Language teaching · for research and pedagogy are proposed. For example, it is suggested that a framework be developed to aid ESL teachers in assisting their multicultural students

Language teaching

Language teaching

03–1 Abrams, Zsuzsanna I. (U. of Texas atAustin, USA). Surfing to cross-cultural awareness :Using Internet-mediated projects to explore culturalstereotypes. Foreign Language Annals (New York,USA), 35, 2 (2002), 141−60.

The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the21st Century stress that learning about culture is anintegral part of learning a foreign language (L2);such exploration is a necessary bridge to gainingvaluable insights about one’s own culture as well as theculture(s) of the target language. Long-term projects,for example, extended interviews with native speakers,enable learners to develop an understanding of anotherculture from an ‘emic’ point of view. For many U.S.students, however, neither native speaker informants inU.S. cities nor study abroad programmes are available oraccessible. This study explores Internet-based cultureportfolios that bring insiders’ views of other culturesinto the L2 classroom. In this study, learners enrolledin third-semester German language courses conductedsemester-long culture projects, in which they exploredtheir stereotypical views of the cultures of Germany,Austria, and Switzerland. Learners investigated theextent to which these stereotypes might apply, usingmedia from these countries and from their own culturalcontexts, library and Internet resources, and onlineinterviews with members of the cultures in Germany.The results of this study indicate that the Internet-basedculture project promoted learners’ acquisition of newcultures from an emic perspective.

03–2 Adami, Herve (Universite Nancy 2, France).L’oralite et la metalangue dans les rapports aulangage des scripteurs/lecteurs en insecurite al’ecrit. [Spoken language and metalanguage asinfluences on the attitudes of unskilled readers andwriters to written language.] Melanges CRAPEL(Nancy, France), 26 (2001), 7−37.

This article begins from the premise that, despitecompulsory education for all, some 20 per cent ofFrench school leavers remain functionally illiterate; andsuggests that this situation has been confused by a lack ofclear distinctions between various groups of learners, inparticular between those who have French as a mothertongue and those who do not, and those who have aminimal knowledge of the French writing system andthose who have no knowledge of any writing system.Such a level of school failure is both the cause andthe result of a massive social schism, and maintains animbalance in access to knowledge and, consequently, topower. Comparing the French situation with examplesdrawn from a number of periods and cultures, the author

argues that individuals whose mastery of the writtenform is inadequate produce texts which have someof the fundamental characteristics of spoken interaction.Where spoken language is indexically linked to itscontext of situation, written language is largely de-contextualised, requiring different modes of coherenceand implicature. Moreover, the limited range of socialinteraction available to immigrants in particular meansthat their French is fossilised. In these circumstances,only the ability to write and the possession of a metalan-guage can break the vicious circle and give accessto abstract concepts. Both the teaching methodologyand the metalanguage have to be based on learners’representations of the communicative situation and oftheir needs.

03–3 Allum, Paul (Rikkyo U., Tokyo, Japan;Email: [email protected]). CALL and the classroom:The case for comparative research. ReCALL(Cambridge, UK),14, 1 (2002), 146−66.

Educators are increasingly concerned to integratehuman and computer capabilities as efficiently as pos-sible. One main yardstick for evaluation of ComputerAssisted Language Learning (CALL) is, naturally, thehuman teacher. Thus there is demand for comparativedata. Attempts to provide such data in a way thatallows useful generalisations to be made or accurateanalyses of the outcomes are still comparatively limited,however, and difficult to produce, and often comeunder attack. The belief asserted here is that there isstill a need for general studies in a variety of contexts.The article reports a longitudinal comparative study thattries to take into account some of the major criticisms.The study compared two means of delivery of the samematerial, using the same fundamental methodology −i.e., teacher, textbook and classroom versus compu-terised Web exercises − with the long-term goalof seeing how the two might best be integrated.Pre- and post-test data revealed great similarityin the two methods of delivery, while a questionnairerevealed important differences. It is claimed that theoutcomes of the study provide support for the idea thatthese kinds of comparative studies are useful and stillneeded.

03–4 Ayres, Robert (UNITEC, Auckland,New Zealand; Email: [email protected]). Learnerattitudes towards the use of CALL. ComputerAssisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 3 (2002), 241−49.

This paper reports on a project which aimed to gatherempirical data on how much learners valued the use

Lang. Teach. 36, 15–69. DOI: 10.1017/S0261444802001891 Printed in the United Kingdom c© 2003 Cambridge University Press 15

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Language teaching ■of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in thislearning centre and their opinions of such instructionin comparison to more traditional teaching media.One hundred and fifty seven non-native undergraduatesenrolled on various courses in the School of Englishand Applied Linguistics were given initial questionnaireswhich had been prepared to reflect the current teachingsituation in the learning centre and the conditions inwhich CALL is integrated into language programmes.No statistical differences were found between learners ofany particular gender, age or nationality when analysedaccording to perceived usefulness, ease of use and im-portance to course. Overall, learners appreciate andvalue their CALL work; it has high face validity withlearners and, while it is not seen as a worthwhilereplacement for classroom-based learning, it is regardedas an important aspect of their studies. However,findings indicate CALL work needs to be integratedtightly with the rest of the course curriculum. The paperconcludes by highlighting some key factors to considerwhen integrating CALL into language courses.

03–5 Becker, Claudia A. (Loyola U., Chicago,USA). Turning ‘a rough journey’ into a smoothercrossing of borders: Insights into the world offemale international interns in theGerman-speaking workplace. Journal of Languagefor International Business (Glendale, AZ, USA), 13,1/2 (2002), 22−42.

This article presents a study of the professional ex-periences and insights of international female interns inthe German-speaking workplace environment between1992 and 1998. Its thesis is that gender-related issuespresent key factors in any internship assignment ina German-speaking workplace environment, althoughinternational male and female interns might face thesame business challenges as well as linguistic andpersonal struggles in trying to meet their counterpart’sneeds, such as service, timeliness, credibility, trust-worthiness, quality of work, etc. The research datawere obtained confidentially and anonymously througha questionnaire study (n = 50) in the form of shortexperiential learning reports on various professionalsubject areas related to the internship experience. Insome cases, subjects were selected to elaborate oncertain focal points in a follow-up conducted bythe investigator. This cross-cultural study describes(1) the structure of gender-related issues in the German-speaking workplace environment, and (2) the varietiesof gender-related experiences in the German-speakingworkplace environment for international females.It further proposes an approach which will assistinternational female interns to find ways to better acceptand handle their own value system when operating ina business culture that may have a conflicting valuesystem.

03–6 Beckett, Gulbahar H. (U. of Cincinnati,Ohio, USA). Teacher and student evaluations ofproject-based instruction. TESL Canada Journal/La

Revue TESL du Canada (Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19,2 (2001), 52−66.

Project-based instruction has gained some popularityin general education and in second-language (L2)education. However, a review of the literatureshows discrepancies between teachers’ and students’evaluations of this activity. For example, generaleducation teachers and students find that project-based instruction creates opportunities for in-depthlearning of subject-matter content, which fostersstudent independence and problem-solving skills.However, English as a Second Language (ESL)teachers’ and students’ evaluations show mixed results.Although some anecdotal reports and one systematicresearch study show ESL teachers endorsing project-based instruction because it provides opportunitiesfor comprehensible output and integrated languageteaching, there is evidence that ESL students andat least one ESL teacher are frustrated by thisform of instruction. The students felt that project-based instruction prevented them from learning fromthe teacher and textbooks and from focusing onlanguage skills. The ESL teacher felt a loss of studentrespect and noted a drop in student attendance.These discrepancies are discussed from philosophical,cultural, and linguistic perspectives. Recommendationsfor research and pedagogy are proposed. For example,it is suggested that a framework be developed to aidESL teachers in assisting their multicultural students tounderstand the benefits of project-based instruction inL2 learning.

03–7 Biber, Douglas and Reppen, Randi

(Northern Arizona U., USA; Email: [email protected]). What does frequency have to do withgrammar teaching?Studies in Second LanguageAcquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002),199−208.

Using frequency findings from corpus linguistics, thispaper explores the relationship between the informationpresented in English as a Second/Foreign Language(ESL/EFL) materials and what is known about actuallanguage use based on empirical studies. Three aspectsof materials development for grammar instruction arediscussed: the grammatical features to be included,the order of grammatical topics, and the vocabularyused to illustrate these topics. For each aspect, it isshown that there are often sharp contrasts betweenthe information found in grammar materials and whatlearners encounter in the real world of language use. Inthe conclusion, it is argued that a selective revision ofpedagogy to reflect actual use, as shown by frequencystudies, could result in radical changes that facilitate thelearning process for students. [See also abstract 03–108.]

03–8 Black, Paul and Goebel, Zane (NorthernTerritory U., Australia; Email: [email protected]). Multiliteracies in the teaching of

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■ Language teachingIndonesian. Babel (AFMLTA)(N. Adelaide, Australia), 37, 1 (2002), 22−38.

Multiliteracies is a new movement in languageeducation pioneered by the New London Group,which views human knowledge as embedded in social,cultural, and material contexts and sees pedagogyas a complex integration of situated practice, overtinstruction, critical framing, and transformed practice.This paper uses this theoretical basis to address aneglected area in the teaching of Indonesian, namelythe social significance of the use of Indonesian varietiesas against regional varieties. A solution to the problemis suggested through the use of multimedia as a teachingtool and a discussion made of how this relates tothe multiliteracies approach to pedagogy. The authorsfirst debate the importance of teaching varieties ofIndonesian in addition to the standard language, thendescribe the proposed content of the multimedia courseand stress how such an approach can meet the needfor considering the significance of physical contextand behaviour when designing materials for languagelearning.

03–9 Boldt, R. F. (Educational Testing Service,USA; Email: [email protected]) and Ross, S. J.

Language programme meta-analysis: Assessingcorporate programmes in Korean and Japanesecompanies. English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002),353−71.

Accountability in foreign language programmes is oftencontingent on a comparison of standardised test scoresbefore and after the programme of instruction. Aparallel need in language programme evaluation is indescribing not only that there has been language gain,but also in providing information about features of theprogramme that are related to gains. An inferentialproblem with pre- and post-comparisons comeswhen programmes are evaluated without reference tocomparable controls. One methodological alternative toconventional language programme evaluation is a meta-analysis of cumulative archives of records gathered froma variety of programmes. The present meta-analysisof language programmes is one such example. Testsand surveys from 36 language programmes in Japanand Korea provided descriptors of course objectives,language curriculum features, materials, duration ofinstruction, information about instructors, and pre-and-post instruction TOEIC scores (Test of Englishfor International Communication). In all, more than3200 records of pre- and post-test scores were codedfor salient programme characteristics.

03–10 Boulon, Joline (Universite Claude BernardLyon 1, Villeurbanne, France; Email: [email protected]). Narcy’s learning stages as the basefor creating multimedia modules for L2 acquisition.ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002),109−19.

Authoring systems can be a great advantage for teachersconcerned with tools created specifically for theirlearners. The designers, often the teachers themselves,can model their work on existing CD-ROMs marketedfor the general public, inserting information that is morespecific to their own learners and thus enabling them towork on the language at their own rhythm and in theirown time. However, there are a few issues which needto be resolved: (1) teacher access to the finished product,(2) student access to the different parts of the finishedproduct, and (3) pedagogical and didactic criteria. Thispaper is concerned with all three issues, notably thelast, and concentrates on developing the characteristicsof all four learning stages described by Narcy (1997),while illustrating the different theoretical and practicalpossibilities of incorporating these stages into modulescreated by teachers. Narcy’s first stage involves thediscovery of a new structure, vocabulary item, sound,etc.; the next stage is to put adequate declarativeknowledge into place; the next, to put into place thecontrolled processes, i.e., through controlled practice;with the final stage devoted entirely to communicationand expression, i.e., ‘output’. It is suggested that dividingcomputer-mediated activities into four learning stagesin this way provides a helpful and more logical model oforganising the work than doing as with marketed CD-ROMs that are divided for the most part into levels ofgeneral linguistic competence.

03–11 Bueno, Kathleen A. (Southern IllinoisU.-Edwardsville, USA). Creating community andmaking connections in the third-year Spanishcourse: A content-based approach. ForeignLanguage Annals (New York, USA), 35, 3 (2002),333−42.

In response to advances in second language acquisition(SLA) research and the establishment of nationalstandards for foreign language study, considerableexperimentation has taken place in the design of third-year courses during the past five years. However, severalpractical issues warrant further study and discussion.These include (1) developing courses that facilitateprogress towards ACTFL (American Council on theTeaching of Foreign Languages) advanced proficiencyand (2) redesigning programmes to meet the diversecareer needs of students. This article addresses thefirst issue by discussing a third-year composition andconversation course designed to increase students’communicative skills and the second issue by suggestinglinks to other subject matter. Areas for future researchon the design of the language course sequence aresuggested.

03–12 Callahan, Philip (U. of Arizona, USA;Email: [email protected]) and Shaver, Peter.Formative considerations using integrative CALL.Applied Language Learning (Presidio of Monterey,CA, USA), 12, 2 (2001), 147−60.

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Language teaching ■This case study addresses the technical and learningissues relating to a formative implementation of a CALL(Computer-Assisted Language Learning) browser-basedIntermediate Russian Program. Instruction occurredthrough a distance education implementation and ina grouped classroom using a local-area network (LAN).Learners indicated that the software was clear, motiv-ating and content rich. High attrition rates occurredin the distance education setting. They were attributedto administrative and technical support issues, such as alack of time for instruction due to workplace obligationsand insufficient technical support for complex in-structional implementation. Recommendations for im-proving success include continuous rapid feedback inlengthy complex systems, forums that promote groupparticipation, adequate study time, superior evaluativetools, and immediate technical support.

03–13 Chateau, Anne and Georges, Lucy

(CRELENS [Centre de Ressources pourl’Enseignment des Langues Etrangeres auxNon-Specialistes]. Universite Henri Poincare,Nancy, France). La Recherche-Action: un moteurd’innovations pedagogiques? Analyse d’un casconcret. [Action Research: A driving force behindpedagogical innovation? A case study.] Les Cahiersde l’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 3 (2002) 66−79.

This paper argues for the value of an action researchperspective in materials creation projects. It reports thedevelopment of a training programme in conferencepresentation skills for doctoral students and teacher-researchers in sciences. A needs analysis led to thecreation of a resource bank of video-based and othermaterials which were used as the pedagogical contentof a two-stage training course. A 15-hour course inJanuary, focusing particularly on the use of the visualchannel, including the use of body language, wasfollowed by another 15-hour course in June whichled to student presentations. Students were required towork individually between these two sessions, availingthemselves of self-access facilities. Evaluation of the pilotversion of the programme revealed that students weresatisfied with the materials and the pedagogy but hadnot followed the requirement for individual work. Thesecond version of the programme involved the additionof a ‘Dos and Don’ts’ CD-Rom based on conferencepresentations given by second language speakers ofEnglish and a weekly one-hour session during theinterval between the two stages of the programme. Theproject led to improved teacher collaboration acrossthe campus and to the enrichment of staff technicalskills.

03–14 Cullen, Richard (Canterbury Christ ChurchU. Coll., UK; Email: [email protected]). Supportiveteacher talk: The importance of the F-move. ELTJournal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002), 117−27.

