This study of L-2 Russian interlanguage production examined the salience of phonetic, lexical and syntactical features for L-1 listener intelligibility, based on L-2 recitation of written scripts (Part I) and also unrehearsed speech (Part II). Part III of the study investigated strategies used by native-speaking teachers of Russian as a Second…

Task-based teaching is an area which has emerged from the upsurge of interest in cognitive approaches to language learning and teaching of the mid 1980s. Being a current vogue in a communicative language teaching, task-based language learning contains dangers if implemented without care. In particular, it is likely to create pressure for immediate…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of task based writing instruction (TBwI) on English language acquisition and differentiated instruction for minority language students during the Independent Work Time instructional component of the Open Court Reading program. One teacher and 10 third grade students (8-9 years old)…

Task-based teaching is an area which has emerged from the upsurge of interest in cognitive approaches to language learning and teaching of the mid-1980s. Being a current vogue in communicative language teaching, task-based language learning contains dangers if implemented without care. In particular, it is likely to create pressure for immediate…

The aim of this study is to investigate the act of apologizing with subjects from two different levels of English proficiency to find out whether there are similarities and differences between these groups and whether they approach native speaker apology norms. 20 subjects in intermediate level, 20 subjects in advanced level and 5 native speakers…

This paper presents the results of a study investigating the impact of interactional feedback on interlanguage variation in terms of accuracy, complexity, and fluency of learners' discourse in performing tasks with familiar vs. unfamiliar topics. The participant of the study who were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group were…

Descriptions of speech act realisations of native and non-native speakers abound in the cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics literature. Yet, what is lacking is an analysis of the cognitive processes involved in the production of speech acts. This study examines the cognitive processes and perceptions of learners of Spanish when refusing…

There is increasing consensus that form-focused instruction helps learners in communicative or content-based instruction to learn features of the target language that they may not acquire without guidance. The subject of this article is the role of instruction that is provided in separate (isolated) activities or within the context of…

In four experiments we explored processes underlying L2 gender retrieval. We focused on L1 interference and on the influence of the L2 noun's termination. In Experiments 1 and 2 we tried to manipulate the intensity of L1 interference. We found that L2 speakers cannot eliminate or substantially reduce the interlingual interference neither when they…

Since the phenomenon of fossilization in interlanguage is proposed by Selinker in 1972, it has drawn much attention and commonly acknowledged at home and abroad. This paper introduces the definition, classification, presentation, and causal factors of fossilization in an attempt to help Chinese students better understand the phenomenon and avoid…

This paper defines and exemplifies the "grammar of the reader." It is claimed that existing pedagogical grammars, although supposedly neutral with respect to skills, are actually biased towards production. In translating rules into the reader's perspective, reader's grammar turns them inside out. Reader's grammar does not primarily focus on rules…

Suggest that the "one to one" principle of interlanguage construction can account for both minimal "pidginized" interlanguage systems and more developed interlanguage systems. This principle specifies that an interlanguage system should be constructed in such a way that an intended underlining method is expressed with one clear invariant surface…

What is the role of positive feedback in the adult English language classroom? This study applies ideas from complexity theory to explore the relation between frequency of oral feedback received and student language proficiency. The researcher collected data from digital recordings of adult students (N = 41) who attended classes for 30 weeks at…

This article discusses sociolinguistically oriented research on second language acquisition (SLA) in the decade since Firth and Wagner (1997). Over the last 10 years, substantial progress has been made in developing a model of the sociolinguistic processes that inform second language acquisition. This model is supported by empirical evidence on…

Our study explores the similarities and differences between a discourse completion task (DCT) and corpus data and discusses potential implications for using the two in a pedagogic context. The DCT has traditionally been used as an instrument for the study of interlanguage pragmatics while both spoken and written corpora have mainly been used to…