Through a review of the research, this article demonstrates that developing literacy in English as a first language is essentially similar to developing literacy in English as a Second Language for both students with normal hearing and students with hearing impairments. The implications for teaching literacy skills in English are discussed. (CR)

Examines theoretical foundations and practical application of Translation Quality Assessment (TQA), particularly in translator training. Several approaches to translation are considered, especially the "functional" and "relevance" approaches. The need for TQA, several popular views on translation quality, and the issue of…

Gives an overview of the history of the Hawaiian language and the decline in number of speakers, chronicles efforts to revitalize it, and discusses the role of computing and online communications in this process, focusing on the Leoki bulletin board system, the first fully based on an indigenous language. Activities in an elementary school…

This study examined one group of adults attempting to develop their heritage language to discover their motivation for studying the language and the challenges they encountered. Twenty-four Korean American students enrolled in beginning to advanced levels of Korean in one heritage language program were surveyed. (Author/JL)

Research published in recent years that deals with the Comprehension (Input) Hypothesis is reviewed, and evidence supporting the hypothesis is underlined. The research is from the areas of literacy development, second-language learning, and foreign-language learning and confirms the claim that development of language and literacy operate in much…

Discusses the importance of appropriate proficiency-oriented testing for students studying foreign languages, explaining that grammatical accuracy is of no value if it cannot be used to carry out real-life tasks as an inherent and natural activity. Presents guidelines for designing and administering tests and provides an example of a…

Investigated reasons for student choice in foreign-language study when moving from 8th to 9th grade. Eighth graders from districts that varied in how and when they offered foreign languages completed surveys after registering for ninth grade. Their main reasons for language selection were utilitarian, including the desire to satisfy future college…

This paper sets out a series of awareness tasks for introducing English-as-a-Second-Language teachers to English language corpora and concordances. The aim of the task is to make teachers more critical of how English is described and presented in course materials and to show them that corpora are a good resource for language investigation.…

Discusses findings of a small-scale survey of primary teachers in Botswana. Particular focus is on respondents' views of whether English or Setswana, or a combination of the two languages, should be used as the medium of instruction. (Author/JL)

Looks at naturalistic samples of adult-to-child speech to determine whether variations in the input are consistent with reported variations in the proportions of nouns and verbs in children's early vocabularies. Naturalistic speech samples from English-, Italian-, and Mandarin-speaking children and their caregivers were examined. (Author/JL)

Describes the process of restructuring departments at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and its effects on the foreign language department, international center, and intensive English language program. Discusses problems associated with both the lengthy process and the resulting structure, the home for eleven separate units with distinct…

Suggesting that foreign-language literature classes often teach over the heads of students, argues that foreign-language literary texts be taught not as finished works of art but instead as culture-in-process, focusing on the creative-performance approach to the dramatic text within the context of a foreign-language teacher practicum. (MSE)

A retrospective of over one hundred years reveals the evolution of different policies, approaches, and methodology for teaching foreign languages to young children and shows pivotal points in events and policies. Three periods are distinguished: 1898 to 1958; the growth period of 1958 to 1978; and development since 1978. Details concerning Spanish…

Argues that some important aspects of listening as an interactive skill have been neglected in second-language teaching, including the receipt tokens "yeah,""mm hm," and "mm," and that such items should be taught as part of the development of conversational skills. Characteristics of these items' placement in talk sequences, prosodic shape, pause…

Reports an experimental study on the acquisition of English reflexives by adult Japanese-speaking learners of English. Consonant with a review of previous studies on binding in second-language acquisition, results of the experiment yield no evidence of an interlanguage grammar that is illicit with respect to universal grammar. (Author/ER)