This paper investigates a particular aspect of teachertalk − the teacher’s provision of feedback or follow-

up − and examines the role it plays in Englishas a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) classroomdiscourse. It draws on transcript data from a secondaryschool classroom in Tanzania to illustrate a teacher’sfollow-up moves, where these moves form the thirdpart of a chain of I-R-F (Initiate-Respond-Follow-up)exchanges between the teacher and her students. Twomain roles of the F-move are identified − evaluativeand discoursal, each of which is argued to supportlearning in different ways. The paper focuses, inparticular, on discoursal follow-up, and the strategieswhich the teacher in the data uses to build on students’contributions and develop a meaning-focused dialoguewith the class. The teacher’s follow-up moves are seento play a crucial part in clarifying and building on theideas that the students express in their responses, andin developing a meaningful dialogue between teacherand class. In doing so, the teacher supports learning bycreating an environment which is rich in language andhumour.

03–15 de Courcy, Michele (La Trobe U.,Australia; Email: [email protected]),Warren, Jane and Burston, Monique. Childrenfrom diverse backgrounds in an immersionprogramme. Language and Education (Clevedon,UK), 16, 2 (2002), 112−27.

Immersion or content-based language programmes aresometimes promoted as the best way of achieving highlevels of proficiency in languages other than English.Evaluations of such programmes indicate that the cohortof students achieve higher levels of proficiency thanstudents in traditional programmes. However, a recentsurvey of all teachers in a French early partial immersionprogramme revealed concerns for those who teach inEnglish as to whether an immersion programme issuitable for all children. They felt that the problemsof children who were learning English and French assecond languages were compounded by the programme.There were also concerns for children who strugglewith mathematics, the main content area delivered inthe second-language programme. The same concernsare not expressed by those who teach in French.This paper considers whether the teachers’ concernsare grounded, or whether, in fact, the nature of theimmersion classroom may make it a more suitableenvironment for fostering the learning of a diversity ofchildren. From the research identified in the literaturereview and in the present study, it is concluded thatchildren from diverse backgrounds should not be forcedout of immersion programmes, as they would do nobetter in the English mainstream, but would lose thebenefit of learning an additional language, at a cost totheir self-esteem.

03–16 Felix, Uschi (Monash U., Australia; Email:[email protected]). The Web as avehicle for constructivist approaches in languageteaching. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002),2−15.

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■ Language teachingThe central question in this paper is whether Webtechnology has the potential to add value to face-to-face language teaching in the form of activities thatcannot be realised fully in a traditional classroom. Whilearguments are presented for and against e-learning, itis concluded that the latest human-machine interfacesoffer an environment for interactive learning that canfoster the acquisition of communicative skills. Thepaper argues that one of the great strengths of theWeb is the potential to engage students in creativeinformation-gap activities and real experiential learningin the form of meaningful, process-oriented projectsin authentic settings. Evidence is drawn from threesources: (a) the current literature on new learningapproaches; (b) the latest best-practice applications, suchas Webquests, Voice Chat, MOOs and innovative co-operative ventures; and (c) the findings of two largeresearch studies by the author on students’ perceptionsof Web-based language learning in school and tertiarysettings. The paper emphasises the importance ofcreating connectivity rather than content.

03–17 Fischer, Dore (Dublin Inst. of Technology,Ireland). Irish images of Germany: Using literarytexts in intercultural learning. Language, Cultureand Curriculum (Clevedon, UK), 14, 3 (2001),224−34.

Ireland is currently changing rapidly from a countryof high emigration to a country of high immigration.An awareness of cultural diversity, and how to live withit, has become an important issue. This paper takes abrief look at the need for intercultural learning withinthe Irish context. Concepts of ‘culture’ and culturalconditioning are discussed and aims and objectives forintercultural learning are suggested. As many accountsof intercultural contacts come from novelists, poetsand playwrights, the article looks at the part literature,in particular modern Irish prose fiction and Germanmigrant literature, can play in the intercultural learningexperience. The paper concludes with the descriptionof a module which aims to develop an interculturalcompetence and includes the study of literary fiction.

03–18 Fukushima, Tatsuya (U. of Arkansas,USA). Promotional video production in a foreignlanguage course. Foreign Language Annals(New York, USA), 35, 3 (2002), 349−55.

Multimedia equipment enables second language (L2)instructors to explore innovative course approaches,but such technologies are sometimes adapted with fewpedagogical considerations. For optimal results, it isimportant to adapt multimedia technologies in a task-based activity whereby the resulting product deliversmeaningful L2 content of practical value in the realworld. This article describes a course project in whicha group of intermediate Japanese language learners atthe University of Arkansas produced the university’spromotional video in the target language. Studentswrote and narrated a script that described features of the

university’s popular colleges and facilities, videotapedthe scenes on campus, and edited the recordingsinto a three-minute Japanese promotional video withEnglish subtitles. The complete promotional video waslater uploaded for viewing on the World Wide Web.By employing user-friendly computer software, thestudents produced a promotional video of substantialreal-life value and of near-professional audiovisualquality. Pedagogically, this video serves not only as ashowcase of the learners’ L2 skills but as a motivationaltool for students with limited opportunities to use theirtarget language.

03–19 Gallien, Chloe (Universite Nancy 2,France). Documents d’ecoute et debutants:compte rendu d’une etude empirique. [Listeningmaterials and beginners: Account of an empiricalstudy.] Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy, France), 26

(2001), 91−110.

This article presents an experiment carried out withbeginners in French in a Scottish university. Theexperiment aimed to test the frequently made claimthat authentic input is too difficult at such a low leveland can therefore be demotivating as well as detrimentalto learning. The aim was to investigate whether boththe attitudes and the gain in language acquisitionwere impacted by exposure to allegedly difficult auralmaterials. The findings of the experiment indicate firstlythat there was no difference in perceptions between theparticipants exposed to difficult input and those exposedto artificially created simple input. The results alsoshowed that there was a highly significant improvementin the listening skills of the group exposed to the moredifficult materials.

03–20 Ghosn, lrma K. (Lebanese American U.,Byblos, Lebanon; Email: [email protected]).Four good reasons to use literature in primaryschool ELT. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002),172−79.

The teaching of English as a foreign language inprimary schools is gaining popularity throughout theworld. Many countries are also using English in theupper grades as the vehicular language for all or partof the general curriculum. It is therefore importantto identify the types of materials that best preparepupils for academic work in the second language(L2). The traditional structurally-based texts and thenewer, integrated, communicative courses might notbe sufficient for the demands of the academic classes.On the other hand, a syllabus that is based or thatdraws heavily on authentic children’s stories providesa motivating medium for language learning whilefostering the development of the thinking skills thatare needed for L2 academic literacy. Literature can alsoact as a powerful change agent by developing pupils’intercultural awareness while at the same time nurturingempathy, a tolerance for diversity, and emotionalintelligence. This is an important consideration at a time

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Language teaching ■when the world is becoming smaller, yet increasinglyhostile.

03–21 Gil, Gloria (Universidade Federale deSanta Caterina, Brazil). Two complementary modesof foreign language classroom interaction. ELTJournal (Oxford, UK) 56, 3 (2002), 273−79.

Theory-driven investigations into foreign language (FL)classroom interaction generally fail to offer adequateframeworks to describe the complex nature of classroomdiscourse. This article proposes a contextualised modelwhich encompasses both pedagogical and naturalmodes of conversation, overcoming the form versuscommunication dichotomy; rather it considers thetwo modes to be complementary and co-occurring.The article considers examples of classroom interactionwhere pedagogic exchanges shift to natural conversationand where the two modes overlap, for example whereboth the teacher and students make personal asidesor when learners contribute spontaneous personalcomments. Thus, classroom discourse is constructed byboth teacher and students and may shift backwards andforwards between pedagogic and natural conversation.The teacher needs to revisit the traditional teacherand student roles to increase learners’ contributions toclassroom interaction by reducing both teacher talkingtime and teacher control of the discourse in order tofacilitate learning through social interaction and enablestudents to become proficient in the FL.

03–22 Gillespie, John H. and Barr, J. David

(U. of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK; Email:[email protected]). Resistance, reluctanceand radicalism: A study of staff reaction to theadoption of CALL/C&IT in modern languagesdepartments. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1(2002), 120−32.

This paper examines staff reaction towards the use ofComputer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) andCommunications and Information Technology (C&IT)in language learning and teaching. It considers theattitudes of colleagues in three different universities, twoin the UK and one in Canada. The findings suggest thatstaff in these three locations are not resistant to the useof computer technology in learning and teaching butrather that any hesitations they have are due to a rangeof different factors of a practical kind, ranging from timepressures to course relevance. It was found that staff inone institution are clearly more enthusiastic about usingCALL and C&IT than colleagues in the other two, butthat CALL and C&IT were also widely welcomed inthe latter. One of the main reasons for this has been thecreation of common learning environments on the Web.In addition, findings show that staff already convincedof the benefits that CALL and C&IT bring to theteaching and learning experience (‘radicals’) have a rolein encouraging their less enthusiastic colleagues to beginusing this form of technology. It was found, however,that the majority of colleagues are not radicals, but

pragmatists, and are willing to make use of CALL andC&IT provided that the benefits are clearly guaranteed.There remains a small minority of conservatives (thoughno suggestions are made here as to how to deal withthem).

03–23 Gimeno-Sanz, Ana (UniversidadPolitecnica de Valencia, Spain; Email:[email protected]). E-language learning for theairline industry. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1(2002), 47−57.

The acquisition of foreign languages for specificpurposes through e-learning strategies is one of theareas less researched and developed in the field ofcomputer-assisted language learning. However, as amember of a recently completed Leonardo da VinciProject devoted to vocational training, the authorreports here on the findings of the Airline Talk project(website: http://www.airline-talk.com). The aim wasto supply materials which would promote continuinglearning amongst airline staff in three target languages:English, German and Spanish. The paper focuses onthe development, structure and language content ofthe Spanish courseware, Bienvenido a bordo!, designedat the author’s institution around a constructivistnotion of learning, where meaning is created bythe learner, not simply received. The process carriedout by the project partners sought to satisfy learnerdemands in terms of learner orientation, processorientation and learner autonomy, to achieve languagecompetence through the development of communicativeskills and interactivity. Key issues included: needs analysis,courseware specifications, exercise template design,graphical user interface and learner motivation. Anevaluation carried out at two partner institutionsinvestigated whether the CD-ROM met learners’ needsand explored the reactions of teachers not involvedin the writing of the materials. Learners particularlyliked the appropriacy of the situations and the languageinvolved, while the teachers were positive about theflexibility of a learner-centred program focused onlistening and speaking skills and suited to a variety oflearning styles.

03–24 Guest, Michael (Miyazaki Medical Coll.,Japan; Email: [email protected]). Acritical ‘checkbook’ for culture teaching andlearning. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002),154−61.

This article sets out to make teachers aware of someof the problems that may arise when trying to adda cultural component to their English classes. Theexamples provided are largely from Asia, but the pointsmade can extend to any culture. When endorsingcertain research models or classroom methodologies,teachers may unwittingly be endorsing questionable(and potentially dangerous) stigmatising, monolithic,predications about ‘the Other’. As a result, whentrying to include overt and direct, prepositional cultural

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■ Language teachingcontent into the English as a Foreign/Second Language(EFL/ESL) classroom, teachers too often end upapplying untenable formulae and assumptions that areinconsistent with the following realities: (1) what istrue of the parts is not necessarily true of all the parts;(2) linguistic interaction is almost always at the level ofindividuals or small groups; and (3) reducing cultureto a few generalised propositionally-stated ‘pegs’,while ignoring features of genre, parallels an outdatedteaching methodology. It would therefore seem that acultural anthropology-based contrastive approach maybe unsuited to the EFL/ESL classroom. It is suggestedthat, instead, any focus upon culture teaching shouldrather emphasise pragmatic and linguistic universals,and psychological/social typologies, while limiting thefocus to finding and interpreting differences. This wouldbetter provide for an indirect and covert introductionof culture, couched in constructs and models that moreaccurately represent classroom and social interactions.

03–25 Guichon, Nicolas and Penso, Anne

(IUT2 de Grenoble, France). Vers une appropriationdes outils multimedias. [Towards ownership ofeducational technology.] Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT(Grenoble, France), 21, 3 (2002) 80−90.

This paper reflects on the use of a custom-built multi-media CD-ROM (Beani) in the teaching and learning ofBusiness English students of differing proficiency levels,and emphasises the importance of a design project indeveloping teachers’ skills and their awareness of thestrengths and limitations of educational technology. Thedesign of the CD-ROM is explained: nine thematicunits each including a newspaper article read by anative English speaker on which students performlexical research, syntactic exercises, a video extract onwhich students practise global and local comprehension,graphic material which leads to text-completion, andInternet links. The importance of the teacher in thedifferential use of the materials is stressed as well asthe potential for individuals to work at their own pace.The results of a student survey show the motivating andattractive nature of the materials.

03–26 Hemard, Dominique and Cushion, Steve

(London Guildhall U., UK; Email: [email protected]). Sound authoring on the Web: Meeting theusers’ needs. Computer Assisted LanguageLearning (Lisse, The Netherlands), 15, 3 (2002),281−94.

This paper focuses on the conception and integration ofsound authoring into an existing Web-based, languagelearning environment. In so doing, it strives todemonstrate that sound, as a hitherto elusive time-basedmedium, can be modelled and successfully authoredfor Web-based delivery, when adopting a user-centreddesign approach. Thus, it reports on a design projectwhose main aim was to add a usable and manageablesound authoring system designed to greatly increasethe potential for multimedia interactivity of an existing

Web-enhanced platform. The main emphasis is placedon design considerations stemming from identifiedmental models leading to design decisions and solutionsrelated to the needs of computer assisted languagelearning users.

03–27 Henry, George and Zerwekh, Robert

(Northern Illinois U., USA; Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]). SEAsite:Web-based interactive learning resources forSoutheast Asian languages and cultures. CALICOJournal (San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3 (2001),499−512.

SEAsite is a web-based interactive learning resource sitefor Southeast Asian Languages (Indonesian, Tagalog,Thai, Khmer, Lao, Burmese, and Vietnamese). Itslanguage learning materials feature second language(L2) script support, streaming audio, pictures, andinteractive exercise types that allow learners to test theirunderstanding. Many SEAsite resources about culture,politics, music, art, religion, and other subjects relatedto Southeast Asia are written in English. A nonstandard,but workable, system for rendering Southeast Asianorthographies in web pages and interactive exercisesis described. Computer code to support display of L2characters in Java applets is available to interested parties.

03–28 Hoare, Philip and Kong, Stella (HongKong Inst. of Education). A framework of attributesfor English immersion teachers in Hong Kong andimplications for immersion teacher education. AsiaPacific Journal of Language in Education (HongKong), 4, 2 (2001), 79−106.

This paper reports a study into the language-related attributes required by successful late immersionteachers. The paper proposes that a framework of suchattributes should draw on theory, on the experienceof the implementation of immersion education andimmersion teacher education in international contexts,and on the unique characteristics of the individualeducational context in which the teacher operates.In addition to the theoretical background, the datafor the study come from a wide-ranging review ofimmersion teacher education provision worldwide anda number of local Hong Kong studies. The paperconcludes with a brief description of how an immersionteacher education programme in Hong Kong attemptsto provide teachers with the attributes identified by thestudy.

03–29 Houser, Chris (Kinjo Gakuin U., Japan;Email: [email protected]),Yokoi, Shigeki and

Yasuda, Takami. Computer assistance for readingand writing Japanese as a foreign language.CALICO Journal (San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3(2001), 541−49.

Computers can aid students of Japanese as a foreignlanguage by rapidly teaching the language’s 2000

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Language teaching ■written characters, automatically translating words anddocuments, and assisting with input of Japanese texts.This paper introduces and evaluates new softwaretechnologies that significantly ease the reading andwriting of Japanese: (a) a system of mnemonics andcomputerised flashcards enabling students to rapidlylearn 2000 kanji; and (b) a word processor tool devisedfor existing Internet services to help students withwriting Japanese texts.

