Discusses the importance of providing opportunities for children to learn through talk with an adult and contains excerpts from transcripts of parent-child and teacher-student conversations. (DF)

Analyzes the language of five popular children's shows on public television. Suggests that the public television shows provide a superior language model than that of commercial television. (HOD)

Discusses the collaboration that developed among two classroom teachers and a university instructor while one of the teachers visited classrooms to investigate the question: How can classroom teachers promote children's language and language skills? (HTH)

The use of the Language Background Questionnaire is analyzed, and the following criticisms are offered: (1) the varying nature and range of questions used, (2) the inclusion of indirect language background questions, and (3) previous methods of categorization of individuals into groups using language background scores. (SL)

To what extent does Universal Grammar (UG) constrain second language (L2) acquisition? This is not only an empirical question, but one which is currently investigable. In this context, L2 acquisition is emerging as an important new domain of psycholinguistic research. Three logical possibilities have been articulated regarding the role of UG in L2…

Phrasal verbs occur frequently in written and spoken English and may be difficult for non-native speakers to understand and produce, particularly when parts of the phrasal verb should be separated and when they should be adjacent. The study reported here analyzes natural data in context to determine whether the word order of the parts of a…

An ethnographic study examined slang as spoken on campuses of two universities in the United States, one on the West Coast and one in the Midwest. Subjects were students from Intercultural Communication classes, who served as participant/observers and data gatherers. Subjects were instructed to collect slang terms that they heard on campus and,…

Rail-lex Slovenia is a project to develop a dictionary of railway terminology in the Slovenian language, part of a larger undertaking of the International Union of Railways to develop a modern, multilingual communication infrastructure. Participating organizations represent 22 European languages. Two partners in the Rail-lex Slovenia venture are…

This study investigated language transfer, particularly in the realm of pragmatics, in a native Korean-speaking student of advanced Japanese. A series of tasks including a verbal report were used to elicit Japanese production and comprehension data. Results indicate that the learner drew heavily on his native language in completing the tasks, but…

A study was conducted to determine which approach for vocabulary development--isolated word lists, context clues, or a combination of both--would yield the best results. One sample of 17 sophomores used isolated word lists. The second sample of 20 freshmen used context clues to determine word meaning. The third sample of 13 sophomores used a…

This document presents a theory of how the psychology and neurobiology of stimulus appraisal influence variability in second language acquisition, and extends the notion of affect developed for second language acquisition to primary language acquisition and to cognition in general. The first chapter lays out a psychological framework that develops…

This journal publishes scholarly articles on all aspects of language pedagogy, linguistics, foreign cultures and languages, and comparative, classical, and foreign (Asian, French, German, Italian, Luso-Brazilian, Scandinavian, Slavic, Spanish, and Spanish American) literatures. It is published annually, based exclusively on a representative number…

The paper considers the effects of study abroad on student second language acquisition (SLA) and suggests areas for further study. It begins with an overview of current research on study abroad, its relationship to foreign language programs, and the innovations that this growing research base holds for program development. Attention then turns to…

A discussion examines the importance of communication between non-native speakers (NNS/NNS), reviews relevant theories and issues in intercultural interactions and NNS/NNS interactions, and explores methodological issues in interpreting linguistic and interactional data. The intent is to explore features of communication between NNSs from…

This paper presents a very comprehensive overview of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, presenting the views of critics as well as supporters. CLT views language as a vehicle for communication, and it recognizes as its aim the teaching of communicative competence, which includes grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and…