This article examines the conceptions of research held by 505 teachers of English from 13 countries around the world. Questionnaire responses supplemented by follow-up written and interview data were analyzed to understand teachers' views on what research is and how often they read and do it (and why or why not in each case). An understanding of…

English titles of medical research articles (RAs) are of great importance, the quality of which can, to a certain degree, affect impact factors of the articles, because many readers will make a decision as to whether to read on after reading titles. However, the special genre has not been extensively studied to date. This paper is designed to…

This paper reports a study on anxiety in Chinese undergraduate non-English majors at three different proficiency levels. By way of survey, observations, reflective journals and interviews, the study revealed that (1) a considerable number of students at each level felt anxious when speaking English in class, (2) the more proficient students tended…

The development of accent and fluency are traced in the speech of 20 Mandarin and 20 Slavic adult immigrants to Canada over a period of 10 months. The participants were enrolled in an ESL program but had no special instruction in either pronunciation or fluency. The immigrants' self-reported exposure to English outside of class was used to…

Articles in this annual serial include the following: "Four decades with the Computer" (Winfred P. Lehmann); "The Uses of the Personal Computer in the Humanities" (James W. Marchand); "Digging in the Dictionary: Building a Relational Lexicon To Support Natural Language Processing Applications" (Martha Evans, Judith Markowitz, Thomas Ahlswede, Kay…

Articles in this volume of the journal on English as a Second Language and applied linguistics include: "The 'ng' Challenge: Five Simple Rules for Pronunciation Prediction" (Carol A. Buss); "The Effect of Markedness on Epenthesis in Spanish/English Interlanguage" (Robert S. Carlisle); "Proficiency-Based Instruction: Implications for Methodology"…

The importance of training second language learners in the patterns of occurrence of certain phonemes is discussed, focusing on the use of spelling as a primary predictor of pronunciation. Four different pronunciations of "ng" in English (as in "engaging, singer, changing, dangle") are used to illustrate this principle. A review of pronunciation…

A study investigated whether markedness relationships within a target language influence the degree of difficulty in acquisition. The Intralingual Markedness Hypothesis was developed, stating that if structures in the target language differ from those in the native language, and if those structures in the target language are in a markedness…

Issues in second language teaching methodology are discussed in light of the concept of proficiency as defined in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines. It is proposed that rather than think in terms of identifying one optimal methodology for all second language learners, the profession should be…

A study was undertaken to demonstrate that expository prose written in Indian English exhibits certain characteristics determined by the sociocultural conventions of writing in the Indian tradition. These features of Indian English texts are often judged to be inappropriate by native speakers of North American and British English, and mistakenly…

A study investigated the relationship of the upbringing of Indochinese children and cognitive style, especially in relation to the learning of English as a Second Language. Subjects were 108 Kampuchean and 73 Vietnamese refugee children at a Philippine refugee processing center. The children were interviewed concerning their previous school…

Research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on foreign language learning (FLL), often regarded as different and separate fields of inquiry, are compared in a brief review of literature. Perceptions about the scopes and characteristics of the research are examined. Concerns about the relationship between SLA research and theory and…

Three areas of research (second language acquisition (SLA), foreign languages (FL), and foreign language learning (FLL) are examined briefly and distinguished, and their relationship is discussed. The definition of FLL is then considered in greater detail. It is proposed that as an area of inquiry, FLL is characterized by specific features of its…

A discussion of the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL) focuses on how theory influences language teaching. It is noted that SLA research has brought new interest in teaching materials and methodologies to many in the foreign language profession, but that there are also many who, impatient…

Currently, the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL) is unidirectional, with theory and hypotheses flowing from SLA to FLL, and making FLL a subset of SLA. However, this relationship is an artificial one resting on debatable or even incorrect assumptions. These include the assumptions that: (1)…