Concerns the relative effectiveness of computer-assisted production (output) practice and comprehension (input) practice in second-language acquisition. In particular, the study focuses on whether the advantage of production practice over comprehension practice still remains when the target structures are relatively simple. (Author/VWL)

Advanced Danish students of English tried to identify the national origin of young men from Ireland, Scotland, England, and the United States from their speech and then rated the speech for attractiveness. Listeners rated speech produced by Englishmen as most attractive, and speech by Americans as least attractive. (Author/VWL)

Examines one aspect of the many interfaces between second language (L2) learning and L2 testing. The aspect is the oral interaction--the dialogue--that occurs within small groups. Discusses from within a sociocultural theory of mind, that in a group, performance is jointly constructed and distributed across the participants. (Author/VWL)

Identifies the language learning strategies associated with the achievement of higher levels of oral proficiency in German for 100 Irish students about to complete their second year at Dublin City University. Investigates the way in which these strategies are used by those with higher and lower levels of proficiency. (Author/VWL)

Presents an approach to developing a grammatical scope and sequence for elementary and intermediate foreign-language instruction that is different from the standard model, which bases the grammatical syllabus of a textbook on tradition, intuition, or both. The article argues that different descriptions of grammar are needed for each of the skills…

Examines semantic errors produced by normal and aphasic speakers on a picture naming test for their phonological similarity to the targets they replace. A second study examines phonological relationships within sets of semantically related words and shows there is no tendency for these words to share phonological characteristics. (35 references)…

Studied the use of verbal morphology in oral narratives by eight advanced learners of Spanish. Learners commented in an immediate retrospective protocol on their use of perfective and imperfective morphology. Some reasons for tense-aspect morphological selections have implications for research methodology in future studies on acquisition and use…

Identifies the status of "be" based on Korean English-as-Foreign-Language learners' developing interlanguage grammars. Korean English learners' utterance data were analyzed, with a special focus on one middle school learner. Analyses from the perspectives of developmental process and head direction suggest that the early emerging…

This article reviews the varied components of written language, suggest informal means for written language assessment, and summarizes the cognitive and linguistic factors that influence varied aspects of writing performance. Two informal evaluation scales are presented that stress the interconnection between oral and written language processes.…

Examines picture naming latencies for predicted effects of two word retrieval factors: onset complexity and number of syllables. Results comport with evidence from speech errors and metalinguistic tasks and with predictions of the Node Structure theory of language production, but do not support production theories that do not predict special…

Explores the relationship between written and spoken language and questions whether skills and strategies used in reading can be effectively transferred to listening. Suggests working from the text may be more productive than using strategies. Field questions these assumptions, and Ridgway defends his point. (Author/VWL)

Inconclusive evidence that second-language learners understand a foreign language better than they speak it led to a study of the comprehension of native and nonnative speakers. Results indicated that second-language learners speak better than they understand. The paper discusses three conditions for learning: overt activity, emotional…

Suggests that oral skills classes provide the ideal forum in which to address discourse issues, and that target-language discourse norms, particularly as they relate to another cultural belief system, must be taught explicitly. (Author/VWL)

Argues that it is children's development of knowledge of written language that is key to literacy development. Offers models of emergent literacy and identifies differences between oral and written language. Poses implications for policy, research, and practice in home and school. (DLH)

Outlines challenges that arose in the course of a classroom-based research project, identifies the realities of the second language setting that contributed to these complexities, and examines useful sources of support available to novice investigators. Oral communication tasks were administered to three groups of English learners in Canada: a…