A study analyzed patterns in one speech act, that of refusal, in 60 native English speakers (responding in English only) and 120 native Spanish speakers (60 responding in English and 60 in Spanish). Native English speakers were college students in the United States and Spanish speakers were students in Spain. A questionnaire was used to elicit…

A study examined the attitudes of English educators and professional business persons concerning non-standard English-language usage. Subjects, equal numbers of male and female members of the National Council of Teachers of English and members of the Chamber of Commerce, responded to a questionnaire containing 66 sentences, each containing an…

Research on adult second-language (L2) learner's self-repair is reported. Repairs are defined as "structure shifts," which are types of correction or improvement where the speaker leaves a structure uncompleted, abandoning it or shifting to another structure. Two principal types of repairs are distinguished: code- and discourse-related…

A study of differences in linguistic behavior between men and women in Amman, Jordan, used a random sample of 150 individuals as subjects. Distribution of lexical items was examined for variation correlating lexical choice with sex of the speaker, and phonological variable standardization and the manner in which choice of variant is conditioned by…

Foreigner talk (FT) has been characterized as speech "used by speakers of a language to outsiders who are felt to have limited command of a language or no knowledge of it," or "the variety of language that is regarded by a speech community as primarily appropriate for addressing foreigners." A study was carried out in Germany…

This paper presents an analysis of teachers' classroom language as measured by the Teacher Language Instrument (TLI). Subjects were teachers in four programs of the Mt. Druitt Early Childhood Project for Year One level (6-year-old) children. The four programs were identified as "behaviorist,""cognitive,""competency,"…

A conceptual category approach to the study of the comprehension of natural language is presented as an alternative to previous approaches made solely in terms of information gain or specific linguistic variables. Elementary school children between the ages of 6 and 11 years were given a referent identification task to test their comprehension of…

Examples of the Croats in the Burgenland and the Slovenes in Carinthia (Slavic minorities in Austria) are presented to illustrate the importance of comparing different multilingual communities to make a typologically relevant description of them to understand typological similarities and certain idiosyncratic characteristics. (Author/CB)

Describes a study that analyzes narratives of sixth- and ninth-grade students for differences between male and female in T-unit length, clause length, and number of clauses per T-unit. No significant differences were found in the words per T-unit, the words per clause, or the use of verb extensions. (SED)

The notion of national unity through a single official language is defended by policy makers, who point out the practical and financial drawbacks involved in teaching in the vernacular in multilingual nations. Findings from grassroots-level case studies in Senegal, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Malawi, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka attest to the…

A study investigated how Korean learners of English as a second language (ESL) differ from native speakers of English in the use of supportive moves and in the expression of politeness (use of downgraders) in requests, a speech act considered to be face-threatening. Three groups of subjects participated: 30 Korean students enrolled in an intensive…

To provide a rationale for textbook evaluation, a study examined the major and minor topics covered in 20 selected college-level business communication textbooks, the readability level presented for each text, and the number of schools currently using the text. (HOD)

Argues that some important aspects of listening as an interactive skill have been neglected in second-language teaching, including the receipt tokens "yeah,""mm hm," and "mm," and that such items should be taught as part of the development of conversational skills. Characteristics of these items' placement in talk sequences, prosodic shape, pause…

The purpose of this study is to provide a microanalysis of differences in adaptive functioning seen between well-matched groups of school-aged children with autism and those diagnosed as having Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, all of whom functioned in the mild to moderate range of intellectual impairment. Findings…

This study compared phonological features of African American English speakers at 3 grade levels: preschool, elementary school, and middle school. The phonological features exhibited at all 3 grade levels were quite similar. The frequency of usage, determined by the percentage of speakers exhibiting the feature and by the mean number of…