Analyzes the discourse completion data collected through Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners with reference to four speech functions--thanking, apology, request, and offering. Compares Japanese learners' expressions with expressions obtained by native speakers of English stored in the London-Lund corpus of Spoken English. (Author/VWL)

Presents the hypothesis that drama positively affects second language students by providing spontaneity and motivation. To test the hypothesis, the function of drama in language teaching is explored as well as the technique used to teach English through drama. (Author/VWL)

Examines the efficacy of a weekly movie class through students' in-school achievement, a general proficiency test, and surveys about their cultural awareness and interest in English. An experimental group watched movies with viewing guides every week for 2 months. They improved significantly more than the control group in their in-school…

Investigates differences in the rhetorical organization of research article introductions between Korean academic writing and English academic writing based on Swales' Create a Research Space model (1990). Twelve published articles written by Korean national scholars and American scholars are compared, and eight term papers by Korean…

Investigated the relative effects of two test taker characteristics--native language and learning experience--on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign English Placement Test. Subjects were 203 students. Background information was gathered through a questionnaire. Native language appeared more influential on test performance than learning…

Investigated English vowel lengths between Americans and Koreans when they speak English sentences. Koreans showed a foreign accent in their English pronunciation of vowels in relation to their utterance positions. Americans showed a final lengthening effect, but Koreans showed a final shortening effect. (Author/VWL)

Investigates how nonnative speakers of English approach questions and answers posed to them to provide an explanation of how they resolve communication problems they face at an international conference. Results suggest that there are not many differences observed from Japanese and Korean querists and respondents in terms of their use of discourse…

Explains some of the concepts commonly used in innovation theory and attempts to relate these concepts to ELT (English language teaching) project management. Related areas, such as factors in the innovation process, systemic change, participant roles, criteria for acceptance of innovation, ownership, and innovation gains and losses are discussed.…

Argues that the study of natural sign languages can enhance understanding of what language really is. The aspects of sign language that are similar and dissimilar to the characteristics of spoken language are described. (Author/CB)

Investigation of the relationship between attitudes, second language proficiency, and "cultural distance" in 170 foreign students at a Norwegian university showed that cultural distance significantly influenced subjects' attitudes toward Norwegians, fellow countrymen, and an ideal person. There was no positive relationship between grades and…

Reviews a study of the role and use of direction-giving in natural conversations of native speakers of American English. An overwhelming uniformity of structure in direction-giving is found. Learners of English as a second language need classroom materials that more accurately reflect the exchanges that occur naturally among native speakers of…

Analyzes the "easy to be V" structure in terms of the semantic features of sentences with this structure. These sentences can be classified into types, ranging from the "prototype" with the most features contributing to its transparency, to the "peripheral" with the fewest of such features. (Author/CB)

Explores four major areas of differences between first- and second-language acquisition (completeness, equipotentiality, previous knowledge, and fossilization) and argues that the theory of Universal Grammar plays a much smaller role in explaining the second-language acquisition process than current research claims. (Author/CB)

Describes how reformulation can be used as a strategy for teaching academic writing to non-native language users (especially in the research context) and applies the strategy to two examples of research written by non-natives. (Author/CB)

Longitudinal data regarding three children's learning of English as a second language in a classroom setting support the hypothesis that the distribution of grammatical variants in learner speech is sensitive to linguistic context. Results suggest that the learners acquired the target language variants in "pronoun contexts" before "noun contexts."…