Twenty-five advanced Chinese learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) provided grammaticality judents in full-sentence and word-by-word conditions. The results indicated that parsing, and not grammatical competence, is the source of difficulty on performance with subject extraction sentences. Contains 58 references. (MDM)

Journals devoted to language learning and instruction are filled with articles describing new methods, reporting research, and making recommendations. This article looks at two articles published in the late 1980s to determine whether suggestions made nearly a decade ago are reflected in recent textbooks. (Author/JL)

A study examined linguistic, communicative, and social psychological variables affecting an individual's "willingness to communicate" (WTC) in a second language (L2), and suggests a model for integrating them that may useful in L2 WTC research. Twelve specific variables are identified and organized into layers in a heuristic model. It is…

Developmental aspects of spelling-to-sound mapping for English monosyllabic words are investigated with a simple two-layer network model using a simple, general learning rule. The model is trained on both regularly and irregularly spelled words but extracts regular spelling to sound relationships, which it can apply to new words. Training-related…

Gives an account of converb (adverbial participle or gerund) systems in eight languages from Paleoasiatic and Altaic families spoken in northeastern Siberia. The rich converbal system is not the only relevant and peculiar feature common to the languages, but it is not common in other languages. The characteristics of converbs are described, and…

Focuses on complementarity between cognitive and social aspects of writing. Shows that second language (L2) composing processes are constructed in particular social and historical circumstances. Analyzes three areas of L2 composing that are socially mediated: task environment; situated nature of the skilled/unskilled distinction; and the role…

Investigates use of a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) dictionary and how well words looked up are remembered. The dictionary information has been incorporated into a CALL program that was comprised of a text, highlighted low-frequency words, and provided access to different lexical information about these words. Subjects were…

Applies three distinct analyses to recorded and transcribed student conversations (n=240) about brine shrimps. The complementary analytic methods provide information on the content of pupils' conversations in terms of the observations made, the ways in which pupils make sense of their observations, and the ways in which students use conversation…

Examines the relationship between macro and micro perspectives on the organization of participation structure, and considers how both perspectives can be useful to the ethnographer of interaction. Examples are drawn from a study of Navajo preschool and supported by a substantial body of classroom ethnography in other Native-American communities.…

While almost all observers agree that young children, older children, and adults differ both in initial rate of acquisition and in the levels of ultimate attainment typically achieved, they continue to disagree over whether the observed patterns are a function of nurture or nature. Is it simply that older starters "do not" do as well because they…

Research suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have processing limitations; however, the mechanisms involved have not been well defined or investigated in a theory-guided manner. The theory of constructive operators was used as a framework to explore processes underlying limited processing capacity in children with SLI.…

This study used a copying task to examine spelling acquisition in French and Spanish from a perception and action perspective. Experiment 1 compared French and Spanish-speaking monolingual children's performance. Experiment 2 analysed the behaviour of bilingual children when copying words in French and Spanish. Gaze lift analysis showed that in…

In this study we use a computational model of language learning called model of syntax acquisition in children (MOSAIC) to investigate the extent to which the optional infinitive (OI) phenomenon in Dutch and English can be explained in terms of a resource-limited distributional analysis of Dutch and English child-directed speech. The results show…

A core area of phonology is the study of phonotactics, or how sounds are linearly combined. Recent cross-linguistic analyses have shown that the phonology determines not only phonotactics but also the articulatory coordination or timing of adjacent sounds. In this article, I explore how the relation between coordination and phonotactics affects…

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors…