Describes a framework for examining the effects of the cognitive complexity of tasks on language production and learner perceptions of task difficulty, and for motivating sequencing decisions in task-based syllabuses. Results of a study of the relationship between task complexity, difficulty and production show that increasing the cognitive…

Argues that interaction between reader and writer in academic texts can draw on both interactive and interactional resources: interactive resources help guide the reader through the text, while the interactional resources involve the reader collaboratively in the development of the text. (Author/VWL)

Presents a selective examination of the entries of the preposition "on" in five advanced learners' dictionaries published in the United Kingdom. The principal concern is the preposition "on" as a signifier of contact with a surface--especially an upper surface. (Author/VWL)

The discourse of a recent position paper by H.G. Widdowson is analyzed by using three methods criticized in Widdowson's paper. The paper was converted into a miniature data corpus and analyzed with the concepts of systemic functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and critical discourse analysis. (Author/VWL)

Investigates English-as-a-foreign-language learner use of high frequency verbs and particular use of the verb, "make." Examines whether learners tend to overuse or underuse these verbs, whether high-frequency verbs are error-prone or safe, and what part transfer plays in misuse of these verbs. Authentic speaker data is compared with native speaker…

Argues that researchers should approach language learning memoirs as a genre and not simply as ethnographic data, subject to content analysis. Using gender as a case in point, analyzes 16 full-length language memoirs and seven essays within a theoretical framework, which combines sociohistoric, sociocultural, and rhetorical analyses of the…

Tests the hypothesis that holistic students tend to use communication strategies that are based on holistic comparison, and analytic students tend to use strategies that are based on description and segmental perspectives. Suggests that individual differences in patterns of communication strategy usage can be attributed in part to cognitive style.…

Evaluated the role of the poetry-reading task for second language learning. The study followed Shehan's (1998) methodological approach to task choice and theoretical position on the importance of focus-on-form for language learning. Discusses a coding system that describes the types of responses elicited during poetry reading. (Author/VWL)

Reports an experiment in which two groups of English-as-a-Second-Language participants--native Mandarin listeners and a mixed group of speakers of other languages--used a 9-point scale ranging from "too slow" to "too fast" to assess the appropriateness of the speech rate of narratives read by native English speakers and Mandarin learners of…

Investigated the acquisition of English syllable codas by speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Three participants' naturalistic production of syllable codas were studied and analyzed through VARBRUL and descriptive statistics to determine accuracy orders and production modifications of codas by length at two data collection times with a time span of 6…

Assesses and contests the long tradition of attacks on the use of invented sentences in language teaching. Seeks to separate arguments against them that rely on parody and ridicule, from more reasoned assertions. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on francophone nurses who were trained to write nursing care plans during their studies in francophone universities in Quebec and were then employed to work in an English-medium hospital in Montreal. Data was gathered through interviews, observation collection of documents, and a formal task. Care plans produced by the new nurses at the…

Discusses revisions of the New South Wales Police Code of Practice designed to encourage interpreters, improve interviews, and enhance intelligibility of scripted cautions. Each of these issues is framed in terms of a model of applied linguistics in which an issue or problem is defined, a solution is proposed and implemented, and the success of…

Focuses on the ways in which a particular group of English-as-a-Second-Language teachers conceptualized their classroom practice. Data reveal a pattern in the links that the teachers made between principles and practices. (Author/VWL)

Assesses the contributions made by different approaches to interlanguage pragmatics as a subfield of second language acquisition. Discusses how four particular perspectives on pragmatic development relate to each other. (Author/VWL)