This study compared multiple characteristics of girls' and boys' vocabulary in 6 different linguistic communities--1 urban and 1 rural setting in each of 3 countries. Two hundred fifty-two mothers in Argentina, Italy, and the United States completed vocabulary checklists for their 20-month-old children. Individual variability was substantial…

The following paper deals with the importance of genre in academic and professional engineering discourse. The main objective is to explore the use of analogy and metaphor in one specific genre, namely civil engineering research journal articles both in English and in Spanish. Thus, we will start by briefly outlining the use of metaphor in…

Many recent studies have examined the effectiveness of various types of input enhancement. The following study expands this line of inquiry to include technological applications of language learning by comparing the effectiveness of the computer application of diacritics to a traditional pen-and-paper process among beginning students of French and…

Shared book reading in families is strongly linked with successful school literacy and thus with identity, belonging and participation in literate societies. From an "emergent" perspective, literacy is recognised as beginning from birth. However, despite exceptions such as research into the UK program, "Bookstart", most…

The challenges of intercultural communication are an integral part of many undergraduate business communication courses. Marketing gaffes clearly illustrate the pitfalls of translation and underscore the importance of a knowledge of the culture with which one is attempting to communicate. A good way to approach the topic of translation pitfalls in…

The present article serves as an introduction to a special issue on recruiting and retaining culturally and linguistically diverse populations into the field of special education. Members of the Diversity Committee of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and selected guest were invited authors.…

Language decline in many immigrant and ethnic communities is always a persistent problem in America. To prevent Native tribal languages from becoming obliterated, several organizations have been founded to document and teach Indigenous languages, a number of tribes have crafted ambitious language policies, and Congress approved the Native American…

The study drew on an 80,000-word corpus consisting of narrative texts produced in response to picture prompts by 210 beginner-level francophone learners of English (11-12-year-olds). The unique feature of the corpus is its longitudinal character: The samples were collected at four 100-hour intervals of intensive language instruction, during which…

In order to become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" the European Union realizes its people as the most important asset. Moreover, every human becomes a value for the whole society. It makes significant to…

These 14 articles on aspects of linguistics include the following: "Economy and Optionality: Interpretations of Subjects in Italian" (David Adger); "Collaborative Repair in EFL Classroom Talk" (Zara Iles); "A Timing Model for Fast French" (Eric Keller, Brigitte Zellner); "Another Travesty of Representation:…

Papers presented at the conference on applied linguistics include the following: "Speaking of Grammars: Is Big Beautiful?" (Jan Svartvik); "A Sociosemiotic View of the Grasp of Language at Reality: The Lexical Field 'Aesthetic Judgment'" (Wolfgang Kuhlwein); "Language as a Target and Instrument of the Educational Process…

In recent years, increasing emphasis has been put on pragmatic competence as part of foreign language curricula. This article analyzes the devices used by learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in order to perform the "speech act of disagreement" in their L2. Data from 27 ESL learners were gathered by means of Discourse…

Papers on the situation of linguistic minorities in Western Europe and Canada include: "Linguistic Minorities: West European and Canadian Perspectives" (Colin H. Williams); "Geographical Aspects of Minority Language Situations in Italy" (Paul White); "Defining the Gaeltacht: Dilemmas in Irish Language Planning" (Reg…

This concordance study uses a corpus of applied linguistic articles to explore how and why accomplished academic writers use quotations and citations, specifically the word 'say,' and analyses the lexical and grammatical choices they make. Citations were examined in almost 50,000 words from 11 articles to document use by experts writers. Overuse…

The approach taken commonly in instructional materials designed for teaching translation at the college level is examined, and an alternative is proposed. The approach under examination is the use of western translation theories to teach translation between Chinese and English, often incorporating examples from other, unfamiliar languages. It is…