The purpose of this study is to report the history of communication strategy and highlight the importance of strategic competence. It provides the histories and characterizations of communication strategy. Besides, it presents from which perspectives these definitions of communication strategies were developed. Various earlier and latter…

Underlying the mainstream of current SLA research is the Ansatz that some level of attention to the formal aspects of language is necessary for acquisition to take place. It is self-evident and commonsensical that focusing on specific linguistic aspects helps the learner to acquire and internalise them. Numerous recent studies investigated the…

A proposed model for an interim grammar between a first and second language, an autonomous rule-governed system based on the Extended Standard Theory, is presented and discussed, focusing on the motivations for choosing a generative model and the determination of structure for an interlanguage system, and using a comparison of the auxiliary system…

A discussion of the ways that consciousness may be involved in learning the principles of second-language discourse and pragmatics draws on current theories of the role of consciousness in human learning in general, with suggestions for extension to the learning of pragmatics. First, research on the degree of consciousness in pragmatic learning…

Research on interlanguage (IL), the intermediary language produced by a speaker when it is perceptible that he is not a native speaker, has concentrated on procedures to stabilize interlanguage at a given point, and on stabilized products, rather than on the destabilization that occurs when learning is pursued. Although it has been widely accepted…

A study examined pragmatic routine and indirection as regularly-used strategies for accomplishing linguistic action that, while conventional, can pose problems for non-native speakers. Two kinds of conventionalities are distinguished: conventionality of means (kinds of semantic structure that have acquired a standard illocutionary force, such as,…

The functional hypothesis of language, based on the assumption that the referential function of language is paramount, is discussed as it applies to interlanguage, the second language spoken by less than proficient native speakers of another language. The presentation includes: (1) a review of the evidence of previous empirical investigations of…

Theory and research on bilingualism and its relationship to cognitive development have provided mixed results, especially in relation to the value of United States bilingual education programs. Little of the existing research on bilingualism is generalizable to U.S. minority language groups. However, one study of children in a bilingual program…

A discussion of the nature and function of interlanguage in second language acquisition draws on research on interlanguage and experiences in teaching German to Finnish secondary students. The theories giving rise to the concept of interlanguage are outlined and compared, and the characteristics of interlanguage are discussed. Special attention is…

The distinction in meanings of the English word "educated" and Spanish "educado" is used to illustrate a theory of semantic memory for the bilingual that proposes two lexical stores, one for each language, in close cooperation with and connected by one semantic memory. The postulated relation between the lexicons and the semantic memory is…

The concept of second language (L2) learning strategies fits well into the theoretical framework of interlanguage. In interlanguage, learning is not defined exclusively with reference to the target language norm, and the use of native language transfer strategies, among other things, is seen as a natural step in the progression toward the target…

General theory of transfer of knowledge and skill in learning second languages and ways in which language awareness may contribute to second language learning are examined. It is concluded that while recent second language acquisition research work and theories do not support or refute transfer of general language principles to the learning of…

If teacher education is to train second language teachers to be principled practitioners, it is essential to resist the attraction of panaceas and recipe-type solutions to instructional problems, and to promote teachers' better understanding of what constitutes successful language learning. Second language acquisition (SLA) research, both applied…

In linguistic analysis of the speech act, the data used to support theoretical conclusions are too often comprised of semantically isolated utterances of the ideal speaker-hearer. In reality, one of the most revealing kinds of data is imperfect data, where the functioning language processes are often unmasked. The study of first language…

A study compared the topical structure (TS) of Arabic and English in order to determine whether Arab learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) transfer potential differences between Arabic and English in their English writing, or whether they use an altogether different TS indicative of developmental factors. Four sets of data were compared…