03–30 Hsu, Hui-Mei and Gao, Liwei

(U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Emails:[email protected]; [email protected]).Computer-mediated materials for Chinesecharacter learning. CALICO Journal (San Marcos,TX, USA), 19, 3 (2001), 533−36.

This article reviews four sets of software packagesdesigned for learning Chinese characters, and providescomparative observations. The computer mediatedmaterials, Write Chinese, Chinese Characters Primer, Ani-mated Chinese Characters and USC Chinese Character Pageare all well known to teachers of Chinese: the firsttwo are CD-ROMs published by the two major pub-lishers of East Asian languages; the last two arewebsites referenced in the Learning Chinese On-lineresource web site (www.csulb.edu/∼txie/online.htm).The materials are all seen as having great potential forincorporation into Chinese character learning. It is con-cluded that, with the accumulation of relevant Chineseas a foreign language research and teaching pedagogies,computer-mediated materials can not only serve asan input mechanism but can also create a meaningfuland interactive environment for language learners.

03–31 Hu, Guangwei (Nat. Inst. of Ed., NanyangTechnological U., Singapore; Email: [email protected]). Recent important developments insecondary English-language teaching in thePeople’s Republic of China. Language, Culture andCurriculum (Clevedon, UK), 15, 1 (2002),30−49.

This paper reports on reforms in English LanguageTeaching (ELT) in the People’s Republic of China(PRC) since the mid-1980s. It briefly reviews ELTduring the Cultural Revolution and in the immediatefollowing years to provide a background againstwhich more recent developments can be examined.It then examines recent important developmentsin curriculum policy, syllabus design, textbookproduction, examinations, and research that areproducing, and will continue to exert, profoundinfluences on ELT in the PRC. These developmentsare discussed not only at the national level but alsowith specific reference to Shanghai, which has beenin the forefront of ELT reforms in the country. Alsodiscussed are a number of issues arising from the reformsthat include the demands of content-based Englishinstruction, teaching about target language culture,teacher training, and lack of solid empirical research.

03–32 Hudson, James M. and Bruckman, Amy

S. (Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, USA;Email: [email protected]). IRC Francais: Thecreation of an Internet-based SLA community.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 2 (2002), 109−34.

Research into text-based chat environments for foreignlanguage learning has shown that discussions onlinehave a significantly different character from those inthe classroom. This paper begins with a brief designhistory of one of these environments: IRC Francais.The experience both illustrates the challenges involvedin moving these chat environments from the languagelab to the Internet and offers insight into some of thecauses of these changes in conversation. The initialchallenges encountered ranged from ethical difficultiesin doing research in Internet-based chat environmentsto bootstrapping a synchronous community. Thepaper then presents a study taking a closer look atthe interactions online and in the classroom overthe course of a semester. Classroom interaction waslargely teacher-oriented, despite the best efforts ofthe teachers involved. Even though teachers initiatedonline conversations in the same way, however, onlineinteraction was student-driven and significantly moreinteractive. These observations lend credibility to thelanguage ego permeability theory and its emphasis oninhibition. Quantitative findings of this study mirror anumber of other studies. Qualitative findings suggestthat important features of the medium lead students tofeel more comfortable in the online environment. Inparticular, the ‘almost realtime’ nature of this mediumseems to offer a blend of benefits that arise in both face-to-face conversation and asynchronous interaction. Indoing so, however, some new challenges are introduced.

03–33 Itoh, Reiko (DePauw U., Greencastle, IN,USA; Email: [email protected]) and Hannon,

Charles. The effect of online quizzes on learningJapanese. CALICO Journal (San Marcos, TX, USA),19, 3 (2001), 551−61.

This article describes the collaborative effort of anassistant professor of Japanese and an instructionaltechnologist in creating online review quizzes forstudents of intermediate Japanese at Gettysburg College.Because of the convenience of online delivery, thesequizzes were well suited to the needs of today’sliberal arts students who often participate in manyextracurricular activities. Student use of these quizzesincreased over the course of the semester, and thebenefits to them were measurable, especially in thosestudents who had performed poorly in the class priorto the adoption of online quizzes.

03–34 Jule, Allyson (Trinity Western U., Burnaby,BC, Canada). Speaking their sex: A study of genderand linguistic space in an ESL classroom. TESLCanada Journal/La Revue TESL du Canada(Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19, 2 (2001), 37−51.

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■ Language teachingThis study is an exploration of the amount of talk(also referred to as ‘linguistic space’, Mahony, 1985)used by girls as opposed to boys in a grade 2 Englishas a Second Language (ESL) classroom located inthe Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The focuswas on the amount of language used by the girlsin teacher-led classroom lessons. Data were collectedthrough videotaped observations, which were thentranscribed, measured by counting words, and analysedfor conversational opportunities. The findings revealedthat being a girl may have affected participation in theclassroom lessons, and by extension affected language-learning opportunities. The particular lack of linguisticspace in the girls’ experience suggests that the girlsin this classroom may be limited in language use.Their silence appeared partly influenced by the teacher’sresponse to their comments. The article concludes witha discussion of gender as a significant linguistic variablein an ESL experience.

03–35 Kabata, Kaori (U. of Alberta, Canada;Email: [email protected]) and Yang, X. Jie.Developing multimedia lesson modules forintermediate Japanese. CALICO Journal (SanMarcos, TX, USA), 19, 3 (2001), 563−70.

While the recent development of multimediatechnology has opened up many possibilities, there isstill a lot to learn when it comes to how best to takeadvantage of it. This article presents Teaching Assis-tance Kaleidoscope Online, a computer-assisted Japaneselanguage project developed to assist students’ self-study.It was initiated in 1999 with the goal of creating listeningcomprehension materials for Japanese learners at mainlyintermediate and advanced levels. The modules arebased on current newsclips and are embedded inan Internet based template. The authors discuss theproject’s main characteristics and the basic structureof the modules, together with the results from anevaluation study, in order to share what they havelearned with those who plan to launch a similar projectdealing with foreign language learning.

03–36 Khuwaileh, Abdullah A. (Jordan U. ofScience & Technology). English private tutoring: Acase study of a new phenomenon in the north ofJordan at the university level. Journal of Languagefor International Business (Glendale, AZ, USA), 13,1/2 (2002), 72−83.

This paper explores the reasons and conditions whichhave led a substantial number of Jordanian families tohire private tutors of English for their offspring studyingscience and technology in Jordanian state universitiesthrough the medium of English. The topic has beenneglected because private tutoring is quite new toJordan. The samples and data were taken from the cityof Irbid, a highly populated area in the north of Jordan.Specifically, 50 students from Yarmouk University andJordan University of Science and Technology filled in aquestionnaire, and some of them were later interviewed

about points raised; 10 of their parents were alsointerviewed. Statistical data analysis revealed reasonsand conditions that gave rise to the phenomenon ofEnglish private tutoring, as well as differences betweenthe students’ viewpoints and their parents’. The studyoffers a number of recommendations to improve andbetter organise private tutoring, and is seen as beingapplicable to other Arab countries.

03–37 Kinginger, Celeste (Pennsylvania State U.,USA). Defining the Zone of Proximal Developmentin US foreign language education. AppliedLinguistics (Oxford, UK), 23, 2 (2002), 240−56.

The focus of this article is the interpretation ofVygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)for foreign language (FL) teaching in the USA. Thisproblem is taken to exemplify the effect of long-standing tensions between progressive and conservativestakeholders in educational processes. As the constructgains in prominence, it is claimed by the progressivesand conservatives alike, who shape the contours ofits meaning according to their particular educationalvision. A brief summary of the construct’s origins inthe writings of Vygotsky is followed by an outline of itsreception among Western psychologists and educators,reviewing a variety of proposals for interpreting theZPD in teaching and in research. The paper thenfocuses on three cases in which the ZPD has beeninvoked in recent publications on research and classroomteaching. The first case − the ‘skills’ interpretation −demonstrates how the ZPD is invoked in utilitarianmode as a means of relating pedagogical practice tothe exigencies of ‘real’ communication to further theacquisition of skills. The second − the ‘scaffolding’interpretation − illustrates the use of the ZPD inprogressive educational discourses, where the constructserves as a foil for conventional classroom practices. Thethird − the ‘metalinguistic’ interpretation − presentsa holistic interpretation of the ZPD applied to theappropriation of metalinguistic knowledge.

03–38 Knoerr, Helene (Universite d’Ottawa,Canada). Recherche-action dans l’universite du3eme millenaire. 2001: l’odyssee de la classe?[Action research in the university of the thirdmillenium. 2001: A class odyssey?] Les Cahiers del’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 2 (2001), 24−39.

This article argues for the validity of action research,seeing it as a ‘third way’ between theoretical researchand pedagogic practice, in which the classroom becomesthe laboratory. Having outlined the cyclical proceduresof action research (plan→act→observe→reflect, andthen→plan etc), the article underlines its collaborativenature and lists the team members deemed necessaryto ensure the successful implementation of an actionresearch project: the students, a critical friend, otherresearchers (encountered through the literature) and,in certain cases, a statistician. The ethical proceduresrequired in the north American context are described

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Language teaching ■and evaluated. While the procedures are acknowledgedas essential, certain aspects are also seen as contributinga further obstacle to what is already a difficult andcomplex research method; in particular the need toforesee all eventualities conflicts with the dynamicnature of action research. Finally, the article arguesfor continued efforts towards the acceptance of actionresearch by other members of the research community.

03–39 Koester, Almut Josepha (U. ofBirmingham, UK; Email: [email protected]).The performance of speech acts in workplaceconversations and the teaching of communicativefunctions. System (Oxford, UK), 30, 2 (2002),167−84.

This article, based on a 34,000-word corpus of spokendiscourse, argues for a discourse approach to teachingcommunicative functions or speech acts in spokenEnglish. Starting with the premise that spoken corporacan provide valuable insights into the way speakers ‘do’things through talk, the performance of speech acts ina corpus of workplace conversations is analysed. Firsta number of devices used to perform direct speechacts are analysed in the corpus as a whole, and thenthe transcripts of two workplace conversations areexamined in order to ascertain how the performance oftwo particular speech acts − giving advice and givingdirectives − is accomplished. These analyses show thatspeech acts are not usually performed directly and thatit is necessary to look beyond the individual utteranceto see how particular communicative acts unfoldwithin a conversational sequence. The article discussesrelevance of these findings for the teaching of functionallanguage.

03–40 Lam, Yvonne (U. of Toronto, Canada;Email: [email protected]) and Lawrence,

Geoff. Teacher-student role redefinition during acomputer-based second language project: Arecomputers catalysts for empoweringchange?Computer Assisted Language Learning(Lisse, The Netherlands), 15, 3 (2002), 295−315.

This paper reports on a case study examining changes inteacher and student roles in a computer-based projectconducted in a university-level Spanish foreign language(FL) class. Through classroom observations, studentfocus groups, student and teacher questionnaires, andteacher interviews, the shift in classroom roles was notas significant as expected and was largely reminiscentof more traditional teacher-student roles observed ina communicative classroom. While learners remainedlargely recipients of the learning process, they did adoptincreasing autonomy for managing and directing theirown learning, while the teacher remained the expertand general authority figure. This preservation of moretraditional roles was not due to a rejection of moretransformative roles, but likely a result of external factorsdictated by the logistics and nature of the computer-based activity, including the time constraints and student

unfamiliarity with software used in an FL. In spiteof these constraints, both students and the teacherexhibited an increased awareness of the fluidity oftheir classroom roles. The teacher reported an increasedrecognition of the importance of individualising histeaching practice, while students appreciated their newmanagerial roles, giving them increased freedom andthe power to direct their own learning. These small butdramatic changes suggest that computer-based secondand foreign language (SL/FL) projects have the potentialto empower both learners and teachers in the SL/FLlearning process.

03–41 Lee, Jackie F. K. (Hong Kong Baptist U.).Attitudes towards debatable usages among Englishlanguage teachers and students. Hong KongJournal of Applied Linguistics (Hong Kong), 6, 2(2001), 1−21.

Teachers of English as a second or foreign languagemay have difficulties in deciding what to teach in areaswhere there is divided usage. Some previous studieshave found that teachers are sensitive to traditionalprescriptions such as the use of data as a plural nounrather than a singular noun, and the use of like asa preposition rather than a conjunction. This paperaims to compare the attitudes towards debatable usagesbetween Hong Kong teachers and their students. Datawere collected via several elicitation tests. The findingsshowed significant differences between teachers’ andstudents’ attitudes towards debatable usages. Hong KongEnglish teachers had a higher tendency to reject andreplace items such as hypothetical was, and each otherand among for more than two entities. This suggestthat Hong Kong’s teachers may not be totally in tunewith currently accepted usage and are linguisticallymore conservative than their students, particularly informal settings; they are also considerably less tolerantof language variation as manifested in current authenticlanguage corpora.

03–42 Lee, Jackie F. K. (Hong Kong Baptist U.).Teachers’ attitudes towards disputable usages.RELC Journal (Singapore), 32, 2 (2001), 1−15.

Some previous studies have found that teachers aresensitive to traditional prescriptions such as the use ofwhom rather than who in object function, and betweenyou and me rather than between you and I . This paperaims to examine whether Australian teachers as nativespeakers of English and Hong Kong teachers as non-native English speakers still display such conservativeattitudes towards disputable usages these days. Data werecollected via two elicitation tests. In the first survey,34 Australian teachers and 37 Hong Kong teacherswere invited to participate in a judgement test. Theirresponses were compared with those of students. In thesecond survey, 73 Australian teachers, 70 Hong Kongteachers, 207 Australian students and 188 Hong Kongstudents were presented with a proofreading test. Thefindings showed significant differences between teachers

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■ Language teachingand students towards disputable usages. Both Australianteachers and Hong Kong teachers had a higher tendencyto reject and replace items such as different to, less + pluralnoun and final prepositions. This suggests that tolerancediminishes with involvement in teaching and familiaritywith prescriptive rules. Pedagogical implications ofthese findings are also discussed.

03–43 Lee, Kang-Sub (Chungju National U. ofEd., Chungbuk, Korea; Email: [email protected]).The renaissance in formal grammar instruction andgrammar consciousness-raising tasks. EnglishTeaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002), 215−38.

The view that formal instruction should allowlearners to ‘focus on form’ within a meaning-basedcommunicative context has been prominent recently.Following the concept of a task-based approach tolanguage instruction, several studies have focused onthe favourable learning outcomes resulting from atype of grammar consciousness-raising task wherelearners are provided with grammar problems they mustsolve interactively. This study extended earlier studiesregarding the effects of interactive small group grammartasks as opposed to traditional teacher-fronted grammarlessons. Results based on comparisons of the proficiencygains produced by the grammar task treatment withthe gains produced by the non-grammar task treatmentindicated that there were significant differences in favourof the grammar task activities.

03–44 Lefkowitz, Natalie (Central WashingtonU., USA) and Hedgcock, John (Monterey Inst. ofInternat. Studies, USA; Email: [email protected]). Sound barriers: Influences of social prestige,peer pressure and teacher (dis)approval on FL oralperformance. Language Teaching Research(London, UK), 6, 3 (2002), 223−44.

