Describes the clanger phenomenon (disruption or redirection of conversation caused by an interactionally aggressive utterance), and reexamines and more closely defines it in terms of foreign language learners' needs and language use. (CB)

Examined how a new topic was introduced, maintained, and changed in the Japanese-English interlanguage data of a 45- minute interview between a native and a non-native speaker of English. Findings revealed that although the topic marking system of the interlanguage shared some features with the first and second languages, it maintained features…

Addresses the difficulty of article acquisition by examining the perception of noun countability by native speakers of English and Japanese speakers of English, testing whether native and nonnative speakers have different perceptions of countability. Results suggest a possible link between the indefinite versus zero article suppliance by Japanese…

Reports a study of native Spanish speakers' acquisition of the ability to discriminate lexically in English between similar items with different characteristics. The study also examined the role of first-language interference in the process. (MSE)

Examines the effects of vowel height and place of articulation in interlanguage devoicing patterns of final voiced stop consonants (b, d, g) in words such as "cab,""bad,""bag" in the acquisition of English as a foreign language by Mandarin, Japanese, and Portuguese speakers. Results display a combinatory effect of…

Examines whether negotiation addresses the need of second- language (L2) learners to focus attention on L2 form. The study analyzed the utterances of negotiation produced as 20 English native speaker-nonnative speaker (NS-NNS) dyads engaged in communication tasks. Negotiation assisted the NNS needs for data on features that were possible in the…