Suggests a way of looking at difficulties students have in using words appropriately, and an approach for presenting this information to students. The discussion concentrates on: (1) restrictions on words that can co-occur; and (2) rules for the grammatical marking of various noun phrases that occur with certain verbs and adjectives. (Author/PJM)

The comprehension of sentences expressing instigative causation was investigated in children aged two to four speaking English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Turkish. Cross-linguistic differences in development revealed the roles of morphological and syntactic devices in processing these constructions. The word order systems of English and Italian…

Investigated how readers of different backgrounds evaluated 16 versions of Japanese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students' English compositions containing different culturally influenced rhetorical patterns. Results suggest that a flexible approach to permissible rhetorical patterns and a greater emphasis on coherence may be…

Defines behaviors that fall under the rubric of second language (L2) learner strategies and classifies different types of verbal report, indicating areas where it has contributed to the understanding of L2 learner strategies. Focuses on problematic issues regarding the use of verbal reports and notes ways to refine verbal report methods. (62…

A study of 191 juniors and seniors from 6 Oahu high schools tested their ability to interpret and construct search statements after reading brief instructions on concept analysis, Boolean operators, and search statement format. On average, students made two errors per statement; scores and types of errors are examined for influences of gender and…

Discusses variation in interlanguage and suggests two hypotheses to explain such variation as multiple internal representations of a form and processing errors. Suggests that second language learners can initially represent new forms as prototype schemas, and that such non-discrete representations are a third source of variation in interlanguage.…

Overviews language transfer and a renewal of interest in contrastive analysis (CA) as a suitable testing ground for language transfer. Focuses on Iranian students' difficulty in learning the English definite article, "the." The CA reveals that in Persian, there is no single word corresponding exactly to the English definite article. (16…

Examines the source of poor readers' comprehension failures in spoken sentences containing complex syntactic structures. Although research literature indicates that the difficulties poor readers display are usually associated with some aspect of phonological processing, other components of language processing may be involved. (58 references)…

Examines two case studies which illustrate that specific syntactic and semantic difficulties in writing are related to reading problems in syntax and comprehension among basic writers. Asserts that looking at writing miscues can be an appropriate way to analyze writing errors in a reading context. (MM)

A pilot experiment showed that Arabic speakers tended to confuse words with similar consonantal structures. Findings support the hypothesis that Arabic-speaking learners of English, because of the lexical structure and orthography of their native language, tend to rely heavily on consonants when attempting to recognize English words. (five…

The performance of two students (ages six to seven) with mild disabilities was compared across two instructional conditions (Voice Plus Text versus Text Alone) as the students participated in daily computer-assisted instruction for development of reading readiness skills. Both students made fewer errors in the synthesized speech condition than in…

Analysis of the responses of Spanish, Chinese, and German learners of English-as-a-Second-Language to English sentences with empty pronominal categories found that, although empty pronouns were pragmatically more natural in finite clauses of Spanish and Chinese than in English or German, only the Spanish subjects had significantly higher mean…

Observes and analyzes Japanese senior high school students' errors due to language transfer. The study focuses on written language, is based on classroom research, and provides possible ways of explaining second-language acquisition. (Author/VWL)

In five picture-word interference experiments, this article explores the gender-congruity effect in Dutch in two languages, Spanish and Catalan. Performance was not affected by the relationship between the gender of the picture and the gender of the word. Results show that the gender-congruity effect is not a universal effect, but varies from…

Examines the cognitive basis of one experienced English-as-a-foreign-language teacher's instructional decisions in grammar teaching. Based on extensive classroom observations and interviews, the article describes the teacher's personal stores of knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes that affect his instructional decisions. (Author/JL)