Authorial voice is often identified as a key trait of successful writing in English rhetoric and composition, leading to research on its construction, development, and assessment in various types of written texts. Using Hyland's (2008) interactional metadiscourse framework, existing studies have also examined the use of particular voice-related…

The focus to date on interactive encounters has resulted in there being little research into monological texts and speeches produced in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts. They are, however, the very substance of what interpreters and translators increasingly deal with today. The quality of these language professionals' performance depends…

This study presents a quantitative analysis of pre-emptive strategies used by first language speakers in talk addressed to second language speakers with moderate proficiency. The strategies identified in the conversations are reformulation, simplification, left-dislocation, and decomposition. The data come from simulated emergency calls in which…

This article reports on the findings of an empirical study that relates translation studies and research on language acquisition/attrition by looking at the interpretation of overt pronominal subjects, previously found to be problematic in both domains. The focus is on the resolution of intra-sentential anaphora and cataphora in Italian by two…

This article reports on the results of a study which investigated advanced Cantonese English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' use of a monolingual dictionary for determining the meanings of familiar English words used in less familiar contexts. Thirty-two university English majors in Hong Kong participated in a dictionary consultation task,…

This article challenges the theory and practice of the exclusion of the adult learner's first language (L1) by reporting learners' overwhelmingly positive perceptions of its incorporation in foreign language teaching and learning. Classroom-based research was undertaken with university students in an English as a foreign language course which…

In a recent paper (Jordan, Geoff Jordan takes issue with some of my claims about second language acquisition (SLA) theory. Specifically, he queries the necessity of a property theory, and he finds my discussion of explanation unsatisfactory. In this brief reply, I try to answer his criticisms. In a brief but interesting paper, Geoff Jordan (2004:…

This paper reports a set of Monte Carlo simulations designed to evaluate the main claims made by Laufer and Nation about the Lexical Frequency Profile (LFP). Laufer and Nation claim that the LFP is a sensitive and reliable tool for assessing productive vocabulary in L2 speakers, and they suggest it might have a serious role to play in diagnostic…

Critically examines the notion of a "natural" acquisition of language, explores current language theories regarding second-language acquisition theories and language education, and argues that the "naturalization" of achievement as ability works to deny certain students access to the evaluation criteria on which their access to further education…

This paper presents a theoretical account for how learners might draw upon L1 lexical and conceptual knowledge when making assumptions about connections between words in the L2 lexicon. It is suggested that L1 lexical knowledge can be both a help and a hindrance when forming L2 connections, particularly in respect to collocations. Furthermore,…

Recent developments in cognitive linguistics have highlighted the importance as well as the ubiquity of metaphor in language. Despite this, the ability of second language learners to use metaphors is often still not seen as a core ability. In this paper, we take a model of communicative competence that has been widely influential in both language…