Social pressure and prestige have been viewed as barriersto oral performance in the second language (L2)classroom, but their impact has not been extensivelyexamined in foreign language (FL) contexts. Learnerdecisions to accept or reject prescriptive pronunciationnorms may confer prestige, which may both privilegeand marginalise novice classroom learners. This paperexamines how adult, monolingual FL learners’ oralperformance is affected by the degree to whichthey associate prestige with classmate and teacher(dis)approval. Relationships are explored among thefollowing variables: (1) learners’ views of their ownand their peers’ pronunciation skills; (2) valuesassociated with native-like speech; (3) beliefs aboutsocial conditions favourable to target-like speech; and(4) the accuracy of learners’ perceptions of desirablepronunciation patterns. Data are drawn from 11 audio-recorded FL class sessions, 10 ethnographic interviews,and questionnaire responses supplied by 282 studentsin French and Spanish cohorts. Analyses reveal thatparticipants profess a strong desire to attain ‘standard’pronunciation. However, findings also highlight striking

disjunctions between learners’ perceptions and theirobserved production, reflecting a concern for socialstatus and solidarity. Finally, results expose a tendencyto inflate oral performance self-assessments which mayconceal learners’ inability to notice mismatches betweentheir production and target norms.

03–45 Levy, Mike (Griffith U., Queensland,Australia; Email: [email protected]).CALL by design: Discourse, products andprocesses. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002),58−84.

‘Design’ is a term familiar to many language teachersand Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)practitioners. It is used regularly in relation tocurriculum, syllabus, course and task in the generalliterature, and it occurs in all these areas and more inthe CALL sphere where instructional design, websitedesign, interface design and screen design are just someof the additional points of focus. This paper looksat CALL design in more detail, placing a particularemphasis on describing the discourse, products andprocesses of design in CALL. It looks at what hasbeen learnt about design, and points to areas thatremain problematical. It also makes connections withcognate fields whenever these links prove helpful. Thisstudy is the second in a series of three complementarypapers by the author which look at research, designand evaluation in CALL. All use the same corpusof CALL work as a database and the research designand methodology in each is the same. In this paperthe description and discussion is based on 93 articlesinvolving design published in books and journalspublished in 1999. The descriptive section is followedby analysis and interpretation with special attentiongiven to the relationship between theory and design,and the centrality of the task and the learner in thedesign process.

03–46 Lewis, Marilyn (U. of Auckland,New Zealand; Email: [email protected])and McCook, Fiona. Cultures of teaching: Voicesfrom Vietnam. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2(2002), 146−53.

Recent articles have commented on the lack ofuptake by teachers in Asia of Communicative LanguageTeaching (CLT) principles, as introduced during teachereducation programmes. One suggested reason for thisis that teachers may assume that there is an oppositionbetween CLT and traditional approaches. Studies on thistopic draw on questionnaires, on the writers’ teachingexperiences, and on classroom observation. The presentresearch quotes from journals written by Vietnameseteachers of English during an in-service course. Thejournals reveal that teachers do implement new ideas atthe same time as incorporating the traditional featuresvalued in their education systems.

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Language teaching ■03–47 Li, Defeng (City U. of Hong Kong; Email:[email protected]). Language teaching intranslator training. Babel (Amsterdam, TheNetherlands), 47, 4 (2001), 343−54.

In recent years there has been an increasing interestamong translation scholars and practitioners alikein promoting translation professionalism and hencewinning recognition for translation studies as anindependent discipline. Many have convincingly andjustly argued for the existence of a hardcore subject-matter knowledge for translation studies and havestressed the importance of this knowledge in thedevelopment of the students’ translational competence.Unfortunately, in this attempt, the importance oflanguage competence and thus language training isunduly played down. This article examines this issueby looking at translator training in Hong Kong.It argues that the assumption of students’ firstand second language competence being adequate tostudy translation immediately upon entering translationprogrammes is unfounded, and might be at least partiallyresponsible for students’ slow improvement in theirtranslational competence throughout the programme.Key issues for strengthening language training fortranslation students are also highlighted in this paper.

03–48 Liu, Jun (U. of Arizona, USA). Negotiatingsilence in American classrooms: Three Chinesecases. Language and Intercultural Communication(Clevedon, UK), 2, 1 (2002), 37−54.

A common observation about Chinese students inAmerican classrooms is their silence, which has beenspeculated on by many second-language acquisitionresearchers as the result of the students lackingcommunicative competence compatible to their native-English-speaking counterparts. By focusing on threestudents from mainland China as part of a larger in-vestigation of Asian students’ classroom communicationpatterns in US universities, this paper explores indepth the complexities of silence, and the culturalinterpretations of silence in various social contexts.Multiple functions of silence in terms of linkage,affecting, revelational, judgemental, and activatingfunctions are explored across the three cases. The paperfurther investigates how Chinese students constructtheir identities through silence, and how they canreconstruct their identities by negotiating silence inAmerican classrooms and by developing adaptivecultural transformation competence in the targetculture.

03–49 Lu, Dan (Hong Kong Baptist U.). Culturalfeatures in speech acts: A Sino-Americancomparison. Language, Culture and Curriculum(Clevedon, UK), 14, 3 (2001), 214−23.

This paper argues that cross-cultural communicationbetween Chinese and Americans often runs intotrouble. Some factors which block communication lie

in culture-governed structures of language. But in manycases, such problems occur in utterances. As Chineseand Americans subconsciously follow their own culturalbeliefs and norms when in contact with each other, theirspeech acts are governed by these cultural differences.The paper discusses certain culture- and language-related phenomena which occur in the interactionbetween the two peoples. It demonstrates that somecommunicative obstacles are immediate consequencesof the differences in styles of expression, structuresof information and other cultural conventions whichpeople of the two countries are traditionally accustomedto. In view of the fact that the cultural messages arereflected in people’s daily use of language, cultureelements should not be overlooked in language learning.The paper attempts to explore ways of including cultureteaching in the language classroom.

03–50 Luk, Jasmine (Hong Kong Inst. ofEducation). Exploring the sociocultural implicationsof the native English-speaker teacher scheme inHong Kong through the eyes of the students. AsiaPacific Journal of Language in Education (HongKong), 4, 2 (2001), 19−49.

The high profile recruitment of up to 400 nativeEnglish-speaking teachers (the NET Scheme) in1998 to teach English in Hong Kong secondaryschools was done at a time when the role ofnative English speakers in English Second/ForeignLanguage (ESL/EFL) contexts was being questioned.The introduction of the Scheme saw a multitudeof widely-publicised contractual, administrative, andcultural problems expressed from the perspectives ofteachers and principals. Views from the end-users, thestudents, have, however, been comparatively under-represented. This paper attempts to restore the balanceby presenting and analysing the views and feelingsof secondary students from two schools about theirexperience of being taught by a native English-speaker teacher. Findings reveal significant socioculturalimplications. The NETs seem to be a valued commodityto the students. Access to the linguistic model andinteraction opportunities provided by the NETs hasproduced in the majority of the students a generalfeeling that being taught by the NETs will be an addedvalue to their own linguistic resources and personalexperiences as a second language learner. The paperexplores implications for non-native English teachers inHong Kong.

03–51 Luo, Jing (Bloomsburg U., Pennsylvania,USA; Email: [email protected]). Introducing twoChinese/Japanese/Korean (CJK) web utilities.CALICO Journal (San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3(2001), 537−39.

Today, browsing webpages created in Chinese, Japanese,or Korean (CJK) remains a challenge. On the one hand,CJK fonts are not widely installed in lab computers; onthe other hand, even if the fonts are installed, users may

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■ Language teachingstill face another difficulty: input in CJK is not available.NJStar Software, Inc. and Asian CommunicationsQuebec, Inc. recently released web browsing utilitiesthat allow users to gain more access to CJK web pages:the NJStar Asian Explorer, version 1.25, and AsianCommunicator, version 2.25, suite (www.njstar.com);and the KEYTIP Chinese and Chinese TTS (text tospeech conversion module) suite (www.cjkware.com).This article reviews these two web-browsing utilities,and suggests that they significantly contribute to theintegration of technology and foreign language teachingand learning.

03–52 Machovikov, Alexei, Stolyarov, Kirill,

Chernov, Maxim, Sinclair, Ian and Machovikova,

Iliana (Telum Inc., Russia; Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]). Computer-based training system for Russian wordpronunciation. Computer Assisted LanguageLearning (Lisse, The Netherlands), 15, 2 (2002),201−14.

This paper presents a method for automatic detectionof word pronunciation errors. The method is basedon Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technologiesand uses a combination of two acoustic modellingmethods: Hidden Markov Models (HMM) andVector Quantization (VQ). The probability-basednormalisation technique evaluates the average quality ofword pronunciation and shows any deviation in time.This method produces acceptable results for 10 Russiandigits. The conformity between experts’ and system’sestimations is approximately 73%. The paper overallfocuses on the technical difficulties of using computersas a means of teaching pronunciation; and also shedssome light on why there are no learning tasks withpronunciation components in virtual environments.

03–53 McBride, Nicole (U. of North London, UK;Email: [email protected]). Web-enhancedapproaches to the teaching of linguistic variation inFrench. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002),96−108.

This paper considers the progressive integration of aweb resource in a language degree option centred onlanguage varieties and linguistic variation in French,and how it can enhance the learning experience.The module website was created as a complement toface-to-face delivery, and gives open access to lecturenotes, references, links, seminar tasks, and moduleinformation and management. The paper also addressesthe issue of the language used for teaching and learningwith diverse groups of students including a highproportion of non-native speakers of English, varyinglevels of linguistic competence and different stages ofstudy; and examines web-based facilities supportinginteraction and collaboration among the learners (someteacher-moderated). An evaluation based on a surveyconducted with the 16 students who took part in thepilot implementation in 2000–2001 and on module

feedback revealed overall very positive reactions. Thepaper also points to ways of integrating furtherthe technology within the delivery and the assessmentof the module, and of increasing student support andinteraction. It is suggested, for example, that alongsidea website, students need access to a wide range ofcomputer-mediated communication tools (e.g., email,discussion forums). The role of the lecturer as as advisorand facilitator is also underlined.

03–54 Migdalek, Jack (Trinity Coll., MelbourneU., Australia). Performing English: The classroom asrehearsal space. Prospect (Macquarie U., Sydney,Australia), 17, 2 (2002), 53−61.

This article is concerned with the notion of languageas performance. It draws on Bourdieu’s (1990) conceptof habitus, or practices performed below the level ofconsciousness, and Goffman’s (1965) notion of rehearsal,to propose that learning to use the spoken language ofanother culture is a physical activity which requires bothlearning and practising ‘embodied language practices’ aswell as verbal skills. Many students seem largely unawareof how their performances of English are tempered andregulated by physical traits of their usual native-languagehabitus. The article explores the paradigm of classroomas rehearsal space, and argues that embodied languagerehearsal and teacher intervention in the classroomcan raise students’ consciousness of contradictions andcontrasts between their usual modes of embodiment andthose more appropriate to target English. This practicalknowledge will lead to more culturally congruentperformances of English.

03–55 Millrood, Radislav (Tambov State U.,Russia; Email: [email protected]). Teachingheterogeneous classes. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK),56, 2 (2002), 128−36.

A widely-held view is that a teacher working in aheterogeneous (mixed-ability) class should adapt thetasks to individual learner needs. Such individualisationturns a lesson into a mixed variety of the individual-fit activities, and is sometimes described by teachers asimpractical. This article studies an alternative approachwhich involves teaching a heterogeneous class as awhole class of individuals. It draws on a study intothe teacher’s perception of a heterogeneous class, theself-perception of successful and unsuccessful learners,and the classroom discourse of success-building andlearner-failing lessons. The research, carried out in aheterogeneous class in Russia, involved 15 students, fiveof them described by the teacher as ‘successful’, and 10as ‘unsuccessful’. Results showed how a heterogeneousclass can also be addressed as a whole class of individualswho have a symmetry of learner needs. A success-building lesson context can be used to ‘scaffold’ learnerswho are ‘unsuccessful’, and so provide for wholeclass progress. This context is developed through therepertoire of the teacher’s interaction with the learners.Two of the essential aims of the approach are to limitlearner-failing, and to create a supportive environment.

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Language teaching ■03–56 Morris, Frank A. (U. of Minnesota, USA).Serving the community and learning a foreignlanguage: Evaluating a service-learning programme.Language, Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK),14, 3 (2001), 244−55.

This article reports on a service-learning programme inSpanish, in which learners of Spanish provide variousforms of social services to native speakers in localcommunities in the target language, and which wasevaluated to assess its impact on learner motivation andattitudes. Qualitative and quantitative analysis indicatedthat there was a significant positive change in theparticipants’ motivation and attitudes. It was concludedthat the service-learning class could be employedas a pedagogical tool in enhancing motivation andpromoting positive attitudes towards Spanish foreign-language learning and culture.

03–57 Muncie, James (U. of Evora, Portugal;Email: james [email protected]). Finding aplace for grammar in EFL composition classes. ELTJournal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002), 180−86.

This article looks at the controversial position ofgrammar in writing methodology, and attempts tolay out a number of guidelines for the inclusion ofgrammar in composition classes specifically intended forEnglish as a Foreign Language (EFL) rather than SecondLanguage (ESL) contexts. Today’s principal currentmethodologies − the process approach and the genreapproach, which were developed primarily for ESLsituations − are examined for their suitability in EFLcontexts. Some of the other issues surrounding a focuson form are also considered. It is concluded that thereare grounds for including a limited grammar componentin composition courses, and that such a grammar needsto be of a general rather than a genre-specific nature.A number of guidelines are suggested for includinggrammar, along with a brief example of how theymight be applied: (a) grammar should not detract fromthe meaning-oriented nature of composition teaching,and should always be related to its function in thediscourse; (b) grammar correction should be avoidedin teacher feedback; (c) a grammar component shouldbe directly linked to the editing process; (d) it shouldsatisfy students’ perceived needs; and (e) it should in-volve substantial recycling of material, and possiblybe restricted to the type of grammar which suits theapplication of rules.

03–58 Murphy-Lejeune, Elisabeth (UniversiteNancy 2, France). Le capital de mobilite: genesed’un etudiant voyageur. [Travel as a social resource:The birth of a new kind of ‘Stranger’, the studenttraveller.] Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy, France), 26

(2001), 137−65.

Despite the considerable efforts made by the membersof the European Union, only a minority of studentsparticipate in international exchange programmes.

Based on interviews with 50 students studying abroad,this article sets out to identify the distinguishingcharacteristics of this ‘migratory elite’. Factors identifiedinclude personal and family background, previous travelexperience, language skills and adaptability. The authorsuggests that this specific combination of institutionaland individual features is sufficient to justify adding anew category, the student traveller, to the sociologicaltypology of ‘The Stranger’.

03–59 Nagata, Noriko (U. of San Francisco, USA;Email: [email protected]). BANZAI: Anapplication of natural language processing toweb-based language learning. CALICO Journal(San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3 (2001), 583−99.

This paper presents BANZAI , a new intelligentlanguage tutor program developed by the authorover the past two years. The BANZAI applicationis programmed in Java and runs in a web browserover the Internet. It is designed to develop learners’grammatical and sentence production skills in Japaneseas well as to instil cultural knowledge about Japan. Ithandles Japanese characters so that learners can read andproduce sentences in kana and kanji. More importantly,BANZAI employs artificial intelligence (AI) and naturallanguage processing (NLP) technology, which enablesthe program to read, parse, and correct sentencestyped by learners. The NLP analyser consists of alexicon, a morphological generator, a word segmenter,a morphological parser, a syntactic parser, an errordetector, and a feedback generator. The program’scapability is overviewed, then each component of theNLP analyser is briefly described, and an explanationgiven of how the system handles student errors. Actuallessons and sample exercises provided by BANZAI arealso illustrated. Since the program has been integratedinto the Japanese curriculum at the University of SanFrancisco in late 2000, questionnaire results indicate anenthusiastic student response.

03–60 Neal, Barbara (USA). The quantifiersystem: One of the largest and least known partsof English. RELC Journal (Singapore), 32, 2 (2001),16−26.

