A review of research on second-language writing instruction looks at four research approaches: the language and culture students bring with them to the classroom; contexts in which teaching/learning take place; the shape of the language curriculum; and academic writing and English for academic purposes. Attention is given to English as a Second…

A collection of essays on second language vocabulary learning includes: "Historical Trends in Second Language Vocabulary Instruction" (Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman); "The Lexical Plight in Second Language Reading: Words You Don't Know, Words You Think You Know, and Words You Can't Guess" (Batia Laufer); "Orthographic Knowledge in L2 Lexical Processing: A…

A discussion of factors that influence English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning by native speakers of Chinese focuses on three specific factors (cognitive style, individual differences, and native language interference), and offers classroom solutions. The effect of each of the three factors on ESL comprehension and production is considered,…

Considers the validity of applying common assessment instruments and scales to assess the language skills of Australian school-age language learners from different first-language backgrounds. Findings reveal a strong relationship between home exposure to the language and the level of performance on the listening and reading components of the…

It is argued that slowed-down speech is a useful tool for teaching both listening comprehension and pronunciation to students of English as a second language. For listening comprehension, introduction of more, and longer pauses at grammatical boundaries allows more time for processing speech. The greater number of accented words and shorter…

178 students majoring in translation at the College of Languages and Translation and 10 translation and interpreting instructors were surveyed. It was found that 45% of the students use an electronic dictionary (ED). 99% of those use a general English-Arabic ED, 68% use an Arabic-English ED, 27% use an English-English ED and only 2% use a…

Articles in this annual serial include the following: "Four decades with the Computer" (Winfred P. Lehmann); "The Uses of the Personal Computer in the Humanities" (James W. Marchand); "Digging in the Dictionary: Building a Relational Lexicon To Support Natural Language Processing Applications" (Martha Evans, Judith…

The research was conducted in Sydney and Hong Kong using students, from grades 5 to 9, whose first language or teaching medium was English, learning to read Chinese as second language. According to cognitive load theory, the processing of single Chinese characters accompanied by pictures should impose extraneous cognitive load and thus hinders…

This paper describes the rationale for development of a self-instructional program using the bilingual-dichotic method, which accelerates the learning of foreign words. First, ways of learning vocabulary and the use of bilingual word lists for direct instruction with beginners are noted, and criteria are given for selection of words. Differences…

Papers from the symposium on applied linguistics include: "Roles in the Foreign Language Classroom" (Robert J. DiPietro); "The Importance of Native Language in Light of Second-Language Studies" (Alexander Z. Guiora); "A Model of L2 Text Reconstruction: The Recall of Literary Text by Learners of German" (Elizabeth B.…

The approach taken by one school district to English-as-a-Second-Language instruction, using the whole language approach and simple children's literature, is described. It was determined that the whole language approach would challenge teachers to rethink how children come to know language and literacy and cause teachers to construct new beliefs…

A discussion of reading instruction for limited-English-proficient (LEP) students looks at elements contributing to development of an effective instructional approach. The elements discussed include the following: the quality of reading materials; role of oral language development; design of an initial decoding process geared to success; need to…

This study compares the performances of 16 advanced and 19 beginning English language learners on a listening comprehension task that focused on linguistic and pragmatic processing. Processing pragmatic meaning differs from processing linguistic meaning because pragmatic meaning requires the listener to understand not only linguistic information,…

In this theoretical dissertation my aim is to research the academic literature in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), compare it to the life experiences of past and/or present students, colleagues, children and myself to reflect and summarize my learning in the form of a conceptual framework that I have named, "Framework for…

This paper describes one college-level English-as-a-Second-Language teacher's use of error analysis in an effort to understand students' problems with reading comprehension and writing. The research was undertaken in a Japanese junior college. Three studies are presented. In the first, 59 students in a general English course listed sentences they…