This paper examines 22 empirical computer-assisted language learning (CALL) studies published between 1989 and 1994, and 13 reviews and syntheses published between 1987 and 1992, pertaining to CALL in higher education in the United States. A "three streams" framework helps to place CALL in a larger context and illustrate its several…

This paper offers an interpretive microanalysis of university students' work session with "Philippe," a multi-media instructional program for foreign language learning. The main objective of Philippe is to provide French-as-a-Foreign-Language learners with what is widely assumed to be what they need most: contacts with native speakers of the…

This paper examines basic skills competencies developed by Mexican immigrant adult learners through participation in (although not always completion of) adult basic education programs conducted by the Mexican, Instituto Nacional para la Educacion de los Adultos (INEA). The comparison provides the conceptual basis for configuring instructional…

A collection of three excerpted stories is provided in this paper about cross-cultural communication. The paper presents excerpts from papers written as assignments by teacher/students in a course about first and second language development. In the paper's first excerpt, Angela Jordahl tells about her involvement with Kurdish students in a…

This collection of papers by the graduate students and faculty in linguistics at the University of Kansas offers summaries of works in progress dealing with general linguistics and studies in Native American languages. General linguistics papers include: "Resetting Bounding Nodes in Acquiring Spanish" (Ramiro Cebreiros); "Syntax of…

This paper explores the relationships between English as a world language, native speakers and their governments, and educational practices to illustrate the risks of power by language and the risks of language. A brief political history of the English language is followed by predictions on the use of English in the 1990s. It is suggested that…

This paper examines the linguistic and legal framework in Spain and its attempts to define nationhood and a collective identity that encompasses its three major linguistic minority groups. The four major language groups of Spain are discussed with regard to official language policy and legislation. Article 3 of the 1978 Spanish constitution was…

This report describes a semester of teaching a group of non-native English-speaking students, aged 17 to 40 years and how the instructor identified three elements that appeared to be necessary for a task-based, advanced English speaking class. The three elements were: (1) ongoing needs assessment; (2) collaboration between instructor and students…

A study investigated the production of conventional conversational openings by five advanced learners of Kiswahili with experience in the Kiswahili speaking environment. Native speakers of Kiswahili usually engage in lengthy openings including several phatic inquiries (PIs) and phatic responses (PRs). The number and manner in which the PIs and PRs…

A study attempts to refine the discourse domain hypothesis of second language learning, which holds that a second language is acquired with reference to speaker-specific topic areas rather than as a general, context-independent competence, by examining the discourse domains developed by one non-native speaker of English in conversations with two…

A study investigated requests as speech acts in "Zulu English," the English of Zulu first-language speakers, seeking to explain miscommunication in interactions between Zulu- and English-speakers by pointing to pragmatic transfer as one possible cause. Data were collected by means of a series of discourse completion tests in Zulu, Zulu…

This study was undertaken to develop guidelines for making interpretive inferences from scores on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), a norm-referenced test of English-language listening comprehension (LC) and reading (R) skills, about level of ability to use English in face-to-face conversation, indexed by performance in…

A study investigated college student attitudes toward different classroom techniques for error correction in second language instruction. Subjects were 162 students of Japanese as a second language in seven universities. In the first phase of the study, a smaller group of students at a liberal arts college were observed in class, interviewed, and…

This paper discusses the increasing use of computers and multimedia since 1989 in the foreign language classroom in the Czech Republic. Three categories of questions are discussed: (1) questions about computer use in classrooms that were common in Germany 10 years ago; (2) questions about computer use in relation to new foreign language…

Research on the role of age in second language (L2) learning, particularly at the level of primary education, is reviewed and discussed. It is concluded that evidence suggests early L2 exposure increases chances of ultimately attaining a high proficiency level in that language, but that in formal educational situations any long-term advantage will…