The structure of semantics is still largely unknownterritory. Semantic fields appear to be the buildingblocks of semantic structure, but most semantic fieldsremain unmapped. This paper analyses the structureof one of those, called here the ‘quantifier system’,although only one small part of it is filled with wellknown quantifiers. The system is explained in the sameway as the author explains it to her English SecondLanguage students. It is suggested that several ideas inthis paper may be of use in analysing other semanticfields. Firstly, the field is analysed in terms of distinctivefeatures, rather as in phonology. Secondly, the semanticterms are sometimes words and sometimes phrases.Thirdly, each semantic term is a group of synonyms.Fourthly, synonyms and antonyms can be understood

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■ Language teachingnot just as lists, but as the building blocks of a largersystem. Fifthly, semantic groups in English can includewords drawn from different parts of speech.

03–61 Nesselhauf, Nadja (U. of Basel,Switzerland) and Tschichold, Cornelia.Collocations in CALL: An investigation ofvocabulary-building software for EFL. ComputerAssisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 3 (2002), 251−79.

This paper tests Computer Assisted Language Learning(CALL) software for English vocabulary-learning as toits usefulness for learning collocations. The analysisof seven commercially available programs − most ofthem for German-speaking learners − shows that, sofar, collocations have been largely neglected in CALL.A number of suggestions are made for collocationalexercises that are likely to be both useful for the learnerand easy to implement in a CALL program. The authorsalso surmise that, in the future, particularly interestingpossibilities for variation in collocation exercises willprobably be provided by the addition of on-linedictionaries including collocations and of corpora andconcordancers to CALL programs.

03–62 North, Sarah (Open U., Milton Keynes,UK; Email: [email protected]) and Pillay,

Hannah. Homework: Re-examining the routine.ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002), 137−45.

Homework occupies a large part of teachers’ andstudents’ lives, yet is seldom discussed. A survey of85 Malaysian secondary school teachers of Englishsuggests that homework practices may be out of linewith the communicative aims of the English course,reflecting perhaps the continuation of unquestionedroutines. However, at times the workload generatedby homework can be so time-consuming that teachersrarely have the chance to stop and reflect on what theyare doing, and why. This may be a common problem inother language teaching situations as well, and suggestsa need for more explicit discussion of homeworkpolicies and practices. It is suggested that issues needingparticular consideration include: (1) how homeworkshould be (a) co-ordinated within the curriculum asa whole and (b) incorporated as part of an overallscheme of work or lesson plan; (2) how teachers can bestexploit the resources available for homework; (3) howhomework tasks can be designed to be both motivatingand useful; and (4) what are the most effective ways ofproviding feedback.

03–63 Olivares-Cuhat, Gabriela (Cleveland StateU., USA). A practical and complementary approachto the evaluation of ESL composition textbooks.The Canadian Modern Language Review/LaRevue canadienne des langues vivantes (Toronto,Ont.), 58, 4 (2002), 653−59.

This article outlines a method for evaluating the learnerstrategy training component in composition textbooks

designed for English as a Second Language (ESL) andother second/foreign language students. The reasoningbehind the approach is first presented along withtheoretical and pedagogical considerations. The basicidea of the proposed tool is to check for the presenceand content of three essential pedagogical components:nature of activities; variety of strategy types; and degreeof strategy awareness. The procedure − a checklist −is then described and illustrated through the analysisof three sample chapters from three ESL college-levelwriting textbooks. The checklist utilises a five-pointscale ranging from zero to four to reflect the level ofagreement found with a list of statements; and thewhole questionnaire is divided into six subcategories,i.e., composing processes, metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies, social strategies, affective strategies,and strategy awareness. Strengths and weaknesses of themethod are discussed. It is stressed that the method isuser-friendly and can be helpful to teachers with variouslevels of experience in strategy training.

03–64 Perego, Elisa (Universita di Pavia, Italy).Inglese lingua veicolare in Ungheria:L’apprendimento del lessico in uno studio di caso.[English-medium teaching in Hungary: Teachingvocabulary − a case study.] Rassegna Italiana diLinguistica Applicata (Rome, Italy), 33, 2/3 (2001),197−218.

This article firstly considers the development of contentand language integrated learning (CLIL) in Hungary,with particular regard to its practice and organisation inthe bilingual English-Hungarian high school KarinthyFrigyes Ginmazium, Budapest. Of all the issues invol-ved in immersion education and language learning,vocabulary acquisition is the main focus here, especiallywhen it is incidental and non-cognate languages areinvolved. The main aim of the article is to overview theteaching methodologies most frequently encounteredduring a six-month period of field research in theschool. The teachers use a wide variety of approaches tonew vocabulary in the second language for a number ofdifferent reasons. The article analyses the emphasis onand the constant use of new words, double translationand the introduction of synonyms, the negotiation ofmeaning, the practice of ‘re-lexicalisation’, and thepromotion of a receptive and productive approach tolanguage, and provides many excerpts taken directlyfrom the lessons.

03–65 Rees, David (Institut Nationald’Horticulture, Angers, France). From EFL learningtheories to EFL teaching practice: Activating actionresearch. Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble,France), 21, 2 (2001), 53−61.

This article emphasises the cyclic nature of actionresearch by reporting a series of projects within onehigher education department. They were focusedon the use of ‘interactive’ language learning aidedby technologies which have moved from language

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Language teaching ■laboratory to multi-media laboratory over 20 years.The action of introducing technology based ona belief in the value of interaction in languagelearning led to successive research projects founded onnegotiation theory and phonetic rehearsal loop theory.The publication of positive findings with respect tointeractive language learning − students in interactivegroups had a statistically significant improved long-termmemory for semantic and visual items − has led tochanges of attitude to language teaching and learning atboth institutional and national levels with consequentincreased funding for further equipment and research.

03–66 Riva, Laura (Universita Cattolica, Milan,Italy). I dizionari bilingui italiano-inglese suCD-ROM. Analisi comparativa. [A comparativeanalysis of Italian-English bilingual dictionaries onCD-ROM.] Rassegna Italiana di LinguisticaApplicata (Rome, Italy), 33, 2/3 (2001), 263−76.

In recent years, Italian publishers have concentrated onthe development and marketing of bilingual dictionarieson CD-ROM − now amounting to about 25%of Italian lexicographical production − while thecontinuous search for new solutions has aimed atenabling a more efficient and easier consultation ofthese tools. Nevertheless, the electronic dictionariesnow on the market need further development inorder to be truly effective and complete works, ifthey are to become a real substitute for traditionaldictionaries. This article presents the main features ofthe origins and development of bilingual dictionariesand of the historical development of Anglo-ltalianlexicography, then identifies the main characteristics ofthese new dictionaries and proposes objective criteriafor their description and evaluation, on the basis of anexperimental comparative analysis.

03–67 Roessingh, Hetty (Calgary Board of Ed.,Canada) and Kover, Pat. Working withyounger-arriving ESL learners in high schoolEnglish: Never too late to reclaim potential. TESLCanada Journal/La Revue TESL du Canada(Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19, 2 (2001), 1−20.

Younger-arriving English as a Second Language (ESL)learners often come to high school ill prepared for thedemands of English literature courses. Although theymay have acquired the phonological and grammaticalsystem of English with relative ease and developed abasic vocabulary, they lack the breadth and depth ofvocabulary and the related concepts that are necessaryto engage with the abstract nature and culturalembeddedness of literature study. This article seeks tounmask the myths surrounding the ease with whichyoungsters acquire a second language. It describes aprogramme designed to help younger-arriving ESLlearners once they reach high school − a three-yearproject that intervened in the educational trajectory ofthese at-risk learners by providing direct ESL supportfrom grades 10 through to 12. The authors were able

to help their students make gains in the developmentof cognitive academic language proficiency as reflectedin standardised achievement measures of academicwriting. The acquisition of the cultural capital necessaryfor success in literature studies, however, is moreproblematic. New questions arise about student identityand cultural understandings that are central to thesuccess of ESL learners in high school.

03–68 Schulz, Renate A. (U. of Arizona, USA).Changing perspectives in foreign languageeducation: Where do we come from? Where arewe going? Foreign Language Annals (New York,USA), 35, 3 (2002), 285−92.

New beginnings, such as the start of a new century,lead to reflection on ones professional past and possiblefuture. This article reminisces about the ‘good olddays’ in foreign language (FL) education and assesseschanges that have taken place in language teaching sincethe 1960s. Using questions posed originally by Brecht(2001), regarding the future of FL education in theUnited States, the author offers her own perspectivesand adds additional questions and issues the professionwill have to deal with successfully to guarantee a valuedplace for FLs in schools and post-secondary institutions.In particular, she raises five questions: (1) whatconstitutes the ‘contents’ of FL education, i.e., predomi-nantly skills instruction without defined contents, orserving largely as service and support instruction forother fields in the curriculum; (2) whether the goal oforal communicative competence (regardless of the level)is realistic, or whether there should be diverse goals fordiverse learners; (3) whether some 180 hours per year offormal (classroom) instruction (delivered in traditionalor block scheduling) is the most efficient model forachieving goals of usable levels of oral proficiency andliteracy; (4) what needs to be done to get learners toperform at advanced levels; and (5) how to keep the richlinguistic resources of immigrants alive and thriving.

03–69 Sercu, Lies (KULeuven, Faculteit Letteren,Leuven, Belgium; Email: [email protected]). Autonomous learning and theacquisition of intercultural communicativecompetence: Some implications for coursedevelopment. Language, Culture and Curriculum(Clevedon, UK), 15, 1 (2002), 61−74.

Apart from teaching communicative language com-petence, foreign-language educationists also considerit a natural pedagogical aim to encourage learners tohave an interest in, knowledge about and an openingtowards foreign cultures, peoples and countries. Thispaper outlines some of the key terms and complexitiesthat surround the advocacy of teaching foreignlanguages for intercultural communicative competence(ICC). It examines some of the issues involved inreconceptualising courses that were originally designedto teach communicative competence in a foreignlanguage, to courses promoting the acquisition of ICC.

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■ Language teachingIt discusses criteria for selecting cultural contents andculture-and-language learning tasks, as well as ways toscaffold the ICC learning process. It takes issue withtraditional culture-teaching approaches and explainswhy current societal developments compel a move awayfrom a teacher-led language-and-culture pedagogy to astudent-centred autonomous learning approach.

03–70 Setati, Mamokgethi, Adler, Jill (Email:[email protected]), Reed, Yvonne and

Bapoo, Abdool (U. of the Witwatersrand, SouthAfrica). Incomplete journeys: Code-switching andother language practices in mathematics, scienceand English language classrooms in South Africa.Language and Education (Clevedon, UK), 16, 2(2002), 128−49.

This paper describes and discusses the language prac-tices of mathematics, science and English languageteachers and learners in a sample of urban and ruralprimary and secondary schools in South Africa. Itfocuses particularly on the reception and production oflanguage through code-switching, exploratory talkand discourse-specific talk. The article is situatedin the policy and practice environment of post-apartheid South African education in which additivebi/multilingualism is officially advocated. It uses themetaphor of a journey to describe how teachersand learners move from informal, exploratory talk inlearners’ main languages to discourse-specific talk andwriting in English. A key finding from the study isthat few teachers and learners completed this complexjourney and that the constraints differed across classroomcontext, level and subject being taught.

03–71 Shawback, Michael J. (Ritsumeikan U.,Shiga, Japan; Email: [email protected])and Terhune, N. M. Online interactive courseware:Using movies to promote cultural understanding ina CALL environment. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14,1 (2002), 85−95.

Student interest in films as a medium for English asa Second Language (ESL) education is high. Interest,however, is not enough to foster understanding in atraditional classroom environment. A more hands-oninteractive approach to studying a second language viafilm is needed. By using online interactive exercises tostudy the language and culture in film, students are ableto gain a better understanding of the language usedin the film. This paper outlines a course developedusing online interactive exercises and film to studylanguage and culture. The course incorporates severalmodern technologies to allow students to take an activerole in their learning and to increase their skills inareas that the students perceive to be of value in thefuture, i.e., listening, reading, and presentation skills.Automated feedback functions let the students, as well asthe instructors, constantly monitor their progress. Thesetechnologies allow a more efficient use of classroomtime and permit the students to go into the content

of the film − especially the cultural aspects − muchmore deeply. Through this course, students are able toboost their confidence and their motivation to continuethe study of language and culture via films on their own.

03–72 Shimizu, Hideko (U. of Colorado atBoulder, USA; Email: [email protected]) and

Green, Kathy E. Japanese language educators’strategies for and attitudes toward teaching kanji.The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA),86, 2 (2002), 227−41.

The attitudes of 251 second language teachers towardskanji and their choices of instructional strategies forteaching kanji were explored in this study. Principalcomponent analysis resulted in the identification ofsix statistically reliable domains representing underlyingattitudes towards teaching kanji (cultural tradition,difficulty of kanji, affective orientation, aptitudes,usefulness of kanji, and expectations for the futureof kanji), and three instructional strategies (context,memory and rote learning). Descriptive statisticsrevealed that the most positive attitude was towardsthe ‘usefuless of kanji’ and that the most commoninstructional strategy was ‘rote learning’. Canonicalcorrelation revealed a statistically significant correlationbetween three attitude variables − affective orientation,usefulness of kanji, aud cultural tradition − andtwo instructional strategies − memory and contextstrategies. The results showed that: (a) the underlyingattitudes towards teaching kanji and teaching strategieswere multidimensional and complex, and (b) teacherswho appreciated the cultural tradition in kanji aud itspractical utilily tended to have a more positive affectand were more likely to utilise memory and contextualstrategies for teaching kanji, although rote learningstrategies were the most frequent among all teachers.

03–73 Skourtou, Eleni, (U. of Aegean, Greece).Connecting Greek and Canadian schools throughan Internet-based sister-class network.International Journal of Bilingual Education andBilingualism (Clevedon, UK), 5, 2 (2002), 85−95.

Based on the premise that the World Wide Web(WWW) facilitates collaborative learning, culturalunderstanding and new forms of literacy, this articlereports on an Internet-based foreign languages projectbetween Greek and Canadian primary schools. Theaim was to create opportunities within an electronicenvironment for real (asynchronous) communicationto take place within prescribed formal curricula.The theoretical underpinnings of the project unitedCummins’ (2000) framework for academic languagelearning and Wells’ (1999) concept of the ‘communityof dialogic enquiry’ to create tasks that werecognitively challenging, scaffolded, and meaningful.Pupils were encouraged to make decisions abouttheir own learning and support peers. The pedagogyof the project moved from communication to in-class collaboration to between-class collaboration.

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Language teaching ■Tasks included explaining local holidays and customs,exploring the ancient history of the island andcompleting an unfinished children’s story. The authoroutlines the main problems experienced duringimplementation, including redefining the student-teacher relationship, lack of IT skills among bothteachers and students and the need for detailed responsesfrom the sister-classes to facilitate a personal dimensionto the project. Nevertheless, the author concludes thatthe project succeeded in meeting its goals and that theoutcomes were positive.

03–74 Slaouti, Diane (U. of Manchester, UK;Email: [email protected]). The World WideWeb for academic purposes: Old study skills fornew? English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam,The Netherlands), 21, 2 (2002), 105−24.

This paper argues for a specific need to explore criticalinformation processing skills of the World Wide Web(WWW) as part of an English for Academic Purposesteaching and learning context. It recognises thepotential of the WWW to bring relevant and not sorelevant authentic content to academic study in a waynever before possible, but also presents pilot data aboutthe extent to which such resources are being referred toin academic courses at one UK university. It considersthe specific literacies of the WWW in terms of itstools and its texts and suggests that, if learners are tobecome effectively autonomous in these literacies, thenthe WWW deserves specific study skills attention. Itargues for a specific focus on the role of evaluation ofboth product and process as a study skill in order toensure that teachers and learners alike keep pace witha medium that, at present, is characterised by on-goingfluidity and few recognisably common standards.

