Grammaticality judgments are a metalinguistic task type frequently used in second language research. With the addition of response time measurement, often called reaction time measurement, a measure of metalinguistic performance is achieved that can be used to investigate the degree of automatization of linguistic knowledge in language users. This…

A study investigated the extent to which American learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) are able to distinguish polite Japanese speech, and the effect of instruction on this skill. Specifically, it looked at performance on a midterm listening comprehension question in which students listened to self-introductory speeches of three job…

A theory is advanced for constructing an English dictionary for learners of English as a second or foreign language primarily for business purposes. The approach attempts to incorporate as much of the natural context of this language use as possible. While the general cognitive frame for the dictionary would be business, it would represent various…

An overview is given of the main themes, perspectives, and debates in the teaching of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Combining historical, sociolinguistic, and cross-cultural analysis of the language needs of adult immigrants, the discussion addresses issues related to ESOL learning and teaching in Great Britain. An introductory…

This issue includes the following articles: "Assimilation to the Unmarked" (Eric Bakovic); "On the Non-Universality of Functional Projections and the Effects on Parametrized Variation: Evidence from Creoles" (Marlyse Baptista); "What Turkish Acquisition Tells Us about Underlying Word Order and Scrambling" (Natalie…

In 2003, the National Literacy Trust commissioned Dr. Robin Close to conduct a literature review of published research in order to understand more fully the relationship between television viewing in the early years and language and literacy development. A priority of the National Literacy Trust is to understand the relationship between language…

Wish expression is the way by which wishes are expressed. These wishes are either fulfilled or unfulfilled. There are certain devices that are used in English and Arabic and these devices are used to express wishes. Fulfilled wishes are expressed by most devices of wish expression in both English and Arabic. In turn, unfulfilled wishes are…

Presented were an explanation of deviant language in terms of the transformational model, a review of literature on deviant language use, and data comparing the use of syntactic and morphological structures by nine normal and nine deviant language users. (GW)

The relationship between memory performance in everyday life and performance on laboratory tests was investigated with normal-memory and previously severely head-injured subjects. Correlation of the two test types was found in normal-memory and long-term head-injured, but not with the recently-injured. Highest correlations were with prose recall…

Explores the relationship between early speaking and writing skills by investigating how children use referential ties (personal pronouns, demonstratives, and comparatives) to build coherence in their oral and written stories. Discusses findings and implications for developing children's communicative competency. (PD)

The results of a word recognition study are compared to those of a sign recognition study in order to determine which aspects of lexical access are comparable in speech and sign, and which are specific to each of the two language modalities. The "gating paradigm" was used in both studies. (Author/AMH)

Developmental changes in the interaction between word order and structural cues were investigated. Hebrew-speaking children between 4 and 10 years old interpreted noun-verb-noun utterances. Both word order and structural cues affected interpretation by all subjects, though the role of structural cues increased with age. (Author/DB)

Discusses difficulties in perception of English /r/ and /l/ and concludes the error pattern is not predictable on the basis of contrastive phonological analysis but might be the result of acoustic-phonetic factors. (EKN)

A study of how employers responded to the language usage and language abilities of job applicants revealed that employers tended to favor males over females and persons using standard spoken usage over persons using nonstandard dialects. (RL)

Combines studies in cognitive psychology and language acquisition with observations of pedagogical materials and student performance to analyze foreign-language teaching from the perspective of what students and teachers need to understand about language learning and language before meaningful debate over methodology can be undertaken. (Author/MES)