Argues for the use of computer-stored corpora in courses in grammar awareness for teachers of mother-tongue English. It is suggested that the ability to do grammar entails a set of skills rather than a body of knowledge and that corpora provide excellent data for doing grammar. Questions regarding the comparison of different methodologies are…

Investigates teacher reformulation of student talk in order to determine the manner in which teachers affect student meaning and expression. Findings indicate that reformulation is a device used by teachers to control classroom dialog and that teachers disproportionately perform the language functions most commonly associated with higher-order…

Argues that the teaching of grammar supplements learners' natural tendency to formulate and test hypotheses about the language. Complicated linguistic analyses can impede this process. Pedagogical grammar can be made less formal by keeping the analysis and metalanguage to the minimum. (36 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates the sincerity and validity of uptake as a measure of language learning by comparing the words students report they have learned after completing a listening task with the words they score correctly on a translation test. Results indicate that whereas uptake may have construct validity, its concurrent validity is uncertain. (16…

Argues that awareness of the relationship between language and the sociocultural context in which it occurs is important for students and teachers. The article suggests that everyday, ephemeral texts can be easily collected and categorized according to genre for teaching and cross-cultural comparison. (19 references) (Author/CK)

Shows how a language matrix can be used to raise awareness of the role context plays in determining language choice for a given communicative function. The article suggests how the matrix can be used in language awareness and consciousness-raising activities to provide opportunities for contrastive analysis and discussion of politeness strategies…

Language awareness, integral to language education in Europe, now influences Canadian second-language programs. The General Language Education (GLE) Syllabus of the "National Core French Study" endeavors to foster language proficiency and tolerance of linguistic and cultural diversity and encourages students to develop their own learning…

Results of a survey of 200 parents attending baby and child clinics in North Wales show that parents know less about language development than about other areas of child development. Results suggest that both monolingual and bilingual parents and their children would benefit from improved information on how to facilitate language development. (43…