03–75 Soler, Viviana (Universidad Nacional delSur, Argentina; Email: [email protected]).Analysing adjectives in scientific discourse: Anexploratory study with educational applications forSpanish speakers at advanced university level.English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam, TheNetherlands), 21, 2 (2002), 145−65.

Although the literature on the textual properties ofscientific discourse is vast, less attention has been paidto the analysis of adjectival frequency in this type ofdiscourse and its semantic implications. Adjectives are asignificant communicative tool for scientists, showingthe author’s professional persona and manifesting acritical element in the rhetorical properties of researcharticles. They also allow scientists to describe andqualify phenomena observed during the experimentalstage and to anticipate agreements or oppositions toclaims with caution and strategical consideration of theopinions and views of peers. Being interrelated withthe evaluation and interpretation of data collected inresearch, adjectives should not be analysed as an isolatedphenomenon but within the social and academicenvironment in which they occur. The purpose of this

paper is to explore the frequency and use of adjectivesin five advanced scientific texts on biochemistry andto analyse the semantic implications of the observedoccurrence. Though limited to five research articles,this study contributes to clarifying the role of adjectivesin this type of discourse and underlines suggestionsas to how to guide students, mainly Spanish-speakinguniversity students, to read and write research articlesefficiently.

03–76 Spratt, Mary (Hong Kong Polytechnic U.).The value of finding out what classroom activitiesstudents like. RELC Journal (Singapore), 32, 2(2001), 80−103.

This paper reports on a study which investigatedlearners’ preferences amongst 48 English languagelearning activities. Nine hundred and ninety-sevenstudents on service English programmes at a tertiaryeducation institution in Hong Kong were asked tocomplete a questionnaire about their preferences. Theresults support claims for the value of a learning-centred approach to lesson, materials and syllabusdesign, go against various previous studies that indicatelearners’ preference for non-communicative activitiesand, in their suggestion of a distinct learner profilefor these students, show the importance of learningcontext in studies of attitude. They also indicate thatlearners distinguish in their preferences between similaractivities, and that teachers’ perceptions of students’preferences are often inaccurate.

03–77 Sun, Guangyong (Private Pui ChingCommercial Coll., China; Email:guangyong [email protected]) and Cheng, Liying.From context to curriculum: A case study ofcommunicative language teaching in China. TESLCanada Journal/La Revue TESL du Canada(Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19, 2 (2001), 67−86.

This article discusses the implementation of commu-nicative language teaching methodology in the Englishas a Foreign Language (EFL) context in one institutionin China. The context and curriculum development ofthe English teaching programme at Private Pui ChingCommercial College is used here as a case study. Thearticle suggests that a preliminary stage of context-basedcommunicative curriculum development is necessary.Such a preliminary stage aims to investigate first thecontext of an English language teaching programme,and then the process of adapting the programmeto its context for implementation. A framework forsuch a context investigation is proposed. Three keyquestions regarding the integration of the context studyinto curriculum design are also discussed, i.e.: howcommunicative a programme can be in the given EFLcontext in China; what objectives can be realisticallyachieved for such a programme in an EFL context;and what the teaching activities would look like in thiscontext. The article forces a consideration of how eachprovincial and local context is different and how thisaffects programming and practice.

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■ Language teaching03–78 Taylor, Alan M. (Purdue U., USA).L’alternance de codes chez deux enseignants defrancais langue seconde, niveau debutant, dansl’enseignement assiste par ordinateur.[Code-switching in two teachers of French as asecond language, at beginners’ level, in acomputer-assisted language-learning environment.]The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revuecanadienne des langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.),58, 4 (2002), 623−52.

This study investigates the code-switching of twoFrench teachers in a computer-assisted language-learning (CALL) environment. In light of the debateon the use of the native language (L1) in thesecond language (L2) classroom, it is argued thatthe French teacher should become more aware ofthe sociolinguistic implications of his or her speechin a CALL environment. The study highlights theimportance of the social dynamic and technical aspectsof teachers’ code-switching behaviours. Its conclusions,based on the analysis of multiple data, raise fundamentalquestions about the use of the L1 by L2 teachers inCALL settings.

03–79 Taylor, Gregory (Southern Illinois U.,USA). Teaching gambits: The effect of instructionand task variation on the use of conversationstrategies by intermediate Spanish students.Foreign Language Annals (New York, USA), 35, 2(2002), 171−89.

Gambits are words or phrases that facilitate the flowof conversation by giving the speaker time to organisehis or her thoughts, maintain or relinquish the floor,expound on an argument, or specify the function ofa particular utterance. This study, based in part onprevious research by Wildner-Bassett (1984), examined(1) whether gambit use in Spanish can be taughteffectively in the classroom, allowing the student to usegambits appropriately in unplanned speech, (2) howthe type of interactional situation (a friendly discussionversus a complaint) affects the production of gambits,and (3) what types of gambits show the greatest increasesin use for each interactional situation. Participants wereintermediate students. A repeated-measures design wasused. Results suggest that students can be taught to usegambits effectively and appropriately in the classroom.In addition, the nature of the interactional situationseemed to make a difference in the ability of the studentsto produce gambits in spontaneous interaction and inthe types of gambits they produced.

03–80 Vilar Sanchez, Karin (U. of Granada,Spain; Email: [email protected]). Functional-communicative grammar (Spanish-German) fortranslators and/or interpreters: A project. Babel(Amsterdam, The Netherlands), 47, 2 (2001),109−20.

The research project reported here is funded by theSpanish Ministry of Education and Culture andis concerned with the elaboration of a contrastivefunctional-communicative grammar (Spanish-German)for translators and/or interpreters on CD-ROM,which is considered a valuable working tool for thisgroup. It is well-known that one does not translatewords and structures but text or discourse. In orderto do so, the translator/interpreter must understandthe communicative intention of the original text ordiscourse and reproduce it in the target text. Thatmeans, not only do they need a solid idiomaticknowledge (knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, phon-ology, suprasegmental and extralinguistic elements) inboth languages, but also a good knowledge of theexpressive aspect of all these linguistic resources (i.e.,which resources are used to express which functionin what kind of situation or text and with whateffect). However, existing grammar books do nothelp translator/interpreters in an effective way becausethey do not offer them easily accessible informationabout the resources (lexical, grammatical, phonological.orthographic, suprasegmental, extralinguistic) that existin each language for the expression of specific functions(e.g., ‘make a request’), determined by the type oftext or discourse and adding information about thefrequency of use and the pragmatic connotations ofeach linguistic form.

03–81 Vogt, Gayle H. (California State U., USA).Distance learning and international graduatestudents: A point of view. Journal of Language forInternational Business (Glendale, AZ, USA), 13, 1/2(2002), 43−56.

Most international companies require from theiremployees at least some measure of competencein English writing. Distance learning − for bothemployees and graduate students who will soonbe employed − is one of the most efficient andleast expensive methods for this purpose. Teachingwriting online demands that professors spend littletime lecturing and more time correcting students’writing practice, an advantage for class memberswith limited English. International graduate students,who often have inadequate English skills but whoalso have initiative, motivation, and self-determination,prefer distance learning. They feel safer from theperceived intimidating barriers present in the regularbusiness communication classroom. This paper reviewssome of the advantages and disadvantages of distancelearning, discusses the author’s experience with her ownonline management communication classes, and offerssome pedagogical suggestions for successfully teachingwriting online.

03–82 Walker, Elizabeth (Hong Kong Inst. ofEducation). Roles of native-speaker EnglishTeachers (NETs) in Hong Kong secondary schools.Asia Pacific Journal of Language in Education(Hong Kong), 4, 2 (2001), 51−77.

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Language teaching ■The Hong Kong Government began a scheme in 1987to import native-speaking English teachers (NETs)for secondary schools. The scheme has attractedcontroversy over the years. Much of the controversyhas centred around cost-effectiveness − that is, thecontribution of NETs to English learning in secondaryschools has been seen as inadequate in relation to thecost of the scheme. This paper uses as its starting point astudy carried out by Tang and Johnson in 1989 andpublished in 1993. The two researchers argued thatlack of cost-effectiveness was associated with a lack ofdirection in policy on the roles of NETs in schools,and that there were serious problems in professionalrelations between NETs and local teachers. Further,one major cause of the problems was found to beinappropriate NET perceptions of their roles. The studyreported here took a broad brush approach to findingout the perceptions of three levels of school personnelregarding appropriate roles of NETs, and whether thesehave changed over the years. The 1998 study surveyedover 600 school personnel from 120 secondary schools.The survey data were enriched by interview datadesigned to add a longitudinal dimension. Some positivechanges were found, along with significant differencesin role priorities. On-going barriers to improved cost-effectiveness are identified.

03–83 Wilkinson, Sharon (West Virginia U.,USA; Email: [email protected]). The omnipresentclassroom during summer study abroad: Americanstudents in conversation with their French hosts.The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA),86, 2 (2002), 157−73.

Study abroad is often promoted as one of the bestopportunities to use foreign language skills outsidethe classroom. Yet relatively little is known aboutthe language that students produce when speakingin non-instructional settings. Relying on conversationanalysis and ethnographic techniques, this qualitativestudy investigates both speech and speaker perceptionsthrough tape-recorded conversations between summerstudy abroad students and their French hosts, as well asthrough interviews and observations. Findings indicatethat natives and nonnatives alike relied heavily onclassroom roles and discourse structures to managetheir interactions, calling into question the assumptionthat language use with a native-speaking host familyliberates students from classroom limitations. Theinappropriateness of transferring didactic discoursepatterns to out-of-class interactions also raises issues forconsideration about the nature of in-class instructionalpractices.

03–84 Xie, Tianwei (California State U., LongBeach, USA; Email: [email protected]). Using InternetRelay Chat in teaching Chinese. CALICO Journal(San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3 (2001), 513−24.

The aim of this project is to explore the feasibility ofusing Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate Chinese

language teaching and learning. This article describesprocedures for organising and conducting chat sessionsand discusses the benefits and problems of using IRC.It is argued that IRC promotes communication in thetarget language and that it enhances students’ readingand writing skills. However, some general problemssuch as keyboarding skills as well as some specialdifficulties with typing Chinese characters exist. Moreresearch is still needed.

03–85 Yang, Anson (City U. of Hong Kong).Mysteries for college ESL students: Why and how.Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics (HongKong), 6, 2 (2001), 44−53.

Mysteries, which are generally based on social andfinancial dilemmas and conflicts, can be a rich source ofmaterial for language classes and can be very motivatingfor students. They can provide a basis for language workas well as for improving English as a Second Language(ESL) students’ understanding of cultural differencesin the English-speaking world. This paper presentsa case study which used two such mystery storiesto help students develop their linguistic competenceand their reading skills. Instruction focused on thesymbolism used in both stories and the characterisationof the major protagonists with a view to encouragingdiscussion among the students. The results suggest thatliterary fiction is a ready-made authentic material whichhelps improve ESL students’ language proficiency. Usingmysteries can provide an alternative to some ESLcourses which, more often than not, focus on piecemealfour skills training. The favourable results found in thisstudy can act as small pointers to choosing appropriatematerials for conducting ESL classes at universitylevel.

03–86 Yang, Anson (City U. of Hong Kong;Email: [email protected]). Science fiction inthe EFL class. Language, Culture and Curriculum(Clevedon, UK), 15, 1 (2002), 50−60.

Science fiction in language classes can be verymotivating for students: the stories frequently containsocial dilemmas and conflicts; and such reading demandspersonal responses from readers. A college English as aForeign Language (EFL) course using science fictiontexts and films can help students whose imminentconcern is not only language proficiency, but alsothe culture of an English-speaking world. This paperpresents two responses in the author’s EFL classeson helping students find joy in reading and therebyenhancing language skills through different activities,including the use of films. It was found that a lectureapproach would not favour some Hong Kong studentswho had not had any literature training. On the otherhand, a more student-oriented approach which valuesstudents’ opinions made a significant difference. Suchinformation is useful to other EFL programmes inEnglish-speaking countries, and to an introductoryliterature course where there are EFL members in class.

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■ Language learning03–87 Zhang, Hang (U. of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign, USA; Email: [email protected]). Teaching Business Chinese online.CALICO Journal (San Marcos, TX, USA), 19, 3(2001), 525−32.

A comprehensive approach to teaching BusinessChinese online is being developed in the LanguageLearning Laboratory at the University of Illinois.The courseware consists of two complementary parts:a Business Chinese Workbook and a Business ChineseSimulation. The Workbook offers step by step languageinstruction with sample texts and dialogues, focusedexercises, grammar explanations, and vocabulary, whilethe Simulation presents real-world situations for problemsolving through language use. This article discussestechnical challenges and difficulties in constructing andadministrating the courseware on the web.

Language learning03–88 Akamatsu, Nobuhiko (Doshisha U.,Kyoto, Japan; Email: [email protected]). A similarity in word-recognitionprocedures among second language readers withdifferent first language backgrounds. AppliedPsycholinguistics (Cambridge, UK), 23, 1 (2002),117−33.

This study investigated word recognition among fluentreaders of English as a Second Language (ESL).Specifically, the study examined whether ESL readers’first language (L1) affects the procedures underlyingsecond language word recognition, with respect tothe effects of word frequency and regularity on wordrecognition. The results revealed a similarity in word-recognition procedures between fluent ESL readers withvarious L1 backgrounds (i.e., Chinese, Japanese, andPersian). In processing high-frequency words, all theESL groups recognised exception words as quickly asregular words; low-frequency exception words, on thecontrary, took longer to recognise than low-frequencyregular words.

03–89 Appel, Christine (Dublin City U., Ireland;Email: [email protected]) and Gilabert,

Roger. Motivation and task performance in atask-based web-based tandem project. ReCALL(Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002), 16−31.

The objective of this paper is to describe a task-basedproject in tandem via email, and to discuss the effects ofmotivation on task performance. In this project, a groupof Irish students and a group of Spanish students areasked to carry out a series of tasks in collaboration withtheir tandem partners via email by means of a web pageespecially designed for the project. Half the message ismeant to be written in the student’s native languageand half in the target language, and students are alsoencouraged to correct one another. The goal behindthe research is to discuss the effects of motivation ontask performance. It is argued that resource directing

(such as reasoning demands) and resource depletingfactors (such as prior knowledge) which belong totask complexity in Robinson’s (2001) model are closelyconnected to affective variables which, as is the casewith motivation, belong to task difficulty. Motivationalfactors like interest in the meanings to be exchanged,involvement in the decision-making process, students’expertise in the topic, media and materials used, andthe diffusion of outcomes among others have strongeffects on task performance, and should therefore beconsidered together with complexity variables.

03–90 Arnaud, C. (U. of Barcelona, Spain).L’implication de l’apprenant en classe de langueetrangere. [Personal involvement as a factor in theforeign language learner’s classroom performance.]Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy, France), 26 (2001),39−62.

The ritual of the classroom imposes constraints onthe discursive positions which individuals can occupy,forcing them to behave and speak as learners ratherthan as subjects with their own identity and personality.The discourse characteristics of this double voicing,and the ways in which they contribute to preventingthe expression of a wide range of affective features, areidentified and discussed in this article. Hypothesisingthat language learning is more successful where thereis a coincidence between learners’ and teachers’expectations regarding affective behaviours, the authorpresents a framework for observing and categorisingrelevant aspects of verbal and non-verbal behaviour inthe classroom, and reports on its use in an experimentcarried out at the University of Barcelona in which theclassroom behaviour of 34 learners and 13 teachers wasfilmed and then subjected to quantitative and qualitativeanalyses as part of an investigation into the role ofpersonal involvement and affective factors in the foreignlanguage learning process.

