Reasons for Indonesian students' reluctance to practice English are discussed, including absence of classroom follow-up activities. Some teaching/learning principles are noted, followed by some conversation teaching techniques (e.g., using humor, rhymes/songs, and interviews). (Contains 10 references.) (LB)

Analysis of French spoken by French girls aged 11-12 years found that, unlike older counterparts, theirs shows variable linguistic behavior on the phonological level that suggests avoidance of vernacular forms, the "sociolinguistic gender pattern." However, one speaker's discourse shows manipulation of conversational tone comparable to adult…

Investigates effect of task type on resultant candidate discourse and input of the interlocutor. The experimental design ensured an information gap in one of the interview tasks for prospective immigrants to Australia. Findings indicate that candidate discourse differs in quantity and quality between situations when an information gap exists and…

Reviews 10 studies, comprising 11 samples, of the effects of reading to young children in schools. Ages of the children varied between 31 and 90 months, and dependent variables were classified in two domains: oral language and reading skills. (Author/VWL)

Investigates how early a developing bilingual who is exposed simultaneously to English and Spanish can make appropriate language choices. Kept detailed records of the child's cumulative vocabulary from the first word at 10 months and on weekly audiovideo recording in both Spanish and English contexts from age 1-3. (Author/VWL)

Argues that bimodal video is an effective way of enhancing second-language (L2) learners' understanding of authentic texts and their learning of content and vocabulary in the L2. Bimodal video is subtitled in the L2 and provides simultaneous exposure to spoken language, printed text, and visual information, all conveying the same message.…

Investigates the relationship between language comprehension and language production in Swedish children in a study carried out longitudinally with 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 10 children with unimpaired language development. Results indicate that the relationship between comprehension and production is different at…

Proposes an instructional progression that goes from writing to speaking in learning English as a Second Language. Specific focus is on writing to improve speaking, games for writing to speaking, free writes from personal experiences, creating a scene, autobiographies, and argumentation. (Author/VWL)

A study compared the effectiveness of two reading interventions with 45 second-graders. Interventions differed in the unit of word analysis (phoneme versus onset-rime), the approach to intervention (contextualized versus decontextualized), and the primary domain of reading instruction (oral versus written language). Children in both reading…

Reports the findings of a longitudinal study in interlanguage phonology examining the production of two structures in a markedness relationship, bilateral and trilateral onsets, the latter being more marked than the former. The study specifically tests the Interlanguage Structure Conformity Hypothesis by measuring the acquisition of the onsets in…

Examined individual growth rates in definitional skill over a period of 3 to 6 years, for 68 low-income children. Results of the study support the notion that definitional skill is related to being part of an academic culture; low-income mothers, whose formal schooling is complete, generally do not give oral definitions to simple nouns as well as…

This study of language performance tracked 34 poor children from kindergarten through second grade. The best kindergarten predictor for eventual diagnosis with a specific language impairment was a combination of the score on the Oral Vocabulary subtest of the Test of Oral Language Development and the score on a combination of experimental tasks.…

Refutes the claim that Latin can be spoken as if it were a modern language. This article is an effort to combat the movement to teach Latin by the four skills approach and to call for a return to an honest and reasonable way of teaching the classical language, along lines that help preserve its uniqueness and traditional integrity. (21 references)…

Examined children's development between first and fifth grade in the use of referential expressions in oral and written narratives; analyzed a new context of use, written narrative, and compared it to the oral one; and compared the development of referential expressions in children speaking Italian and Catalan. (Author/VWL)

Studied the dinner table conversations of 22 families with young children. Analyzed utterances for language-focused terms. Reported that metalinguistic uses exceeded pragmatic uses. Found that during routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially important information about the communicative functions of language.…