Current research on cross-language transfer has focused primarily on literacy development. The present study extends the scope of existing research by focusing on argumentative reasoning, an important but under-research academic skill. A single-case study with a reversal design was conducted with four Chinese-English elementary students with the…

Developing a writer's voice is a challenging task for second-language writers who are new not only to the culture but also to the values associated with the target language. This study aims at exploring the writer's voice of Arabic-speaking learners who study English as a Second Language. The study mainly discusses the following question: Do L2…

Interlanguage fossilization is a crucial dilemma that foreign language learners may fall in. The problem of the present study is shown clearly in the answers of Iraqi students of Master of Arts in the College of Education for Women University of Baghdad. In spite of all the previous years of studying English language, some still have the problem…

This article explores the issues of pronunciation and comprehension in the English as a lingua franca (ELF) context of pilot--air traffic controller radiotelephony communication, and how these are handled in the proficiency rating scale globally used to assess pilots and air traffic controllers engaging in international flight and air traffic…

This study investigated the various linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural variables that explain the sociolinguistic variation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) among Arab siblings. The variables are not predetermined but extracted from the participants' contributions and data in a grounded theory research. The siblings participated in…

The bilingual speech of members of Spanish, Portuguese, and Algerian communities in France was examined, and a model proposed for classification of code-switching according to speakers' intentions and the dynamics of the interaction. (Author/CB)

Discusses the literature on interference as the cause of errors in second language speech. A study is reported which shows that interference by the native language is most often the factor responsible for the largest number of mistakes in grammar and vocabulary. (Author/AMH)

The correlation between a bilingual's usage of grammatical morphemes from one of his/her languages and his/her language dominance is examined. The subject is a three-year-old Danish/English bilingual who code-switches at the morpheme level even though she has never been exposed to a code-switching bilingual community. Co-occurrence restrictions…

A study of code-switching in a group of 35 Spanish-English bilingual third-graders is reported. The students' diary journal entries and writing assignments based on previous classwork are examined. Retelling of stories previously told by the teacher and the journal entries helped identify the kind of language used by students, the code-switching…

Reports on an eight month study examining the development of turn-allocation devices in children acquiring English as a second language. The role of prior language experience in second language learning is explored. (Author/AM)

The main concern of this report is the nature of the reliance by children on prior native language (L1) knowledge in naturalistic, untutored second language (L2) acquisition. It is suggested that L1 reliance is systematic, in that specific conditions have to be met within the child's L2 development before he or she will, or can, draw on previous…