03–91 Bang, Youngjoo (Myongji U., Seoul,Korea; Email: [email protected]). The use ofcollaborative work in a college EFL readingclassroom. English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002),145−69.

This study investigates the effects of collaborativework compared with those of teacher-led methodsin an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) readingcomprehension class. It also explores the attitudesof students and teacher towards collaborative work.The 116 Korean EFL college students who took partformed an experimental group and a control group.The experimental group engaged in the collaborativework, assisting one another in understanding wordmeanings, getting the main idea and asking andanswering questions. Findings demonstrate that thesestudents showed statistically more significant increasesin their scores on reading proficiency tests than those inthe control group which received the teacher-led in-struction. Student and teacher attitudes towards the

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Language learning ■collaborative work were explored through interviewand observational data, with 20 students participatingfrom the experimental group. They and the teacherreported that collaborative work fostered languagelearning, entailing a successful bridging of informationgaps through the active participation of each student inthe group, by virtue of an interdependent, cooperative,and mutually helpful classroom atmosphere.

03–92 Barbieri, Federica (U. of Iowa, USA). Thecontribution of computer learner corpora to secondlanguage acquisition research: A review. RassegnaItaliana di Linguistica Applicata (Rome, Italy), 33,2/3 (2001), 219−39.

Although the development of corpus linguistics startedin the 1960s, it is only recently that it has takenan interest in the innate potential of collections ofspontaneous discourse used by foreign language (FL)students, organised into corpora. The research basedon this type of corpus, called CLC (Computer LearnerCorpus), represents an important new source of data,both for studies of second language acquisition (SLA)and for the design of FL teaching materials. This articleis mainly concerned with the contribution of CLCsto SLA research (particularly with corpus-based studiesof learner output). It looks first at the methodologyfollowed in the creation of CLCs, then studies moreclosely the relationship between this line of researchand those preceding it, such as Error Analysis andContrastive Analysis. The most significant trends in thefield of corpora of learners’ written and oral outputare illustrated, highlighting in particular the features ofstudies concentrating on lexis and discourse analysis.Some of the problems associated with corpora-basedresearch are also reviewed.

03–93 Barcroft, Joe (Washington U., USA; Email:[email protected]). Semantic and structuralelaboration in L2 lexical acquisition. LanguageLearning (Malden, MA, USA), 52, 2 (2002), 323−63.

This study examined the effects of semantic andstructural elaboration on second language (L2) lexicalacquisition. English-speaking low-intermediate L2Spanish learners attempted to learn 24 new Spanishwords in three conditions: (a) make pleasantnessratings about each word referent based on previousexperiences (+semantic); (b) count letters in eachword (+structural); and (c) ‘do your best’ only (noelaboration). Dependent variables were free recall ofthe target words in Spanish, free recall of the targetwords in English, and cued recall (generate Spanishwords when presented with pictures). Results indicatedhigher Spanish free recall for +structural than for+semantic; higher English free recall for +semantic thanfor +structural; higher overall recall for no elaborationthan for +semantic and +structural; and higher cuedrecall for control than for +semantic and +structural.The results provide evidence that increased semantic

processing can inhibit ones ability to encode the formalproperties of new words.

03–94 Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen (Indiana U.,USA; Email: [email protected]). A new startingpoint? Investigating formulaic use and input infuture expression. Studies in Second LanguageAcquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002), 189−98.

The use of formulaic expressions by second language(L2) learners has received little attention fromL2 acquisition research investigating interlanguagetemporal systems. Instead, this field of inquiry hasemphasised the productive use of verbal morphologyby employing type-token analyses. This paper considersthe proposed developmental sequence of formula >low-scope pattern > construction in the emergence offuture expression in a longitudinal study of 16 adultlearners of L2 English. The findings suggest that the useof formulaic expressions may be subject to individualvariation and that learners may use them to differentdegrees when developing form-meaning associationseven in the same grammatical subsystem, such as thetense-aspect system. The findings also suggest, however,that the practice of favouring type over token analysis asa matter of course may eliminate valuable informationabout the emergence and development of temporalexpression. [See also abstract 03–108.]

03–95 Biesenbach-Lucas, Sigrun (American U.,Washington, USA; Email: [email protected])and Weasenforth, Donald. Virtual office hours:Negotiation strategies in electronic conferencing.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 2 (2002), 147−65.

This study of electronic office hour consultationsinvestigates the deployment of pragmatic elementsassociated with negotiating the completion andevaluation of course work as evidenced in emailmessages of American and international students to anAmerican professor. A total of 42 messages from 19native-speaker and nine non-native-speaker graduatestudents were analysed. The relative occurrence, extentof development, and linguistic realisation of variousnegotiation elements (e.g., proposal and justification)were compared to identify differences between nativeand non-native speakers. Findings indicate a lack ofnegotiation skills in the non-native students’ messages,which might disadvantage them in terms of successfullycompleting coursework.

03–96 Bley-Vroman, Robert (U. of Hawai’i, USA;Email: [email protected]). Frequency inproduction, comprehension, and acquisition.Studies in Second Language Acquisition (New York,USA), 24, 2 (2002), 209−13.

Although there are certainly observable frequencyeffects in language, in most cases, there are alternativeapproaches to explanation that more directly relate to

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■ Language learningthe essential characteristic of language − that it is asystem relating form to meaning. For example, for bothword choice in production and ambiguity resolutionin comprehension, meaning-based approaches canoften provide equally satisfying, or more satisfying,explanations. In the meaning-based approach, thestatistical structure of the language can affect thedevelopment of linguistic knowledge (for example, byinfluencing acquisition order or providing evidence fordeveloping grammars); however, linguistic knowledgeis not itself knowledge of the statistical structureof language. An example is provided here of howfrequency may relate to grammaticality judgements ofnonnative speakers acquiring multiple wh-questions.[See also abstract 03–108.]

03–97 Boulton, Alex (Centre de Tele-enseignement, Universite Nancy 2, France).Aspects lexicaux de l’acquisition ‘naturelle’ etl’apprentissage ‘artificiel’ en L2. [Lexical aspects of‘natural’ acquisition and ‘artificial’ learning in asecond language.] Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy,France), 26 (2001), 63–90.

This article consists of a review of the literaturecomparing ‘natural’ language acquisition of vocabularyin a first or second language with the ‘artificial’learning of vocabulary in a second language (L2).Particular attention is paid to a comparison of therelative advantages of contextualised acquisition inchildhood with those of the deliberately-deployeddecontextualised learning strategies characteristic ofadults. Research conducted so far does not lead to theconclusion that one of these techniques is more efficientthan the other, although it is clear that if learners havesufficient contact with the L2, lexical information willbe processed automatically. However, this process canbe accelerated by making underlying regularities moresalient, either through explicit instruction or by focusingthe learner’s attention on them. This does not lead to asingle, ideal technique for learning vocabulary, though,since individual learning styles vary. It also remains tobe shown whether the particular techniques adoptedinfluence the structure of the L2 mental lexicon.

03–98 Bruton, A. (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain;Email: [email protected]). Recoding andreorganising grammatical form by meaning: TheEnglish genitive as an example. System (Oxford,UK), 30, 2 (2002), 237−50.

The consideration of grammar in this article assumesthat both meaning and form are central. However,in receiving language acoustic form is the initial cue,while in production meaning is the initial cue resultingin articulated forms. Beyond this, it is assumed thatreceptive and productive knowledges are organiseddifferently and the processes activating the knowledgesdistinct. The novelty here is the argument that receptiveknowledge, which is generally acoustically cued byform, has to be recoded for semantic cueing forproduction. It also has to be reorganised. To clarify

the argument, an extended example is given of thesemantic area covering possessive, part-whole andsocial/professional relationships and realised by theframes [NP’s N], [N of NP] and [N of NP’s], as inJulia’s bike, the tower of the cathedral and a friend of Laura’s.The example demonstrates how recoding/reorganisingworks in practice. The consequence for assimilation isthat language learners, unless they expect to expressmeanings productively in the future, are unlikelyto recode input and existing form-based intake forsemantic cueing, let alone reorganise it. The articleends with a discussion of some of the pedagogicalconsequences of recoding/reorganising.

03–99 Bybee, Joan (U. of New Mexico, USA;Email: [email protected]). Phonological evidencefor exemplar storage of multiword sequences.Studies in Second Language Acquisition (New York,USA), 24, 2 (2002), 215−21.

Phonological evidence supports the frequency-basedmodel proposed in the article by Nick Ellis [seeabstract 03–108]. Phonological reduction occurs earlierand to a greater extent in high-frequency wordsand phrases than in low-frequency ones. A modelthat accounts for this effect needs both an exemplarrepresentation to show phonetic variation and the abilityto represent multiword combinations. The maintenanceof alternations conditioned by word boundaries, suchas French liaison, also provides evidence that multiwordsequences are stored and can accrue representationalstrength. The reorganisation of phonetic exemplars infavour of the more frequent types provides evidencefor some abstraction in categories beyond the simpleregistration of tokens of experience.

03–100 Carson, Joan C. (Georgia State U., USA;Email: [email protected]) and Longhini, Ana.Focusing on learning styles and strategies: A diarystudy in an immersion setting. Language Learning(Malden, MA, USA), 52, 2 (2002), 401−38.

This diary study focuses on the second languagelearning styles and strategies of the diarist/researcher ina naturalistic setting, utilising categories from Oxford’s(1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning andthe Style Analysis Survey. The analysis of diary entriesindicates that the learner’s learning style remainedrelatively constant throughout her time in the languageimmersion situation, but her strategies, while consistentwith her learning style, were more variable overtime. The total of indirect strategies used (58%) washigher than the total of direct strategies (42%), withthe most frequently used strategies being those inthe metacognitive group. The diarist’s learning styleappeared to influence her use of learning strategies.

03–101 Cenoz, Jasone (U. of the BasqueCountry). Age differences in foreign languagelearning. ITL Review of Applied Linguistics (Leuven,Belgium), 135–136 (2002), 125−42.

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Language learning ■This article is based on the results of a project thatanalyses the linguistic development of English as a thirdlanguage at different ages in a bilingual programme.Specifically, it examines the influence of the age ofintroduction of English as a foreign language on generalproficiency. Participants were 60 secondary schoolstudents who had Basque and/or Spanish as their firstlanguage and Basque as the language of instructionexcept for the subjects Spanish and English. All thestudents had studied English for six years but they hadstarted learning English at different ages. Half of thestudents started learning English in grade 6 and theother half in grade 3. All the participants completed abattery of tests and questionnaires including differentmeasures of proficiency in English: story telling,listening comprehension, composition, grammar andcloze test. The results indicate that older learners presenta higher level of proficiency in English. The differencesbetween older and younger students are discussed asrelated to several factors involved in foreign languagelearning.

03–102 Chung, Hyun-Sook (Internat. GraduateSchool of English, Korea; Email: [email protected])and Ahn, Hyunkee. Local acoustic vs. sentencecontextual information: Which plays a more crucialrole in an L2 word recognition test? EnglishTeaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002), 239−51.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whichinformation second language (L2) listeners rely on morein auditory word recognition: local acoustic informationor sentence contextual information. The study usedauditory stimuli where phoneme categorisation andsentence meaning would conflict. Data in the form ofthe number of correct answers to 20 questions in twosub-tests (10 congruent sentences vs. 10 incongruentsentences) were collected for each of the 72 subjects. Forthese collected data, a repeated measures ANOVA (two-way analysis of variance) was performed. The resultshowed a trend towards greater reliance on semanticsand contextual cues by L2 listeners where phonemecategorisation and sentence meaning conflict.

03–103 Chung, Jing-mei (Ming-Hsin Inst. ofTechnology, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan). The effects of usingtwo advance organizers with video texts for theteaching of listening in English. Foreign LanguageAnnals (New York, USA), 35, 2 (2002), 231−41.

Research has confirmed that exposing students toauthentic materials through video aids languagelearning, especially listening skills. This studyinvestigates the effects of two advance organizers −question previewing and vocabulary pre-teaching −on Taiwanese college students’ listening comprehensionof English-language videotapes. Approximately 188college students, randomly assigned to one of fourtreatment groups, viewed two video episodes, eachtwice. The results suggest that the group exposedto a combined treatment of vocabulary pre-teaching

and question previewing between two video viewingsoutperformed the groups who received either thevocabulary pre-teaching alone or no treatment on bothmultiple-choice and open-ended tests. However, theeffects of question previewing are likely to be assessmenttask-dependent. The implications of the findings forlistening instruction employing video in the English asa Foreign Language classroom are discussed.

03–104 Cortes, Kristin Hull (U. of California,Berkeley, USA). Youth and the study of foreignlanguage: An investigation of attitudes. ForeignLanguage Annals (New York, USA), 35, 3 (2002),320−32.

This study was undertaken to assess the attitudesof elementary and middle school students towardsforeign language (FL) study. A questionnaire, designedto measure student attitudes towards FL study andperceived parental support, was administered to 209learners in grades three through eight, in two differentschool populations within the San Francisco BayArea. The results of t-tests show that students withhome languages other than English demonstrated morepositive attitudes toward FL and a higher degree ofperceived parental support for their FL programme thandid students whose home language was English. Therewere no gender differences found on the total attitudescore. However, a difference between the two schoolpopulations emerged, with students at School I scoringsignificantly higher on the attitude scale and reportingmore parent support than students at School 2. Theimplications of the study are discussed and suggestionsfor future research are provided.

03–105 D’Angiulli, Amedeo and Siegel,

Linda S. (U. of British Columbia, Canada; Email:[email protected]) and Serra, Emily. Thedevelopment of reading, in English and Italianbilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics(Cambridge, UK), 22, 4 (2001), 479−507.

A central aim of this study was to investigate thehypothesis that exposure to the phonology of a verypredicable language, such as Italian, would benefitreading skills in a relatively opaque language, suchas English. Canadian children (n = 81; 9–13 years)who spoke both English and Italian were administeredphonological, reading, spelling, syntactic, and workingmemory tasks in both languages. There was asignificant relationship between English and Italianacross all phonological tasks. The relationship wasless evident for syntactic skills and was generallyabsent for working memory measures. Analyses ofphonological, syntactic, and memory processes basedon levels of skill in English reading showed significantlybetter performance by skilled readers compared toless skilled readers; this was also true for the 11-to 13-year-olds compared to the 9- to 10-year-olds.Similar results were obtained as a function of levelsof skill in Italian reading. On all Italian tasks, the

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■ Language learningbilingual children lagged behind monolingual childrenmatched on age. However, less skilled and skilledbilingual Italian children had significantly higher scoresthan monolingual English-Canadian children (withcomparable reading skills) on English tasks involvingreading, spelling, syntactic awareness, and workingmemory. The results suggest that English-Italianinterdependence is most clearly related to phonologicalprocessing, but it may influence other linguisticmodules. In addition, exposure to a language with morepredictable grapheme-phoneme correspondences, suchas Italian, may enhance phonological skills in English.

03–106 Derwing, Tracey M. and Rossiter,

Marian J. (U. of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada;Email: [email protected]). ESL learners’perceptions of their pronunciation needs andstrategies. System (Oxford, UK), 30, 2 (2002),155−66.

This paper examines the perceptions of 100 adultEnglish as a Second Language (ESL) learners from avariety of first language backgrounds with regard totheir pronunciation difficulties and the strategies theyemploy when faced with communication breakdown.The vast majority of pronunciation problems identifiedby students were segmental, yet their most commonlyused strategies when they had not been understoodwere paraphrase, self-repetition, writing/spelling, andvolume adjustment. Their responses were analysedaccording to first language groups and proficiency levels.Students were also asked to indicate whether theiraccents were affected by context, and whether or notthey felt they had any control over their pronunciation.Those who reported being able to control their accentsalso recounted how they did so. The findings arediscussed with reference to pronunciation instructionand commercially available resources most often usedin ESL programmes across Canada. The authorsmake recommendations for second language teachers,drawing on research in both the pronunciation andcommunicative strategy literatures.

