Linguists have classified analysis of the "ba" construction into three approaches: structural, semantic and communicative. This paper outlines treatment of "ba" in several major Chinese textbooks and suggests an approach to teaching the construction. Students must be taught linguistic information in logical steps for best command of the language.…

Presents questions that those planning TESOL curriculum change might ask before deciding on the objectives of such change in their own contexts. Suggests that answers to such questions can help provide information about how key players (classroom teachers) are likely to experience the implementation of the objectives. (Author/VWL)

Reports on findings from an on-going study of the use of computer-mediated communication to support post-graduate, second language teacher education. Findings are reported according to organizing categories of social interaction, language use, and how different tasks influenced communicative exchanges. (Author/VWL)

Some views on and implications of "the output hypothesis," which proposes that the process of producing written or spoken language results in language acquisition/learning, for immersion pedagogy and second-language learning are discussed. The role of collaborative learning is considered. (Contains 14 references.) (LB)

This case study examined the vocabulary gains made by an adult learner of English as a Second Language as a result of performing four communication tasks. It found that explicit negotiation of word meaning appeared less deterministic of posttest improvements than use of words in the process of completing the task. (13 references) (MDM)

The growing secularization of Israeli lifestyle and the increasing influence of foreign languages as manifested in the local media have given rise to new forms of language secularization. This article discusses and provides examples of the secularization of Hebrew, which has split modern Hebrew into two varieties--religious and secularized. (13…

A case is made for the need for awareness among English language teaching professionals in Europe of the social and cultural factors influencing the use and spread of English in the European context. An argument is made for extending the view of sociolinguistics to include recognition of language as a social institution that influences attitudes…

Investigates the determinants of adult usage of various syntactic and semantic cues in sentence interpretation. Native French speakers and advanced English/French bilinguals were tested for the strength of usage of word order, clitic pronoun agreement, verb agreement, and noun animacy cues in the assignment of the role in French sentences. (46…

The pedagogical use of commands in second-language learning is addressed. Current textbooks are shown to expose students to many morphologically complicated command forms, and it is suggested that command use may be facilitated by offering students a reduced system of commands. (33 references) (Author/LB)

Attempts at being polite can fail through unwitting violation of speech act rules (SARs). Several situations illustrate the use of "please" by Japanese users of English. The question of whose SARs should apply in intercultural communication in English is addressed. (Contains 13 references.) (Author)

A brief review of research on native language production precedes a critical discussion of recent second-language production research, focusing on native language research applications to second-language research, the relationship between second-language learning and production, and the various methodologies used to study such production. (190…

Explores the nature of code switching by comparing and contrasting learners' code-switching behavior with that of speakers in a bilingual speech community, hypothesizing that the more students succeed in overcoming the psychological dichotomy between themselves as learners and individuals, the less they will resort to code switching as a mode of…

Several problematic issues in second-language teaching and testing are discussed, including artificial distinctions made between the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and appropriate usage in each, the relationship of language skills and language ability, and the distinction between language usage and language use. (MSE)

Linguistic analyses suggest that the nongeneric use of the English definite article "the" falls into four major categories: cultural, situation, structural, and textual. Aims to determine whether these uses present different levels of difficulty for English-as-a-Second-Language students and whether they are acquired at the same time. (Author/VWL)

Reports the use of students' native language by teachers in the foreign language classroom. The project was undertaken by French teachers in Australia. The teachers' aim was to investigate the use of the native language in a context that actively promotes an immersion approach to foreign language teaching (Author/VWL)