English learners of French whose first language (L1) does not mark the perfective/imperfective distinction have shown verb semantic influence and an overall preference for perfective over imperfective in their use of second language (L2) tense-aspect markers. This study investigated whether learners whose L1 marks the perfective/imperfective…

This article investigates the vocabulary of textbooks and relates it to education policy, assessment methods and teaching methods. It considers the range of vocabulary covered by key stages 3 and 4 German foreign language textbooks for secondary schools from the beginning of the 1990s to 2006 and shows that there is an overall decrease in the…

Suggests that class assignments include activities outside the school which will allow students to apply newly acquired information and skills to real life situations. (PD)

Discusses the need to strengthen vocabulary teaching in second language instruction. Describes a methodology based on the model of lexicon proposed by structural semantics, and illustrates this methodology with exercises in French and Italian. (EKN)

"From Asking To Answering: Making Questions Explicit" describes a pedagogical procedure the author has used in writing classes (expository, technical and creative) to help students better understand the purpose, and effect, of text-questions. It accomplishes this by means of thirteen discrete categories (e.g., CLAIMS, COMMITMENT, ANAPHORA, or…

The progressive in English is a grammatical form which is based on a distinction between stative and dynamic situations. It is used for actions and events that are regarded as incomplete or developing. Suggests this distinction should guide organization of the teaching of the progressive in the ESL classroom. (Author/BK)

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that co-speech gestures are semantically integrated with speech during language comprehension and development. The present study explored whether gestures also play a role in language learning in adults. In Experiment 1, we exposed adults to a brief training session presenting novel…

Direct quotation can be a source of meaning in storybook texts for beginning readers. The author of this article sketches the linguistic complexity of direct quotation and offers instructional strategies. Three aspects of direct quotation are examined: the cluster of print features and syntactic characteristics that direct quotation involves, the…

This paper will examine Bakhtin's theory that a genre's unity is defined by its chronotope [Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel. In M. Holquist (Ed.), "The dialogic imagination: Four essays" (pp. 84-258). Austin: University of Texas Press] and assume that, if this is true, the rhetorical unity within a specific…

Describes an approach to teaching freshman composition which begins with the study of the power of words. (DD)

Describes semantic relations which are thought to provide underpinning of all coherent stretches of language and are concerned with ways in which one clause, sentence, or series of sentences is interpreted in light of another. Suggests implications which semantic relations might have for EFL syllabus design. (Author/BK)

Suggests use of semantic memory as "pre-text" method for preparing ESL and ESP students for reading passages with a mental set conducive for further learning. (BK)

This paper is a narrative experiment inspired by Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) figuration of the rhizome. It is a textual assemblage of popular and academic representations of cyborgs that might question, provoke, and challenge some of the dominant discourses and assumptions of curriculum, teaching, and learning. Emboldened by Deleuze's penchant…

Mathematics is an "artificial" deliberately constructed language, supported crucially by: (1) special alpha-numeric characters and usages; (2) extra-special non-alphanumeric symbols; (3) special written formats within a single line, such as superscripts and subscripts; (4) grouping along a line, including bracketing using round brackets,…

A strategy is presented for explaining (and discerning) subtle differences in two words that appear to be semantic twins in one context but are not interchangeable in another context. This strategy suggests the following: (1) list several phrases that contain one of the problem words, then swap the second word for the first; (2) examine the…