This paper aims to demonstrate the implications of health mobility on language practices in the medical tourism industry in India and on the ways, language workers become entrepreneurs. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork that traces the trajectories of three former students of Russian, we highlight their future aspirations as language learners…

Researching the longitudinal development of second language (L2) learners is essential to understanding influences on their success. This 7-year study of oral skills in adult immigrant learners of English as a second language evaluated comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in first-language (L1) Mandarin and Slavic language speakers. The…

In this article, I describe studies conducted over 25 years with secondary and post-secondary L2 learners in the United States. The evidence from these studies shows that there are important connections between students' early L1 skills and their L2 aptitude and L2 proficiency and that individual differences in students' L1 skills in elementary…

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…

Discusses using redundancy in language as a means of facilitating second-language learning. (EKN)

In 3 experiments, 2 year olds imitated sentences that contained English or non-English functors (articles and verb inflections), and were controlled for suprasegmental and segmental factors. Children omitted English functors more often than non-English functors, thus indicating perceptual sensitivity to familiar elements. (RH)

Argues for a cognitive psychological approach to second-language learning that emphasizes the importance of the development of automaticity and the process of restructuring. It is suggested that language practice can lead to both increased, and occasionally decreased, performance levels, which cognitive psychology may help researchers to…

Finds significant correlations between scores on vocabulary tests and tests of syntax and morphology, suggesting two major second language learning factors (grammar and vocabulary/phonological ability). Relates these results to hypotheses concerning individual differences in strategies of first and second language learning. (Author/RL)

This paper deals with two experiments whose purposes are to investigate the linguistic competence of young children and their receptivity to adult speech. In the free response experiment, imperative sentences were presented to 1 1/2- to 2 1/2-year-olds. The sentences were minimal (a single noun), telegraphic, or full adult sentences. The youngest…

A study was undertaken at the Canadian Forces Base Saint-Jean to determine whether sex is a significant factor in second language learning. Subjects were 200 females and 200 males, all francophone privates between 18 and 22; no significant differences between males and females as learners were found. (CFM)

Concerns research undertaken to assess the role of intelligence, as measured by standardized, group I.Q. tests, in the acquisition of a second language. Reading and language usage tests correlated with I.Q. level; tests of listening comprehension and interpersonal communication did not for anglophone students learning French. (Author/POP)

Approaches to the testing of foreign language proficiency have tended to mirror prevailing philosophies in foreign language teaching, and for many years, no serious effort was made to devise oral proficiency measures. However, after World War II, structural linguistics applied to the classroom produced audiolingualism, which was a method heavily…

This paper discusses some of the educational potential of psycholinguistic research. The first area discussed is the educational implications of the human capacity for acquiring language. Studies cited cover topics related to the universality of language acquisition, children's mastery of basic grammatical devices, neurophysiological states of…

In a supplement to Sasaki's 1993 study, six of the same participants took different types of second-language proficiency (SLP) tests, a foreign language aptitude battery, and an intelligence test. Results revealed differences in information processing between the high and low SLP groups. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/LB)

Current thinking about academic language and the variety of language appropriate to school and similar settings is discussed. Recent literature concerning academic language is explored, and common themes and significant observations that emerge when the concept is viewed from a sociological perspective are examined. The research reviewed includes…