Investigated the effects of three different writing tasks (descriptive, narrative, and expository) and three different writing prompts (bare, vocabulary, and prose model) on 937 writing samples culled from 330 novice learners enrolled in classes of Level 1 and 2 high school French. (Author/VWL)

Examines the impact of interaction enhancement (IE) on the learning of English articles. IE is a treatment that guides learners to focus on form by providing interactional modifications and leads learners to produce modified output within a problem-solving task (strategic interaction). (Author/VWL)

Investigated patterns and strength of connections between English dative verbs and the double-object dative argument structure in native-speaker production. Subjects completed three written production tasks using dative and other verbs from different semantic classes of verbs. Results show alternating dative verbs varied in patterns of connection…

Describes results from two independent investigations of college students that were conducted to study the impact of differences in users' cognition and search tasks on Web search activities and outcomes. Topics include cognitive style; problem-solving; and implications for the design and use of the Web and Web search engines. (Author/LRW)

Investigates control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system in visual word recognition. Used a visual lexical decision task to explore control processes in proficient German-English bilinguals. Critical stimuli were interlingual homographs such as the low-frequency English word "tag," which means day in German. Overall, participants…

Tested how domain-related knowledge, syntactic complexity, and reading topic influence inference generation in the written recalls of English-speaking participants after they read Spanish historical texts. Three types of inferences were examined: within-text inferences, elaborative inferences, and incorrect inferences. (Author/JL)

Employs a truth-value task to reexamine native-language (NL) transfer among Chinese-speaking second-language (L2) learners of English--that is, where NL or mature L2 permits verb raising. Discussion includes a comparison with the earlier findings of Eubank and Grace (1996) and analysis of developmental and transfer-based explanations for the…

Reports the results of an investigation of the variable use of the definite and indefinite articles by 18 Chinese learners of English. A referential communication task was used to elicit samples of the speech of these learners. Analysis shows an overall rate of 78% suppliance of articles in contexts where a native speaker would use a definite or…

Describes a series of communicative tasks designed for use by learners of Thai as a second or foreign language and reports on a study that tested the tasks' effectiveness at providing opportunities for learners to focus on linguistic form during conversational interaction. (Author/VWL)

Emphasizes the importance of the compound view for second language acquisition, which suggests that two languages coexist in the bilingual mind and does not agree with the linguistic transfer process. Using a metapragmatic judgment task and a post-interview, this study examined pragmatic transfer of 207 Brazilians and Americans from their first…

There are relatively clear definitions of what is meant by authenticity in relation to language-teaching materials and texts; there is much less agreement about what constitutes authenticity of context and of task activity. Article explores different notions of authenticity in language classroom. A crucial point often overlooked is that the…

Investigated pragmatic aspects of task-performance in a series of argumentation tasks that Hungarian learners of English performed over a period of 2 years. Sought to determine how task repetition, long-term development of language skills, and a short-term focused intervention influenced various pragmatic measures of task performance. (Author/VWL)

Outlines challenges that arose in the course of a classroom-based research project, identifies the realities of the second language setting that contributed to these complexities, and examines useful sources of support available to novice investigators. Oral communication tasks were administered to three groups of English learners in Canada: a…

In this study, African American English (AAE)-speaking children's comprehension of 2 different types of double negative sentences was examined and contrasted with that of a comparison group of Standard American English (SAE)-speaking children. The first type of double negative, negative concord, involves 2 negative elements in a sentence that are…

This study focuses on the use of the native language (L1) by second language (L2) learners when carrying out a collaborative jigsaw task in a computer chat environment. It investigates the extent and function of L1 use by means of a sociocultural theoretical framework. The research project was carried out in three languages: Chinese, German, and…