and 3-year-old sons. Root infinitive utterances amounted to 10%, and auxiliary-plus…

Based on the analysis of the video recording of a French Grade 7 mathematics, this analysis bears on two specific episodes when two pupils--a boy and a girl-- successively go to the board and correct an exercise. The methodology used is a psychoanalytically-oriented clinical approach enriched with a micro-analytical description of the behavior of…

Comments on an article that argues that the compartmentalism of structures observed in mixed languages is the result of the cumulative effect of different contact mechanisms. (Author/VWL)