A paradigm gap has prevented research on second language acquisition theory and indigenized varieties of English from making substantive contributions to each other. The varieties of English represent several significant sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic variables, the investigation of which will put second language acquisition theory on firmer…

Two of the original authors of "Giving a Virtual Voice to the Silent Language of Culture: The Cultura Project", published in "Language Learning & Technology" in 2001, look back on the origin of the Cultura project, its goals, and the approach and materials used. Their commentary then focuses on the features and the…

Shows that results of a study that suggests one difference between Indian English (IE) and American English (AE) varieties is the phonetic realization of prominence may be due to misinterpretation of the positioning of stress in Indian English. Shows that by considering the louder syllable to the stressed one, IE stress correlates differ in…

Reverend Father Professor Amechi Nicholas Akwanya is one of the towering scholars of literature in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. For decades, and still counting, Fr. Prof. Akwanya has worked arduously, professing literature by way of teaching, researching, and writing in the Department of English and Literary Studies of the University of…

This article offers a response to the comments and claims made in Jennifer Jenkins' article, "The spread of English as an International Language: a testing time for testers." It examines some assumptions underpinning her views and responds to claims about current policy and practice in English language testing. It goes on to explain the key…

Scholars tend to explain or predict China English's rhetorical strategies on the basis of Chinese discourse and cultural preferences. This inference model, I argue, falls short in studying the Chinese variety of English because, first, it essentializes both China English and Chinese, treating their discursive strategies as two easily…

Suggests that the use of collections of authentic, thematic resources can facilitate research writing for English for academic purposes students and can form a unifying curricular thread in a variety of English teaching settings. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes the difference between "ultimate-target language" (authentic English in all its varieties), "learner's language" (with its limitations), and "learning-goal language," this latter referring to differentiated instruction with graded "input" steps. Teaching suggestions are given. (IFS/WGA)

Examines the nature of interlanguage as it affects second-language learning and teaching, focusing on the language transfer phenomenon, fossilization, how error analysis and error correction can be improved through understanding of interlanguage, native speaker norms, international varieties of English, and the contribution of interlanguage to…

Some syntactic patterns of the variety of English used by students in the final year of formal learning of English are analyzed. In addition, the nature of the lectal continuum of South Asian English (SAE) is discussed, including alternative conceptions of Standard SAE and evaluation of other lects. The discussion is based on an analysis of…

An examination of approaches to analyzing speech reporting, found that the various approaches fall into two broad categories: traditional, emphasizing the syntactic dimension; and discourse pragmatic, emphasizing the interaction of syntactic, pragmatic, and stylistic factors. A model is proposed and applied to learner varieties of English and…

There is no denying that English is an international language, and as such we must expect to encounter a multitude of local varieties: not only the national Englishes, such as American, British, Australian, etc. but also an even greater number of learner Englishes, such as French English, Brazilian English, Japanese English and the like. But the…

The author suggests that English-only classrooms are not only the implicit goal of much language policy in the United States, but also assumed to be already the case, an ironic situation in light of composition's historical role as "containing" language differences in U.S. higher education. He suggests that the myth of linguistic…

Examines the production of yes/no questions by native speakers of English and speakers of Singapore English, a non-native regional variety. The findings suggest that what constitutes target-like use remains ill-defined as long as native speaker behavior is assumed, or intuited, rather than documented. (40 references) (GLR)

World English (WE) belongs to everybody who speaks it, but it is nobody's mother tongue. Although today ever more people accept the idea that there is such a thing as WE, very few of them seem to have realized that the full implications of admitting it are much more far reaching than they had hitherto imagined. It may be that some of these…