Comments on an earlier article titled, "Speaking and Writing in the University: A Multidimensional Comparison," questioning the definition of register presented as well as the scope of the study. The authors of the original article respond. (Author/VWL)

Provides a detailed evaluation of the oral proficiency interview and its underlying assumptions of validity and value. The similarities and differences between interviews and conversations are examined, and some of the major problems of proficiency interviewing are illustrated and discussed. (39 references) (Author/VWL)

Investigates a preemptive focus on form, occasions when either the teacher or a student chose to make a specific form the topic of discourse. Found that in 12 hours of meaning-focused instruction, there were as many preemptive focus-on-form episodes (FFEs) as reactive FFEs (i.e., corrective feedback). (Author/VWL)

Compares holistic scoring of nonnative writing in English with multiple trait assessment and scoring. (JL)

Four points in first versus second language teaching practices are contrasted: (1) order of mastery of linguistic structures and fluency; (2) ordering of presentation of linguistic structures; (3) teacher's role; (4) order of acquisition of linguistic form and function. Ways to use first language teaching practices in ESL are suggested. (CHK)

In a study of peer response activities in second-language writing, two questions were investigated: whether students give good advice to their peers and what differences exist between student and teacher comments. Examination of 30 papers from 3 writing classes suggests that teacher and peer responses serve important and complementary functions.…

Reports the results of research attempting to document the role of learners' linguistic output in drawing their attention to linguistic form and in acquiring the form. Compares experimental and comparison groups that participated in a pretest, two post-tests, and four learning tasks. (Author/VWL)

Comparison of the English comprehension of 16 non-native speakers on task directions presented by a native English speaker indicated that comprehension was best assisted when the content of directions was repeated and rephrased in interaction. Reduction in linguistic complexity in the premodified input did not significantly affect comprehension.…

Quantitative analysis of 1,083 first language and second language academic texts establishes that advanced nonnative-English-speaking students in U.S. universities employ excessively simple syntactic and lexical constructions at median frequency rates significantly higher than those found in basic texts by native English speakers. (Author/VWL)

Examines the role of tone choice in the classroom communication of international teaching assistants. Compares the tone choices of native-English speaking and nonnative ITAs during their classroom presentations, finding important differences in both the numbers of tone choices and the way tones are used. (Author/VWL)

Reports a comparison of two MA-TESOL programs and suggests some implications of the findings for the TESOL profession. Based on interviews, observations, and written documentation, characteristics of two of the programs are identified that are associated with the larger departments in which the programs are housed. (Author/VWL)

Investigated how meaning is negotiated in two different types of interactions between native and nonnative speakers: a relatively unstructured conversation and a two-way information-gap task. Results suggest conversational interaction has the potential for substantial learning opportunities at multiple levels of interaction even though it offered…

Investigation of the simultaneous effects of and interaction between both culture-specific content schemata and formal schemata on English as a second language reading comprehension revealed that familiar content and rhetorical form yielded good reading comprehension. Results for "mixed" conditions indicated that content schemata affected reading…

Comparison of the attitudes of Japanese and American high school students toward rote learning and more "creative" learning and their performance on rote learning tasks revealed that Japanese students viewed rote learning more positively than Americans and performed significantly better on rote-based second-language word recall and…

In a discussion of the limitations of reading tests to assess literacy, Street's "autonomous model of literacy" is critiqued and an alternative approach, described as a pragmatic model, is proposed. The alternative approach reflects the social dimension of literacy activities and views reading and writing as inseparable. (32 references) (Author/LB)