This study investigated whether 199 advanced nonnative speakers of English attending Ohio State University judged the appropriateness of speech acts of giving thanks in ways similar to those of native speakers. The results showed that speakers of Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Arabic ranked expressions of thanks differently…

This study examined the language use practices of three bilingual students enrolled in a fourth-grade class and of the class as a whole. The study found that most children reported using greater amounts of English as they progressed through the grades, and that children consistently held very positive attitudes toward Spanish and bilingualism.…

Summaries of eight language-related research projects are presented from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Topics include children's reading, nonstandard spoken Indonesian, English speech act performance, classroom verbal interaction, journal writing, and listening comprehension. (LB)

Calls into question the data of grammaticality judgment tasks on which several GB-based studies on the second-language acquisition of accusative verbs by Japanese learners of English base their arguments and reports the results of a pilot study. (Author/VWL)

Using a framework from cultural studies and focusing on theories put forward by Pierre Bourdieu, the goal in this paper is to consider how some West Africans interact with foreign languages and cultures in an era of global capital, especially when it comes to the activities of migrants venturing into overseas labour markets and to the production…

Although it contains a statutory inclusion statement, England's National Curriculum "hardly acknowledges the learning practices of different minority groups" ( Gregory and Williams, 2003, p. 103). Through observation and interview, this study examines the repertoire of languages that six children for whom English is an additional…

When Botswana gained independence from the British in 1966, a political decision was taken to designate English as an official language and Setswana, one of the indigenous languages, as a national language. This move disregarded the multilingual nature of Botswana society. Furthermore, although not explicitly stated, the use of other languages…

This study examines growth rates in vocabulary over an academic year for 150 Latino English language learners. In October, February, and June of kindergarten, participants completed standardized measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary. Before the second and third assessments, a third of the children watched Arthur three times a week during…

In this study, the authors plotted the Spanish language usage of 10 preschool-age children over the course of 3 years and assigned them to one of two groups: language maintenance and language loss. The authors then compared the groups' scores on structured tasks, language behaviors, and language usage/exposure variables. They found that children…

This article describes a project involving teachers, parents, and university researchers in collaborations to support multilingual children's development and use of language. Strategies for fostering an inclusive climate included building on the interests and resources of the local community, involving community members in curriculum development,…

This study examines the effectiveness of teachers' incidental focus on form on vocabulary learning. Seventeen 45-minute audio-recorded teacher-led conversation, 204 learners' diaries (17 sessions x 12 learners) reporting what the participants had learned after each conversational class, 204 post-test translations, and 204 delayed post-test…

Testing language skills is difficult, but testing writing, and the writing of students of English as a Second Language, poses two major problems. The first is making decisions about the matter of control, objectivity of the evaluation, and naturalness in the writing test. The second major problem is that, if the test is done in a way that cannot…

A study used the Preschool Teacher Verbal Behavior Index (PTVBI) to measure the extent to which classrooms were learner-directed or teacher-directed. The instrument can be used to help teachers learn the appropriate degree of control for different classroom situations and individual learner needs. Verbatim teachers statements are categorized as…

This study sought to determine under what conditions 14 recent Mexican immigrant high school students thought they used and acquired English as a Second Language (ESL) in an "English Only" high school in California. Each of the 14 students was interviewed at least twice and "shadowed" for 2 days in school. Follow-up interviews and observations…

More than 200 publications regarding Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) from the past 25 years, excluding work on English for Specific Purposes, are compiled in this literature review. In introductory comments that precede the bibliography, it is noted that most of the activity in this field has occurred in the last decade, with eight…