Taking a psycholinguistic orientation within task-based language teaching scholarship, this study investigated the effects of mode (oral vs. written) and task complexity on second language (L2) performance. The participants were 78 Catalan/Spanish learners of English as a foreign language. Half of the participants performed the simple and complex…

In Japanese, self-qualification, or a qualifying segment of talk that reduces the force of the speaker's own utterances, is frequently introduced with contrastive markers, such as "demo," "kedo," and "ga." This study explores the relationship between the grammatical and pragmatic competence of Japanese L2 learners by examining their use of such…

Reports on a two-phase study of second-language learner use of listener feedback, particularly their use of clarification questions in native speaker-nonnative speaker discourse. (29 references) (JL)

Studies employed detailed discourse analysis techniques to examine Montreal nursing students' comprehension of texts in both their first and second languages. The results suggest that the use of second-language production tends to underestimate and distort second-language comprehension, at least at intermediate levels of second-language…

Compares conversational styles of intermediate and advanced learners of English as a Second Language in language proficiency interviews. The article describes differences in amount of talk and rate of speaking, extent of context dependence and ability to construct and sustain narratives, but not in frequency of initiation of new topics nor…

Examines differences in oral narrative discourse of adult second-language learners of English on narrative tasks simulating the ability to describe events in the Here-and-Now versus the There-and-Then. Results indicate that complex tasks elicit less fluent, but more accurate and complex narration than do simpler tasks. (90 references) (Author/CK)

Examines the interrelationships among accentedness, perceived comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second-language (L2) learners. The findings suggest that although strength of foreign accent is correlated with perceived comprehensibility and intelligibility, a strong foreign accent does not necessarily reduce the…

Reports on the third year of a research project to document and evaluate an innovative foreign language in elementary schools (FLES) program in Japanese for Grades K-5. Findings indicate that the children progressed considerably in foreign language proficiency and developed positive attitudes toward language learning. (28 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates the relationship between age of arrival in the second-language environment and a preference for prosodic versus syntactic cues to sentence interpretation in English. The study found that older English-as-a-Second-Language learners were just as likely as the younger ones to attend to prosody rather than syntax. (43 references)…