Investigates whether the spoken nature of electronic mail messages has already started to affect business written communication. Examines register and context of the language as well as the style used in commercial electronic mail. (Author/VWL)

This article reports on a genre-based needs analysis for a graduate course in English for academic purposes (EAP) at a large public U.S. university. In particular, it describes the theoretical reconceptualizations of genre analysis that the data provoked. Using ethnographic methods, an investigation of academic genres in several classrooms in…

This article critically explores the value of ethnography for enhancing context-sensitive approaches to the study of academic writing. Drawing on data from two longitudinal studies, student writing in the United Kingdom and professional academic writing in Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, and Portugal, the author illustrates the different contributions…

This descriptive correlational study examined the relationships between teacher immediacy and student motivation. Specifically, verbal and nonverbal independent variables were compared with dependent traits of expectancy-value and approach-avoidance motivation. Students self-reported perceived levels of instructor immediacy and self-rated their…

Engineering students in North American universities often participate in cooperative education placements in workplaces as part of the requirements for their degrees and professional certification. Students for whom English is an L2 often experience difficulties in these placements due to the fact that while their academic language ability may be…

Among Swales' (1996) list of occluded academic genres, retention-promotion-tenure (RPT) evaluations have been little studied. These evaluative reports, however, can inform EAP researchers, teachers, and students about ways that writers both follow and transgress discourse conventions to fulfill various purposes through an institutional text.…

English has gradually become the lingua franca of medical publications and conferences across Europe, with scholars from "smaller" languages opting for English because of the greater scientific impact and prestige associated with a wide international audience; at the same time, however, this transition has disrupted well-established textual…

The subject and the object are more strategically assigned than some might readily assume, both as people speak and as they live them. Subjectivity is associated with doing, hence responsibility, and therefore it noticeably slides in matters of credit and blame, with issues like Newton's or LaPlace's discovery. In scientific papers the subject has…

Author presented his interpretations of the derivation of different words as an added incentive for teachers interested in the meanderings of language. (Author/RK)

A survey of 59 Mexican American students revealed that more than twice as many used "usted" to parents than "tu." There may be a shift occurring, however, to more prevalent use of the familiar. (CK)

A greater understanding of psychological treatment can be achieved through an analysis of the language used by those participating in such treatment. Several conceptual aids are needed: (1) a theory about how language conveys meaning; (2) a model of language in psychological treatment; (3) reliable units of measure; and (4) since psychological…

Pragmatics is the theory of utterance interpretation, as contrasted with sentence interpretation, involving a variety of tasks: disambiguation, reference assignment, resolution of vaguenesses or indeterminacies, restoration of missing or ellipsed material, and recovery of the speaker's attitude and the effects of stylistic variation. The most…

Discusses the use of split infinitives in written language and suggests a compromise rule. (RB)

This volume opens with an examination of the decay that the English language has suffered over the past century and explains the origin and remedy of its two chief menaces: ambiguity and cacophony. The second part of the book illustrates the manner in which speakers and writers misuse language. Chapters include "The Prodigal…

Percentages of unexpected pronominal usage in Japanese are listed. Data was gathered from Japanese magazine articles concerning individuals. Tendencies rather than strict rules became evident. (SC)