Offers comments on an earlier article on age and second language learning, and questions the authors' of that article's interpretation of the research they reviewed. The authors of the original article respond to these comments and questions. (Author/VWL)

Describes nature of insulting and techniques used to insult and presents a variety of areas and values from which insults are drawn. Briefly compares insulting terms using animal names in 10 different languages. Suggest insulting behavior is an area which, if better understood, will permit teachers to develop effective materials and recognize…

Argues that the concept of "teaching method" is unlikely to disappear and explores the middle ground between a position that method is not useful in language teaching and one that recognizes some value for such a construct for the profession. (Author/VWL)

Two individuals comment on an article that invited examination of the concept of culture in TESOL (Teaching English as a Second or Other Language). The author of the original author responds to these comments. (Author/VWL)

Examines how adverbs of degree tend to collocate with particular words in the 100-million-word British National Corpus and considers possible implications for English language teaching. (Author/VWL)

Probes the meaning of multimodality for English-as-a-Second-Language learners by illustrating how the analytic approach of systemic functional linguistics offers insight into the semiotic interrelatedness of visual and verbal systems. (Author/VWL)

Discusses recent debates on the teaching of critical thinking. Draws a distinction between critical thinking and dialogic thinking and demonstrates how critical dialog can help students explore their own views as well as views to which they have not been previously exposed. (Author/VWL)

Explores arguments around critical-discourse analysis (CDA) and suggests that neither proponents nor critics of CDA have fully come to terms with the implications of what it means to acquire discourse. (Author/VWL)

Reports the results of research on the extent to which global foreign accent in English is related to a discrete segmental feature of pronunciation, substitution of the Japanese flap for /l/ and /r/ in two phonological environments. Results showed a strong negative correlation between a nativelike accent and flap substitution. (Author/VWL)

Describes the practical realities of obtaining interview data for evaluation of language teaching in a complex situation in Albania. (Author/VWL)

Cautions against direct application of neurolinguistic research to second language learning and teaching and discusses why brain research will not provide a quick answer to teaching problems. (EKN)

Reports findings of a corpus analysis of a grammatical structure taught in intermediate- or advanced-level English-as-a-Second-/Foreign-Language texts: clauses that contain the modal "would" to signify hypothetical and counterfactual meaning. Categorizes the conditional and hypothetical uses of would-clauses in spoken and written corpora…

Investigated what differentiated higher quality from lower-quality negotiation of meaning interactions as well as the consequences of these interactions in a storytelling task. Participants were students enrolled in English-as-a-Second-Language classes who told a personal narrative to a small audience consisting of he teacher and two classmates.…

Two articles focus on explaining how researchers make use of narratives to uncover students' and teachers' understanding of the meaning they hold for significant events in their lives. (Author/VWL)

Raises questions about what has been referred to as a "reconceptualization of teacher education," which advocates that teacher education in TESOL focuses more on the act of teaching and learning to teach. Argues that this perspective threatens to deemphasize what language teachers need to know about language and language acquisition. (Author/VWL)