To increase male motivation to learn additional languages studies have suggested teaching males in single-sex second and foreign language classes (Carr & Pauwels, 2006; Chambers, 2005). Despite the reported benefits of this unique arrangement, a review of literature found no related research conducted in Canada or the United States. To address…

Introduces the special issue of this journal on microanalyses of classroom discourse, providing an explanation of the how the issue is organized and describing each of the five articles contained. (Author/VWL)

Describes the ethnography of communication as a viable, context- and culture-sensitive method for conducting research on classroom discourse. Provides an overview of the method and its role in applied linguistics research and then presents a study of discourse in mainstream high school classes with a large proportion of students who speak English…

Using conversation analysis as a central tool of analysis, examines the sequential development of talk-in-interaction observed in a small group activity in a Japanese language classroom. Explores the relationship among task instruction, students' reaction to the instruction during their pre-task planning, and the actual development of talk with…

Using a framework of systemic functional grammar, compares two modes of presenting the same scientific topic: in a physics textbook and in interactive teacher talk. Three aspects of scientific meaning making are analyzed: representations of physical and mental reality, lexical packaging, and the rhetorical structure of reasoning. (Author/VWL)

Considers the ethnography of communication, conversation analysis and systemic functional linguistics as frameworks for the analysis of classroom discourse. Discusses their basic assumptions, some of the similarities and differences between them, and their different strengths and weaknesses as resources for applied linguistic problem solving.…

Highlights the articles included in this special issue, which focus on a common set of questions that permit readers to read contrastively across articles with differing goals, data sets, and analytic traditions. (Author/VWL)

Examines how the significant sociocultural changes that took place in Hungary in the 1990s affected school children's language-related attitudes and language learning motivation concerning five target languages: English, German, French, Italian, and Russian. Analyses are based on survey data collected from 13- and 14-year-old pupils in 1993 and…

Tracks the language preferences of three French/English bilingual children, twin girls aged 13 and a boy aged 15, over a 72-month period. Using weekly tape recorded conversations of family dinnertime conversations both in the children's Louisiana home, and a summer residence in French-speaking Quebec, the bilingual authors--who are also the…

The approach of task-based instruction is too narrow a theoretical framework to properly analyze the use of poetry in such a context. Argues that Hanauer's study contains a methodological error, which is due in part to the fact that the definition of a language-based task as an activity focusing on interpreting meaning and solving some sort of…

Contends that Lightbown (2000) manifests a misconception of the relationship between applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and language teaching. Suggests that it does so by failing to see he direct causal link between the field and the pre-1985 developments in language teaching, and by failing to address the unrecognized failure of…

Responds to Sheen's (2002) critique of a review article on the relationship between second language acquisition research and classroom second and foreign language teaching. The focus of the response is to clarify points made in both a 1985 and the 2000 articles and challenging Sheen's interpretation of those points. (Author/VWL)

Examines the socio-pragmatic construction and textualization of scholarly Acknowledgements in English and Italian journals from a genre-analytic perspective. Points of difference or similarity between corpora and academic cultures are explored with special attention to such issues as generic complexity and staging, personal involvement, and peer…

Focuses on learner development, a learner-centered innovation in foreign language-second language instruction that responds to learner diversity by aiming to improve the language learner's ability to learn a language. Describes various ideas that shaped early practice in learner development, and provides an evaluation of the theory and practice in…

Sought to determine whether two low-rising intonation contours should be accepted as distinct patterns in American English, alongside three other widely accepted contours. Dialogues varying only in their intonation contour were presented in a random order to 47 speakers of Midwestern American English. Subjects interpreted the meaning of the…