Investigates the concept of politeness as perceived by native speakers and advanced learners of English. Results indicate that the learner's ability to judge politeness in the target language does not necessarily mean s/he can use politeness strategies correctly in actual communication situations. (EKN)

Explores learner aptitudes for communicative competence in a second language by looking at the learners' social cognition. Results showed that individuals having higher levels of cognitive complexity and interpersonal maturity tended to perform better on communicative competence tasks. (EKN)

Describes immersion programs in the United States and Canada and reviews results of evaluative research pertaining to them. Discusses findings with respect to students' native-language development, academic achievement, and second language proficiency. Also discusses the suitability of immersion for students with distinctive, potentially…

Studies of second language acquisition often employ analytical concepts defined relative to the target language. This practice can be a serious obstacle to investigation of crucial questions about the nature of the learners' languages. This comparative fallacy's drawbacks are illustrated through a framework designed to study interlanguage…

Examines theoretical and practical issues in ESL testing including inadequacies of definitions of language proficiency with respect to test taker characteristics; empirical evidence in support of relationship between test taker characteristics and performance on language tests; and guidelines to dealing with test taker characteristics and language…

Examines basic properties of selected orthographies of various languages and suggests that they play a crucial role in transferring reading ability across languages, especially if the language systems are quite different. (FL)

A study showing that lexically equivalent words in two languages have different affective meanings, that affective intensity of dominant language words is greater than for second language equivalents, and that the difference is greatest for words with high affective meaning demonstrates that affective meaning is an important component of…

Describes two experiments to evaluate acquisition of /r/ and /l/ involving native Japanese children and adults residing in the United States. The first required subjects to produce and discriminate English /r/ and /l/ in listening and speaking. Children's performance was better than adults'. In the second, the subject received programed training.…

Analyzes the perceptual problems of 22 nonnative speakers of English who transcribed spontaneous speech. Finds that perception resembles a matching of the listener's projection and the incoming acoustic information, that native/nonnative perception strategies were similar, and that hesitation phenomena were important sources of nonnative speakers'…

Using as examples two skills (semanticizing vocabulary and building first-phase exercises), presents a procedure for the practical training of foreign language teachers, based on the findings of empirical research. Describes five "observer's forms" and their use. Discusses the possibility of combining this form of skill training with systematic…

Reports on research into the validity of the theory of interlanguage, based on evidence of interference of the native language in Dutch students of French. (AM)

The results of this study raise serious questions about the validity of cross-sectional studies of second language acquisition based on instrument-solicited morpheme data. The analysis of spontaneous data examined longitudinally suggests that such data may provide richer insights into the second language acquisition process. (Author/POP)

This article consists of a list of books in linguistics and language relevant to French instruction, accompanied by a commentary on each book. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Argues that not only is the study of interaction in second language acquisition (SLA) predicated on a socially impoverished view of interaction, but also that the types of data frequently used for investigating questions of interaction in a second language may not be adequate for determining what really occurs in such interactions. (15 references)…

Argues that Firth and Wagner are justified in arguing that a broader, context-sensitive, participant-sensitive, generally sociolinguistic orientation might prove beneficial for second language acquisition research. Demonstrates a skepticism as to whether greater insights into second language learning will necessarily influence the process. (13…