It is argued that the field of second and foreign language learning must begin to incorporate a sociocultural perspective of oral language use into language pedagogy and that the study of oral practices is a valuable way to start. Classroom practices are suggested. (86 references) (Author/LB)

The current status of corpus-based lexico-grammar is assessed. Particular reference is to the one substantial descriptive grammar of English to have made use of the new computational techniques, the Collins COBUILD English Grammar. (39 references) (Author/LB)

A diverse sample of laypersons and scholars were asked about the number of words they knew, the number in the English language, the size of English-language dictionaries, and other topics related to vocabulary size. Their estimates were compared with estimates derived from empirical studies, which have indicated a much larger adult mental lexicon.…

Reports on a study of the Bangalore Project, an attempt at methodological innovation based on conscious learning strategies. Detailed accounts of Bangalore teachers experiences are analyzed and rated according to defined Levels of Implementation, and the suggestion is made that evaluators of educational innovations must be aware of the necessity…

Responds to a previous article criticizing the Communication Teaching Project in Bangalore (India). It is suggested that the previous article made false claims about the project and then proceeded to falsify those claims. (Author/VWL)

Attempts to overcome methodological problems in studies of vocabulary size. Problems occur when trying to answer the following three questions: (1) how do we decide what to count as words; (2) how do we choose what words to test; and (3) how do we test the chosen words? (31 references) (Author/VWL)

Examines the work of two scholars who have made the greatest contributions to the variabilist perspective on second-language acquisition, and discusses the acquisition models that each of these scholars has proposed. (50 references) (Author/VWL)

Responds to a previous article that attacks variabilists' accounts of second-language acquisition (SLA) by addressing the following issues: (1) the context dependency of theory in SLA research; (2) the competency performance distinction; (3) the problem of data in SLA research; and (4) explanations of SLA. (Author/VWL)

Responds to a previous article criticizing the variation models of second-language acquisition (SLA), and argues that the variation models can and do explain (SLA) and that any adequate model of SLA should take interlanguage into account. (Author/VWL)

Lectures of two first-semester teaching assistants, one native American English speaker (NS) and one Korean (NNS) whose discourse was perceived as difficult to follow, were examined. It is argued that the NS's hypotatic constructions provide explicit signals of logical and prominence relations that are missing in the NNS's discourse. (51…

A set of functional-analytic materials, entailing the study and practice of sociostylistic variation, was implemented in three eighth-grade French immersion (FI) classrooms by their respective teachers during French language arts classes over a five-week period. Pre- and posttests indicate that functional-analytic teaching improved FI students'…

Several examples of genre analysis are examined to identify criteria employed for the identification of textual boundaries. The conclusion is that there are nonlinguistic reasons for generic staging in texts and that the search for structural divisions is a search for cognitive boundaries in terms of convention, appropriacy, and content. (42…

Research is reported on the growing English Language Teaching (ELT) literature that sheds new light on components of the diffusion process in one ELT context: the U.S. intensive English program. Findings highlight a new set of perspectives on the role of perceived attributes of ELT innovations. (42 references) (Author/LB)

Comments are offered on an earlier paper on theory construction in second-language acquisition. A critical perspective is offered that is characterized by the ethical foundations of theory construction (and scientific activity in general) and the grounding of theory in practical activity. (60 references) (Author/LB)

In a group of advanced student interpreters, recall of short stories after simultaneous interpretation from their first (L1) into their second (L2) language, and vice versa, was significantly worse than recall of similar stories after listening. Memory span for digits presented in L1 and L2 was significantly poorer following simultaneous…