Discusses the relationship between language and culture and the value of the study of foreign language as culture in a liberal education curriculum. Describes an approach to language teaching which focuses on the contrasts between the native and the foreign language in order to improve students' understanding of cultural differences. (MES)

The methodology used to determine readability of English texts (cloze procedure and word lists) is not applicable to foreign-language material. Linguistic variables are proposed as the basis for readability formulas. Contrastive and error analysis are possible strategies. (JB)

Focuses on one aspect of the relationship between language and culture, that of cultural meaning and rhetorical style in writing across traditions of literacy. Adopts the approach of "socially realistic linguistics" and questions the assumptions of contrastive rhetoric in the context of English education around the world. (95 references)…

Emphasizes that traditional textbook explanations of the preterite and imperfect tend to focus on their aspectual differences. The article argues that a comprehensive analysis of the interaction of these two tenses in narration must go beyond aspect to include their respective temporal and discourse properties. (30 references) (Author/CK)

Examines inalienable possession in French and Mandarin with the aim of bringing out typological affinities. In particular, two unresolved issues are re-examined: Haiman's Iconicity Hypothesis and the question of the protypical semantic categories of iposs. (32 references) (Author/CK)

Discusses differences between perception of politeness in Western and Japanese societies, concentrating on relations of social power and social distance as well as on conception of family. Concludes that many problems experienced by Japanese speakers of English as a Second Language in accomplishing linguistic politeness in English stem from nature…

This study focuses on how Chinese writing instruction can cause negative interference for Chinese English-as-a-Second-Language students writing in English. The study shows that in Chinese writing, the main idea can be more general, as a theme, or specific, as a thesis statement. It can also come at the beginning or end of a paper, and the writer…

Investigates the cultural accommodation hypothesis in questionnaire-based research: Do respondents adjust their responses in a way that reflects the cultural values associated with the language of the questionnaire. A test of this hypothesis with a sample of university students in seven countries indicates that cultural accommodation plays an…

This contrastive analysis of English and Thai illustrates how language teachers can become more aware of the mother tongue of their foreign language learners and how this can be helpful in seeing and addressing the difficulties they have in learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. (Author/VWL)

Considers a selection of discourse and rhetorical norms of Modern Standard Chinese and contrasts them with a comparable selection of discourse and rhetorical norms of an "inner circle" variety of English. Because transfer of discourse and rhetorical norms from a first to a second language commonly occurs, predicts that a Chinese variety…

A discussion of Occitan, a Romance language spoken in a large portion of France, looks at the history; irregular characteristics; orthographic and morphophonemic variations across dialects; and present status, which is in danger of becoming extinct because of neglect, of the language. (MSE)

The conciseness and "ease of use" often attributed to North American English relative to French in standard contemporary usage is explained in terms of English morpho-syntactic structure and of the values of the classical norm and rhetoric affecting French. (Author/MSE)

Examines strikingly parallel claims concerning Japanese communication strategies, and female communication strategies in the West. Miscommunication between Japan and the West resembles miscommunication between the sexes in the West, suggesting not that Japanese linguistic behavior is not feminine but that it is indicative of the problems inherent…

Provides an analysis of the syntax of Straits Salish. Main clauses consist of an initial predicate followed by a second position clitic string of inflectional elements, the subject pronoun and tense. Evidence is provided against copular verb analysis as further proof of the lack of the noun/verb distinction at the lexical level. (52 references)…

Contrastive analysis has an important role to play in the contemporary second-language classroom. It will move more and more into a domain of analysis that will focus on the underlying conceptual systems of the native language and target language. (Contains 48 references.) (LB)