This article addresses the situation of lower-proficiency heritage language learners of Spanish in terms of their linguistic similarities to second language learners. The analysis highlights grammatical and lexical features in the oral discourse of Spanish heritage and second language learners at intermediate and advanced levels of study,…

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the variable use of the subjunctive which constitutes a notable "fragile zone" in the spoken French of advanced L2 learners. A comparative approach is adopted to consider the relative impact of naturalistic and instructed L2 exposure in the case of our learner-participants who were Irish university…

Owing to analyses of large spoken corpora the linguistic knowledge of conversation has grown in recent years exponentially. Up until now little of this knowledge has trickled down to the EFL classroom. One of the reasons, this paper argues, is the failure in the relevant literature to spell out clearly how teaching conversational grammar affects…

This ERIC Digest presents an overview of the process and mechanics of language development, along with implications for practice. Sections of the discussion focus on: (1) when and how language is learned; (2) oral language components; and (3) nurturing language development. It is argued that teachers can help sustain natural language development…

This book describes methods that are the outcome of school room practice. They call for cooperation, making every member of the class an active participant in the work in hand, whether it be reading, story reproduction, original composition, or sentence analysis. The book contains suggestions for teachers of both primary and grammar grades. It…

Analyzes restarts, a common feature of conversation, in literary discourse. The term "restart" refers to the repetition of a word or words within an utterance by the same speaker. Restarts in literary discourse are of two types: (1) those produced by the characters in their "real" narrative world and (2) those produced by the narrators themselves.…

Examination of the descriptive power of the adjacency pair as a basic unit of conversational organization proposes that the three-part exchange, a very important element of conversational interaction, is more adequate than the adjacency pair as a basic unit of conversational organization. (Author/CB)

A review of studies on children's syntactic development in Spanish focused on their use of subordinate clauses within complex sentences. Results suggested that, although they made some developmental gains from 2 years of age, 10-year-olds had not acquired the full range of semantic and syntactic expression characteristic of adult use of…

Challenges the position of Clark (1988) that no two forms in a language can mean the same thing. An alternative is offered that draws on the drive towards the adult system, development of nonlinguistic concepts, acquisition of language in context, and use of a cooperative principle in conversational exchanges. (64 references) (Author/CB)

Foreign language video is invaluable for enhancing foreign language instruction, particularly when combined with laser videodisc technology, which allows learners to study minute details. Authentic materials should be made available on videodisks to fully exploit the resources of foreign language video. (Author/CB)

Recounts the efforts of a long-time advocate of E-Prime (English without the verb "to be") to use fewer forms of "to be" when writing, and especially, when speaking, where it is more difficult to monitor oral utterances. Uses a "crispness index" (a semantic equation) to measure language processes. Discusses empirical…

Discusses a theory that quotations are demonstrations that are component parts of language use. Demonstrations are described as unlike descriptions in two main ways: they are serious rather than nonserious, and they depict rather than describe their referents. (69 references) (JL)

Describes how two conversants can jointly produce a single syntactic unit, such as a sentence, discussing the types of sentences achieved through joint production, the single utterance construction format, syntax for conversation, interactionally relevant features of talk, and the resources needed to complete an utterance-in-progress. (37…

Aims to find the extent to which subject clitic "nous" and 4th person verbs in French are used in a corpus of informal spoken language and to identify factors that may account for the productive use of nous +4p verb. (Author/VWL)

Discriminating between unknown foreign languages, infants, young children, and adult listeners are able to make same/different-language discrimination judgments at better than chance levels. In two experiments, the same talkers were used for different pairs of languages to see if listeners could discriminate between languages they did not know.…