Looks at interactions between English-as-a-Second-Language students and English-speaking staff at the front desk of a language institute. Analysis focuses on the sequential organization of front desk encounters, revealing ways the participant's shared orientations to the organization and goals of these encounters facilitate native…

Looks at conversation in Japanese between native and nonnative speaking peers. Focuses on other-repair, taking the conversation analytic approach to phenomena in nonnative discourse. Identifies a range of speaking practices as well as embodied resources that are understood by recipients as inviting or initiating other repair. (Author/VWL)

Examines nonnative-nonnative speaker interaction in English among novice-level Japanese native speakers, focusing on the ability to manage the kind of precision timing found in the turn-taking practices of native speakers. Emphasis is on the interactional competence of low-level nonnative speakers in an ability that is fundamental to the conduct…

This interview with one of the founders of conversation analysis focuses on issues regarding the use of conversation analysis to study nonnative discourse. (Author/VWL)

Challenges experimental studies of children's lexical acquisition by analyzing the process of introducing lexical items as a collaborative activity between adult and child. Examines conversational exchanges in which new words are introduced, and shows that there are many types of introductions of lexical items that go beyond the strategies of…

Synthesizes work on research concerned with the influence of a second language on speaker's first language competence in late bilingualism. Research in the areas of phonology, morphosyntax, lexis, semantics, pragmatics, rhetoric, and conceptual representations suggests that borrowing, convergence, shift, restructuring, and loss result from the…

Discusses the ongoing debate in the field of language assessment concerning the relative strengths of analytic versus holistic composition rating scales. Uses multiple regression analysis and exploratory factor analysis to evaluate both methods, and finds that because different rating scales measure different constructs, they cause the meaning of…

This paper discusses the issue of oral versus sign language in educating people who are deaf, focusing on Hungary, which currently emphasizes oralism and discourages the use of Hungarian Sign Language. Teachers of people who are hearing impaired are trained to use the acoustic channel and view signing as an obstacle to the integration of deaf…

Examines the relationship between psychology and linguistics, identifies three reasons why initial efforts at partnership may have been inherently flawed, and argues that recent developments may provide a more solid basis for partnership. (Author/VWL)

Proposes that the confluence of stimulus appraisal and social cognition that is effected by the neural system in the brain has important implications for language and learning theories. Describes the anatomy and functions of this neural system and discusses how it may operate in motivation for second language acquisition and how in conjunction…

Provides an overview of the current themes and research directions in second language motivation research. Argues that the initial research inspiration and standard-setting empirical work on second language motivation originating from Canada has borne fruit by educating a new generation of international scholars who have created a colorful mixture…

Reviews the literature on psycholinguistic aspects of language attrition over the past half decade. Discusses evidence from studies on hesitation phenomena in attriter speech, variables affecting language attrition, and relearning. (Author/VWL)

Reviews the age factor in second language learning. Sketches some of the relevant research findings that have emerged in the last three decades and hones in on the results recently published on age-related research. Concludes with a discussion of whether there is an age factor in second language learning. (Author/VWL)

Review research on foreign language aptitude and its measurement prior to 1990. Describes research areas in the 1990s, including affective variables, language learning strategies, learning styles as contributors to aptitude and aptitude as a cognitive construct affected by language variables. Reviews research on individual differences and the…

Considers the literature on language learning anxiety in an effort to clarify the relationship between anxiety and second language learning. Suggests that anxiety is indeed a cause of poor language learning in some individuals and discusses possible sources of this anxiety. (Author/VWL)