Examines effects of grouping practice on written Chinese achievement among heritage learners in college Chinese classes. Subjects were two groups of heritage students, a homogeneous group and a heterogeneous group. Results suggest in college level Chinese language classes, tracking based on linguistic background can improve heritage students'…

Part of a research project is presented that aims at identifying the difficulties tertiary level students encounter in reading scientific texts in a foreign language and the strategies they apply to overcome them. Strategy markers are identified and listed, and are then analyzed to interpret the linguistic difficulty and the strategy used.…

A preliminary descriptive framework of the rhetorical structure of the argumentative essay is proposed. Research results are used to show that a "categories analysis" can clarify the structure of written texts and provide pedagogically useful materials. (15 references) (Author/LB)

Following general discussion of difficulty of full expression of cultural identity through writing in second language (English), "Asian Voices in English" (M. Chan and R. Harris, editors) is reviewed. These papers are from a symposium sponsored by University of Hong Kong's English Department in collaboration with the British Council. The papers…

Investigations of Japanese speakers' interlanguage constructions of English existential sentences with a locative sentential topic found a general shift from topic-comment to subject-predicate structures as proficiency increased. (24 references) (Author/CB)

Analyzes published student written legal research papers that can serve as a model for the teaching of seminar paper writing. Focuses on the introductory sections, and shows how they are both similar and different from those found in research article introductions as described in Swales (1990). (Author/VWL)

Examines recent studies of linguistic corpora in Italian, and presents the results of an analysis of "piace" and "piacciono" conducted on a corpus of 3.5 million words of written Italian, accessible at the University of Birmingham in England. Focuses on pedagogical applications of the data and on the inductive methodologies…

Discusses ways of using second language acquisition (SLA) research in teaching, and argues that the correct use of SLA research should meet a set of overlapping requirements. The requirements are then applied to three sample areas of research: the question of age-effects in second language learning, the acquisition of phonology, and the…

Argues that multiple language use in learner output is not always and exclusively indicative of the deficient nature of the language learner with respect to an idealized monolingual second language linguistic norm. Multilingual written learner texts and learners' explications of these texts are examined in detail. (Author/VWL)

Explores the notion of "fine-tuning" in connection with the corrective feedback process. Describes a longitudinal case study, conducted in the context of Norwegian as a second a language, that shows how fine-tuning and lack thereof in the provision of written corrective feedback differentially affects a second language learner's restructuring of…

Many approaches to literacy instruction treat language as an object of study. The curricular assumptions that inform such instruction are that language is located outside the person, extracted from context, neutral, and explicable through defined rules. An underlying assumption in many language arts classrooms is that children will not pay…

Teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students must serve as language models for their students. However, preservice deaf education teachers typically have at most only four semesters of American Sign Language (ASL) training. How can their limited ASL instructional time be used to increase their proficiency? Studies involving deaf and hard of…

China has had the same written language, "wen-yan," since the third century B.C. "Wen-yan is the classical, literary language. In this paper the author discusses the five problems which must be considered with regard to the teaching of classical Chinese to American college students. These are: (1) why this literary language should…

Discusses the forces responsible for the high level of articulacy in the People's Republic of China, and describes a set of texts for teaching Chinese as a second language compiled by the Peking Language Institute. (CLK)

Describes a method for teaching French writing skills which consists of answering written questions on a text, followed by a creative writing exercise based on the model text. (AM)