Dedicates this issue of "Language Sciences" to Roy Harris, former Professor of Linguistics at Oxford University, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The article points out that because of Harris's writing style and arguments, he is viewed as a skeptic, who approaches any topic from the perspective of philosophy rather than that of…

Examines applied linguistics as a research project analogous to other disciplines and presumes a need for cross-disciplinary perspectives in language studies. Argues that applied linguistics shares a position intersecting with neighboring sciences and with all other sciences, each of which demarcates its own space in contested and shared ground.…

Discusses frequency effects in language acquisition. Provides an example of how frequency may relate to grammatical judgments of nonnative speakers acquisition of multiple wh-questions. (Author/VWL)

Responds to Ellis (2002), which focuses on frequency in language processing, language use, and language acquisition. Suggests his findings are consistent with those of second language acquisition researchers working with a variationist framework. Provides a brief overview of this research area and describes a psycholinguistic model of language…

Reviews four recent books of current research in vocabulary acquisition: "Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon," (D. Singleton); "Assessing Vocabulary," (J. Read); "Vocabulary in Language Teaching" (N. Schmitt); "Learning Vocabulary in Another Language" (L.S.P. Nation). (Author/VWL)

Discusses the work of Stephen Krashen, examining his insights and discussing the views of his critics. (Author/VWL)

Reanalyzes what the literature has taken to be children's productions of Gen subjects and argues that Gen subjects do not exist in child English. Suggests that what look like Gen subjects appear only in specific discourse contexts: contexts of contrastive focus or contexts of emphatic focus. (Author/VWL)

Discusses "emergenitism," a view of cognition stressing interaction between organism and environment and denying existence of predetermined, domain-specific faculties or capacities. It is an alternative to special nativist theories of the mind, such as theories of universal grammar. rejects arguments raised against "special nativism" and looks at…

Contends that Lightbown (2000) manifests a misconception of the relationship between applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and language teaching. Suggests that it does so by failing to see he direct causal link between the field and the pre-1985 developments in language teaching, and by failing to address the unrecognized failure of…

Responds to Sheen's (2002) critique of a review article on the relationship between second language acquisition research and classroom second and foreign language teaching. The focus of the response is to clarify points made in both a 1985 and the 2000 articles and challenging Sheen's interpretation of those points. (Author/VWL)

Discusses various language border theories for the Belgian-Northern French area, and summarizes the results of 40 years of research into the development of the Romance-Germanic language border at large. Suggests that a late Roman Latin-Germanic opposition has functioned as a direct predisposition for the early medieval Romance-Germanic language…

Surveys developmental stages and the current research environment for systemic functional linguistics in contemporary China and presents a considered and detailed explanation of the popularity of Hallidayan linguistics among contemporary Chinese scholars. (Author/VWL)

Describes the work by Silvio Ceccato regarding machine translation systems and procedures, exploring such aspects of his work as functional philosophical approaches to machine translation, notional spheres, correlational analysis, and type classifications. Ceccato envisioned many of the methods that are now being applied in machine translation…

A review of the literature regarding native and second language reading leads to suggestions for reading strategies to use in the foreign language classroom. These strategies involve appropriate text selection, prereading activities, and such aspects of reading as skimming, decoding, intensive reading, and comprehension. (CB)

An analysis is made of research focusing on how speaking and listening activities are relevant to the language classroom. Current thinking is reviewed on spoken language, with a focus on pronunciation, as a medium of information transfer and of interpersonal exchange. (66 references) (GLR)