The idea that a vocabulary is a network of words is one that has become a common theme of the second language (L2) vocabulary research literature. However, not many people have considered the wider implications of this powerful metaphor. This paper is the first in a series of workshops that examines some of these implications. In this first…

Sensitivity to prosodic cues might be used to constrain lexical search. Indeed, the prosodic organization of speech is such that words are invariably aligned with phrasal prosodic edges, providing a cue to segmentation. In this paper we devise an experimental paradigm that allows us to investigate the interaction between statistical and prosodic…

THE USE OF THE COMPUTER MAY BE ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH VARIED LINGUISTIC INTERESTS (SOCIOLINGUISTICS, PSYCHOLINGUISTICS) COME TO BE RENDERED INTERRELATED AND EVEN INTELLECTUALLY COHERENT. (THE CRITERION OF COHERENCE IS SET HERE AT MONISM AS TO MODELS.) ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S MAJOR INTERESTS IS A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO SCIENTIFIC CREATIVITY,…

Discusses focusing, the manner in which speakers center attention on a particular element of discourse, and describes a process model of focusing that specifies what syntactic, semantic, and world knowledge constraints are needed for a hearer to track a speaker's focus in a discourse. (FL)

Synthesizing theoretical and empirical insights from second-language acquisition, cognitive psychology, information processing, schema theory, and parallel distributed processing, this paper proposes an interactive framework of intake processes. It identifies intake factors and intake processes and argues that these factors and processes…

Endorses the position that fabricated discourse presented as nonfictional in nature is a model of ordinary talk, which is relied upon to convince an audience of its verisimilitude. The purpose of the article is to document the strategies used in a puppet show, "The Sooty Show," and to demonstrate their effectiveness in generating a sense…

Discusses the dominant paradigm for analyzing interactions, Conversation Analysis (CA), pointing out that the paradigm does not include participant intention in its analysis. Notes that CA practitioners focus on empirical investigations of what the participants are doing and how they are doing it and that the understanding of an utterance is…

Describes the development and organization of the Colt (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) observation scheme and Lyster and Ranta's (1997) error treatment model, instruments including predetermined categories to describe features of instructional input and interaction in second language classrooms. Concludes that the choice of…

Social cognition refers to that ability which makes it possible for one to infer another's covert, inner psychological experiences and to interact with that individual accordingly (Shantz 1975; Flavell 1977). Piaget (1926) maintains that the ability to decenter socially and to take into account the perspective of another develops gradually as the…

Using the coorientational framework developed by McLeod and Chaffee, this study tested Bem's theory that an individual performing a behavior (speaker) and an individual observing the behavior (listener) use the same evidence when evaluating the performer's attitudes. Participants included 96 undergraduate students at the University of…

Centers on computer-mediated communication in a second language (L2). Introduces a conceptual framework for understanding the role of computer-mediated interaction based on a sociocultural analysis of the relationship among text, talk, and learning. Then analyzes current research according to five features particular to online interaction. (90…

A discussion of research on naturalistic second language acquisition (SLA) focuses on its relationship to the foreign language classroom context. It is argued that to attempt to relate natural SLA to classroom foreign language learning (FLL), a coherent and consistent theoretical framework is needed. The Cognitive-Interactionist Model is developed…

Sociolinguists have recently demonstrated the value of directives in indicating the relationship between status and linguistic form. The purpose of the instrument developed for this study was to quantify the coerciveness of directives on the basis of the theoretical approaches in the literature to objectify the comparison of directive forms.…

Speech errors have been used in the construction of production models of the phonological and semantic components of language, and for a model of interactional processes. Errors also provide insight into how speakers plan discourse and syntactic structure,. Different types of discourse exhibit different types of error. The present data are taken…

Analyzes the structure of Providence Island Sign Language as affected by the interaction of deaf signers with hearing signers in the Providence Island community. (AM)