Suggests that Kachru' model representing English worldwide must adapt by (1) moving away from a focus on nation-states in favor of a sociolinguistic focus on English-speaking communities wherever they are found and (2) recognizing that fundamental differences across contexts for English worldwide cannot be glossed over in support of specific…

Investigated the use of 50 common second language learning strategies by English for academic purposes students across eight disciplines--building, business, computing, engineering, English, mathematics, primary education, and science--in a university in Hong Kong. Compared and contrasted strategy use across disciplines and examined relationships…

Investigates how the use of think-aloud protocols, both concurrent and retrospective, can contribute to the study of the role of attention in second language acquisition. The study is based on analysis of think-aloud protocols produced by 74 first-year learners of Spanish during and immediately after a reading and multiple-choice activity.…

Sociolinguistic studies have found that female speakers prefer standard speech forms, while male speakers prefer vernacular forms. Examines when this split between male and female language occurs in the language of young children, and looks at how little boys and girls come to prefer linguistic features that are predominant in the language of…

Investigates use of a functional approach to discourse analysis--knowledge structure analysis, which focuses on meaning, form, and function simultaneously--to evaluate both writing development and content learning. Examined written texts in science, produced by English-as-a-Second-Language students with limited to intermediate English language…

Demonstrates some of the limits of the translation of sound effects in poetry from a purely linguistic point of view, as opposed to a literary critical one. Three examples of poetry were recorded in the original language and transcribed phonetically, as were English translations of the same works. (Author/VWL)

Discusses analytical challenges of multimodal texts as they contribute to production of racial anxiety about asylum seekers. Building on a recent article that discussed the lexical manifestations of increasing racial hatred towards refugees, focuses on the children overboard affair in Australian news. (Author/VWL)

Investigates three important issues in kanji learning strategies; namely, strategy use, effectiveness of strategy and orthographic background. A questionnaire on kanji learning strategy use and perceived effectiveness was administered to beginner level, undergraduate students of Japanese from alphabetic and character backgrounds in Australia.…

Reports research that aimed to identify the foreign language and cross-cultural skill needs of workers in the tourism and hospitality industry in Australia and to develop foreign language competencies for use in industry training packages. Provides evidence for the need for foreign language skills in the industry and gives an account of the…

Analysis of a series of computer science seminars indicates that use of the discourse marker "so" in dialogic talk is not random, rather it plays an important role in orienting the listener to the overall structure of the seminar. Analysis shows how the discourse marker occurs in specific environments, with specific prosodic features, and that its…

Reports on a study that investigated the extent to which two individual learner variables (ethnocultural pairing and gender) and certain types of task (free conversation and decision making) have an effect on negotiation opportunities provided for and by advanced Japanese and Korean male and female English-as-a-Second-Language learners.…

Reports on a structured exchange program between Chinese and Australian students that focuses on discussion and reflections on everyday cultural practices and behaviors, the most relevant but least accessible aspect of culture for international students. (Author/VWL)

Reviews samples of professional annotated bibliographies (ABs), and on the basis of these, establishes a list of potential features of its genre. Uses this list to evaluate student annotated bibliographies. Results show that students, as emerging members of their professional communities, have an understanding of the conventional structure of ABs…

Examines three current textbooks for German as a foreign language with regard to their coverage of Switzerland as a German-speaking nation. Concludes by suggesting that pluricentric German language textbooks for beginners are rare. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that while language variation is widespread and natural, it is subject to judgment and that where a standard has developed other varieties are judged against the standard. Investigates how teachers judge the speech of school-aged students and what influences that judgment. Results show teachers' perceptions of speech were most strongly…