A study examined the adjustments made in an individual's speech according to the age and native language of the person being addressed, and compared the results to previous findings on characteristics of "foreigner talk" and "mother talk". An adult native English-speaker addressed four people in turn--an adult native English-speaker, an adult…

A study assessed the effect of the use of reasoning message strategies on (1) a generally accepted goal of instruction (critical thinking) and (2) the affective behavior of students (attitudes toward the instruction). Subjects, 68 college students enrolled in journalism/mass communication classes, participated in one of three treatment groups that…

Previous research on Spanish vocabulary for second language instruction has focused primarily on word frequency in a variety of print sources, and has the added disadvantages of being outdated and having too complex a format. A new, computer-based analysis of spoken Spanish from different dialect regions of the world was undertaken to provide more…

Using Toulmin's model of argument as its methodology, this paper analyzes the arguments employed by Lee Iacocca, chief executive officer of Chrysler Corporation, to persuade the United States Congress to provide backing for loans necessary for the corporation's financial survival in 1979-1980. After delineating the three main claims made by…

The theoretical notions underpinning what stress is, where it is located, how it is thought to operate and with what sorts of consequences are the focuses of this paper. Beginning with a list of sources representing the medical/psychological model of stress, the paper then discusses this model, including how biologic stress is conceptualized by…

To determine the syntactic maturity of eighth grade Canadian students' writing, all the students in four eighth grade classes were asked to write two compositions--one narrative and one argumentative--two weeks apart. The syntactic maturity level of the resulting 81 narrative compositions and 82 written arguments was compared with the syntactic…

An English instructor at the University of Central Arkansas observed three problems students encounter with the often formidable writings of John Milton and developed strategies for alleviating those problems. The first problem was the difficulty posed by the vocabulary and syntax of "Paradise Lost." The instructor discussed with the…

The basic hypothesis of this study is that language education could be more effective if planning were to aim at developing an individual functional trilingualism involving a first (indigenous) language, a second African (national) language, and an official (foreign) language. The study covers the following matters: (1) a survey of developments in…

A stylistics-based approach to teaching poetry in the English as a foreign language classroom is examined. Since students may not have the linguistic skills to appreciate a poem, an analytical framework is proposed that includes the elements of repetition, confusion, and surprise. Reference is made to two poems, "In a Season of Unemployment"…

Noting that medical consent forms traditionally have been so full of medical and legal jargon that they have been impossible for even the educated layperson to understand, this paper presents a model for revising medical consent forms to make them more comprehensible. After describing the model, the paper explains each step involved in using it,…

A study of cross examination speeches of males and females was conducted to determine gender differences in intercollegiate debate. The theory base for gender differences in speech is closely tied to the analysis of dyadic conversation. It is based on the belief that women are less forceful and dominant in cross examination, and will exhibit…

The teaching activities presented in this paper focus on four literature assignments. The first explores the concept of love throughout two short stories, John Collier's "The Chaser" and Max Shulman's "Love Is a Fallacy." It contains a "true love opinionaire," a discussion of irony in the stories, and a follow-up evaluation. The second assignment…

A study used 18 television commericals, selected as representative of a variety of executional styles and products, and generated scores for each of them on 18 dimensions of structural variation. In addition, a multivariate analysis was used to examine the relations both among the dimensions and between these dimensions and some common measures of…

The paper demonstrates how contrastive linguistics may receive a fresh breath of life from approaching certain problems from the cognitive linguistic point of view. Cognitive linguistics is not only capable of providing contrastive linguistics with a comprehensive but coherent theoretical backbone the latter has always badly needed for its…

This paper analyzes patterns of code switching found in a small group of first and second generation Catalan immigrants in Mexico, and is part of a wider study on the impact of exile upon the construction of identity in the discourse of political immigrants in Latin America. With regard to the pragmatic exploitation of code switching, it argues…