Background: The population of children with specific language impairments (SLI) is heterogeneous. The present study was conducted to examine this heterogeneity more closely, by identifying and describing subgroups within the population of children with SLI in the Netherlands. Method: A broad battery of language tests and language-related cognitive…

Misuse of English conjunction related to incoherent writing, according to the literature, comes from learners' first language interference, improper mechanical exercises, and misleading lists of connectors in textbooks demonstrated as if mutually interchangeable without contextual constraints. Form-focused instruction with explicit semantic,…

This study analyzed verbal responses of status unequals in situations where a linguistic mistake occurred. Subjects were 80 native Turkish-speaking university students (28 males, 52 females) who participated in role-playing exercises using such situations. Two aspects of the responses were investigated: the semantic and syntactic formulas that…

A survey investigated the attitudes of educated Greeks about possible modifications in the orthographic representation of written Greek. Subjects were 82 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts program in English Language and Literature offered at the University of Cyprus. The subjects were administered a 20-item Likert-type questionnaire…

This publication consists of a collection of 18 papers in English, German, Swedish, and Finnish originally presented at a 1988 symposium of the Finnish Association of Applied Linguistics (AFinLA), which was organized jointly by the University of Vaasa and the Department of Teacher Education at Abo Akademi, Finland. Papers focus on the following…

Theoretical tools from cognitive science were used to put together a framework for a fine-grained theory of how students learn elementary algebra in the classroom. Developing the framework included assessing the shortcomings of current models, evaluating whether unified theories of cognition can be adapted for learning mathematics in the…

Seven original research papers are presented. The titles and authors are as follows: "Acquisition of the Argument-Structure of Verbs" (Mika Endo); "A Note on Semantic Selection" (Yoshio Endo); "The Governing Category Parameter in Second Language" (Makiko Hirakawa); "The Use of Connectives in English Academic…

A variety of process-oriented writing instruction strategies are presented in this focused journal issue. Article titles and authors are as follows: (1) "Central Reference to the Rescue" (Rod Kessler); (2)"Brainstorming: A Heuristic that Works" (Frank C. Cronin); (3) "Brainstorming: A Valuable Supplemental Technique for…

This paper reviews the application of notional syllabuses and structural curricula to intensive ESL programs. It is suggested that a communicative or functional or functional-notional syllabus must not be viewed in contrast to a structural or grammatical syllabus. Functional notions are necessary inclusions into the class and into texts, but…

This paper proposes a broad outline of a variable model of language development and explores several particulars of such a model in the language behavior of four two-year-old children. The process by which information about language is progressively transformed and integrated rather than merely being added together can be seen in the shifting…

The issue of using language proficiency or language dominance to assess programs for high school students with limited English speaking backgrounds is addressed. The development and initial analyses of the Competency Based Oral Language Assessment (COLA) are discussed. Three components of oral language are rated separately: semantics; syntax and…

This collection of 31 papers is the second resulting from the Polish-English Contrastive Project. The overall purposes of the project are to prepare a Polish-English contrastive grammar and to develop pedagogical material. The basic model used for the research is the transformational generative one. This volume is divided into three sections: (1)…

This discussion of bilingualism and second language learning concerns many linguistic considerations that figure in the problem of language instruction. The author reports on current research and on the ideas of several noted linguists. Topics considered in this study are the goals of the bilingual education program, reasons for becoming…

This volume is a collection of bibliographies designed as a basic professional reference library for teachers of the five modern foreign languages most commonly taught in the United States. After a general reading list, the bibliographies are divided according to the language they deal with: (1) French, by Andre Martinet and Stanley Lampach; (2)…

Papers from the 1998 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium include: "Patterns of Gender Agreement in the Speech of Second Language Learners"; "'Nomas' in Mexican American Dialect"; "Parsing Spanish 'solo'"; "On Levels of Processing and Levels of Comprehension"; "The Role of Attention in Second/Foreign Language Classroom Research: Methodological Issues";…