03–107 Dewaele, Jean-Marc (Birkbeck Coll., U.of London, UK; Email: [email protected]), and

Pavlenko, Aneta. Emotion vocabulary ininterlanguage. Language Learning (Malden, MA,USA), 52, 2 (2002), 263−322.

Recent research in linguistics singles out emotion wordsas different from other abstract words. The goal of thisarticle is to examine five factors that may impact on theuse of second language (L2) emotion vocabulary. Thefirst study considers the impact of language proficiency,gender, and extraversion on the use of emotion wordsin the advanced French interlanguage (IL) of 29 Dutchfirst language (L1) speakers. The second examines theinfluence of sociocultural competence, gender, andtype of linguistic material on the use of emotionvocabulary in the advanced English IL of 34 RussianL1 speakers. Combined, the results of the two studies

demonstrate that the use of emotion words in IL islinked to proficiency level, type of linguistic material,extraversion, and, in some cases, gender of IL speakers.

03–108 Ellis, Nick C. (U. of Wales, Bangor, UK;Email: [email protected]). Frequency effects oflanguage processing: A review with implications fortheories of implicit and explicit languageacquisition. Studies in Second LanguageAcquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002), 143−88.

This article leads a special issue of Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition which includes 11 invited responsesand also a coda by the present author [see abstracts 03–7,03–94, 03–96, 03–99, 03–109, 03–110, 03–111, 03–115, 03–118, 03–123, 03–130, 03–158]. The articleshows how language processing is intimately tuned toinput frequency. Examples are given of frequency effectsin the processing of phonology, phonotactics, reading,spelling, lexis, morphosyntax, formulaic language,language comprehension, grammaticality, sentenceproduction, and syntax. The implications of these effectsfor the representations and developmental sequence ofsecond language acquisition (SLA) are discussed. Usage-based theories hold that the acquisition of language isexemplar based. It is the piecemeal learning of manythousands of constructions and the frequency-biasedabstraction of regularities within them. Determinantsof pattern productivity include the power law ofpractice, cue competition and constraint satisfaction,connectionist learning, and effects of type and tokenfrequency. The regularities of language emerge fromexperience as categories and prototypical patterns. Thetypical route of emergence of constructions is fromformula, through low-scope pattern, to construction.Frequency plays a large part in explaining sociolinguisticvariation and language change. Learners’ sensitivity tofrequency in all these domains has implications fortheories of implicit and explicit learning and theirinteractions. The review concludes by considering thehistory of frequency as an explanatory concept intheoretical and applied linguistics, its 40 years of exile,and its necessary reinstatement as a bridging variablethat binds the different schools of language acquisitionresearch.

03–109 Ellis, Nick C. (U. of Wales, Bangor, UK;Email: [email protected]). Reflections onfrequency effects in language processing. Studiesin Second Language Acquisition (New York, USA),24, 2 (2002), 297−39.

This response [see abstract 03–108] addresses thefollowing points raised in the commentaries; (a)complementary learning mechanisms, the distinctionbetween explicit and implicit memory, and theneuroscience of ‘noticing’; (b) what must and whatneed not be noticed for learning; (c) when frequencyfails to drive learning, which addresses factors such asfailing to notice cues, perseveration, transfer from thefirst language, developmental readiness, thinking too

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Language learning ■hard, pedagogical input, and practising; (d) attentionand form-focused instruction; (e) conscious andunconscious knowledge of frequency; (f ) sequences ofacquisition − from formula, through low-scope pattern,to construction; (g) the Fundamental Differencehypothesis; (h) the blind faith of categorical grammar;(i) Labovian variationist perspectives; ( j) parsimony andtheory testing; (k) universals and predispositions; and (1)wanna-contractions. It concludes by emphasising thatlanguage acquisition is a process of dynamic emergenceand that learners’ language is a product of their historyof usage in communicative interaction.

03–110 Ellis, Rod (U. of Auckland, New Zealand;Email: [email protected]). Does form-focusedinstruction affect the acquisition of implicitknowledge? A review of the research. Studies inSecond Language Acquisition (New York, USA), 24,2 (2002), 223−36.

The extent to which form-focused instruction (FFI)contributes to the acquisition of second language (L2)implicit knowledge is controversial. Whereas Krashen(1993) has argued that the effects of FFI on acquisitionare peripheral, N. Ellis [see abstract 03–108] sees FFI asfacilitative and even necessary for developing implicitL2 knowledge. This article examines the role of FFI indeveloping implicit knowledge by reviewing 11 studiesthat have examined the effect of FFI on learners’ freeproduction. The review suggests that FFI can contributeto the acquisition of implicit knowledge and points totwo variables that appear to influence its success − thechoice of the target structure and the extent of theinstruction. FFI involving extensive instruction directedat ‘simple’ structures was more likely to succeed.However, limited instruction directed at complexstructures also proved effective, provided that the targetstructures are readily available in noninstructional input.

03–111 Eubank, Lynn (U. of North Texas, USA;Email: [email protected]) and Gregg,

Kevin R. News flash − Hume still dead. Studies inSecond Language Acquisition (New York, USA), 24,2 (2002), 237−47.

Ellis [see abstract 03–108] refers to a wide rangeof data supporting the uncontroversial claim thatthere are frequency effects in linguistic and otherbehaviour. He further resurrects the long-discreditedclaim that language acquisition consists of frequency-based abstraction of regularities from input. This articlesuggests that what he fails to do is to show howthe former claim leads to the latter, or indeed toshow any evidence for this claim. It is further claimedEllis ignores fundamental and well-known problems −the poverty of the stimulus, cases of instantaneousacquisition, evidence for innate knowledge, evidencethat even children regularly ignore perceptual input,the compositionality of concepts, and the systematicityof language − that make his frequency-based accountof acquisition a nonstarter.

03–112 Fries-Verdeil, Marie-Helene and Hay,

Josiane (Universite de Grenoble I, France). Del’utilite des metaphores comme outil pour laRecherche-Action: le cas de l’auto-formationguidee. [Metaphors as a tool for Action Researchand self-directed language learning.] Les Cahiers del’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 3 (2001) 45−58.

Inspired by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), this papershows how metaphors can mediate between students’representations of learning and the process of acquiringa language. Second-year students of scientific Englishwere asked to rank 12 objectives of learning English andto complete two key sentences about science educationand language learning; these invited a metaphor,although they could be completed in other ways.Analysis of the ranking task revealed a prioritisationof oral English, a disaffection with scientific Englishand a rejection of culture (i.e., ‘high’ culture). Analysisof the language learning sentences revealed three keymetaphors: opening/gateway, foundation, and tool.Over half the responses mentioned the ‘opening’concept which often included that of a journey butwith no mention of structure. A sixth of the responsesused the ‘foundation’ concept and often gave examplesof necessary elements, e.g., vocabulary, grammar,pronunciation, suggesting gradual, methodical progresstowards a final product. A tenth of the responsesused the ‘tool’ metaphor, seeing language learningas a means to fulfilling other goals and emphasisingthe value of autonomy. The metaphors suggested fora science education, although fewer, were identical.Consideration of the links between the two analysesled to a better matching between the planned contentof a self-directed learning scheme and student profiles.

03–113 Frost, Dan (IUT 2 Grenoble, France).Seeing is believing: l’oscillogramme,l’auto-apprentissage et l’accentuation de mots.[Seeing is believing: Wave forms, self-access andword stress.] Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble,France), 21, 3 (2002), 21−31.

This paper reports an action research project whichaimed to test the possibility of making progress inword-stress in a short time period and to compare theeffectiveness of Computer-Assisted Language Learning(CALL) and traditional teaching methods using a pre-test, post-test design. Twenty-three students of theBrevet de Technicien Superieur were divided into threegroups: traditional, CALL, and a control group. Theexperimental groups were taught for 15 minutes, twicea week, for four weeks. The traditional group deducedrules from examples, listened and repeated individuallyand in chorus, and accomplished a communicative task.The CALL group worked unaided using the LearningLabs authoring package and Sound Forge software. Ofthe three different versions of the wave form given −a simple representation of the strength of the soundsignal, a representation of the intonation pattern, and ahistogram representing the stress by giving the length

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■ Language learningand pitch of each syllable − the first was found to bemost useful. The traditional group progressed in all threeareas − written, spoken and perception − with the bestprogress (30%) made in the written component. TheCALL group progressed by only 10% for the writtenwords, by only 4% for the spoken words but by 40%for the perception test. The control group made noprogress in the written component, they increased theirscores by 22% on the spoken test and by 44% on theperception test, due perhaps to having started from alower base.

03–114 Gardey, Claudine (IUT Bordeaux I,France). SVP, dessine-moi une notion! Recherchessur la mediation graphique en anglais de specialite.[Please draw me a notion! Research on the use ofdiagrammatic representations for the ESP class].Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 3(2002), 32−44.

This paper reports a practice-based research projectinvestigating the use of graphs, charts, diagrams,etc., in special purpose English (ESP) classes in atechnical university. A four-phase teaching programmeis described. (1) Familiarisation with many typesof diagram; students become accustomed to talkingabout the relationship between the visual and theverbal. (2) Students produce their own diagramsbased on an English text, allowing teachers toperceive immediately any limitations in the students’understanding and provide remedial help; the diagramsare presented to the class, who ask for clarifications,make critical comments, etc., leading to a lively andlinguistically rich co-construction of meaning. (3) Thestudents prepare a technically-aided presentation (e.g.,PowerPoint) based only on diagrammatic information.(4) The presentations are evaluated according tovisualisation principles, e.g., association, familiarisation,clarity of meaning, proportional effect, simplification,information transfer, didactic power and aestheticqualities. Reflection has revealed that, while studentshave become increasingly adept and inventive in theiruse of visual and technical support, many studentsremain very concrete in their representations; abstract,symbolic representations are rarer. Current research istesting the effect on memory of this work and a tentativefinding is that, when revisited, the diagrams aid the recallof conceptual relationships but lexical recall remainsdifficult.

03–115 Gass, Susan M. (Michigan State U., USA;Email: [email protected]) and Mackey, Alison.Frequency effects and second language acquisition:A complex picture? Studies in Second LanguageAcquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002), 249−60.

This response to Ellis’s target article on frequencyin language processing, language use, and languageacquisition [see abstract 03–108] argues in favour of arole for frequency in several areas of second languageacquisition, including interactional input and output

and speech processing. It also discusses areas wheresecond language acquisition appears to proceed alongits own route and at its own pace regardless of thefrequency of the input, as well as areas where inputis infrequent but acquisition appears to be unimpeded.The response is intended to highlight the complexityof the task of deciphering the role and importance offrequency.

03–116 Goh, Christine C. M. (Nanyang Tech. U.,Singapore; Email: [email protected]). Exploringlistening comprehension tactics and theirinteraction patterns. System (Oxford, UK), 30, 2(2002), 185−206.

Much of listening strategy research has focused onbroad strategy use with little attention paid to thedifferent mental techniques by which each strategyis operationalised. This study examined a group ofChinese English as a Second Language learners’listening strategies and the tactics that operationalisedthem. It also conducted an exploratory analysis of theway these tactics interacted in the processing sequencesof two learners. Data were collected and analysed usinga retrospective verbalisation procedure based on theprinciples of human information processing proposedby Ericsson & Simon (1993, Protocol Analysis: VerbalReports as Data, 2nd edn., MIT Press, Cambridge,MA, USA). Besides revealing tactics for two newstrategies, the study identified a number of tacticsfor operationalising some existing strategies in theliterature. Altogether, 44 listening tactics have beenidentified. In the comparison of the two learners’retrospective protocols, it was found that, although theyused many similar strategies, the higher ability listenerdemonstrated more effective use of both cognitiveand metacognitive tactics. The paper concludes thatexamining specific tactics was useful in clarifying somestrategies in the literature and that an investigation ofhow individual tactics interact in processing sequencescould offer insights into cognitive differences betweenlearners. It also recommends the use of carefully selectedretrospective protocols on tactic use for classroomawareness-raising activities.

03–117 Han, ZhaoHong (Teachers Coll.,Columbia U., USA). ‘Novel unaccusatives’: Isdetransitivisation taking place? ITL Review ofApplied Linguistics (Leuven, Belgium), 135–136

(2002), 97−124.

Interlanguage ‘novel unaccusative’ (a term borrowedfrom Balcom, 1997) has been a subject of investigationsince the late 1970s, though it has usually beendiscussed under the terms of an interlanguage syntacticstructure called the ‘pseudo-passive’. While most ofthe research to date is in favour of the view that theinterlanguage structure is primarily induced by firstlanguage (L1) discourse/syntactic influence, Balcomprovides an alternative explanatory account. Assuminga lexical perspective, she sees the interlanguage structure

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Language learning ■as the creation of a ‘novel unaccusative’ through alexical process of detransitivisation. The present paperdiscusses Balcom’s view, in particular her contentionthat interlanguage novel unaccusatives and native-likeunaccusatives with transitive counterparts share thesame underlying lexical process of detransitivisation.Drawing on both natural longitudinal data and eliciteddata, it is shown that Balcom’s view would beover-generalising if applied across language acquisitioncontexts. What renders the application problematicis the fact that while some novel unaccusatives fromL2 acquisition may derive from the lexical processof detransitivisation as in L1 acquisition, some donot. The author deems it imperative, in the contextof L2 acquisition, to discriminate, at least in looseterms, between developmental and L1-induced novelunaccusatives. Such a distinction is important not onlybecause it helps to refine our understanding of whatunderlies novel unaccusatives in L2 acquisition, butalso because it would lend more accurate guidance toL2 teachers in dealing with novel unaccusatives in theclassroom.

03–118 Harrington, Michael and Dennis,

Simon (U. of Queensland, Australia; Email:[email protected]). Input-driven languagelearning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition(New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002), 261−68.

Input-driven models provide an explicit and readilytestable account of language learning. Although thepresent authors share Ellis’s view [see abstract 03–108]that the statistical structure of the linguistic environmentis a crucial and, until recently, relatively neglectedvariable in language learning, they also recognise thatthe approach makes three assumptions about cognitionand language learning that are not universally shared.The three assumptions concern (a) the language learneras an intuitive statistician, (b) the constraints on whatconstitute relevant surface cues, and (c) the redescriptionproblem faced by any system that seeks to deriveabstract grammatical relations from the frequency ofco-occurring surface forms and functions. These aresignificant assumptions that must be established if input-driven models are to gain wider acceptance. Thisarticle comments on these issues and briefly describesa distributed, instance-based approach which retainsthe key features of the input-driven account advocatedby Ellis but which also addresses shortcomings of thecurrent approaches.

03–119 Helms-Park, Rena (U. of Toronto,Canada). The need to draw second languagelearners’ attention to the semantic boundaries ofsyntactically relevant verb classes. The CanadianModern Language Review/La Revue canadiennedes langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.), 58, 4 (2002),576−98.

This paper puts forward the view that second language(L2) learners could benefit from being made aware

of the semantic components which unify verbs thatdisplay a certain syntactic behaviour, and, moresignificantly, the semantic components which excludeother verbs from participating in this behaviour. Inother words, an awareness of the parameters of verbclasses could minimise both syntactic overgeneralisationand undergeneralisation. This viewpoint is supportedby the findings of a study in which productionand judgement data on the behaviour of ‘change-of-state’ and ‘directional motion’ verbs were elicitedfrom learners at three levels of lexical proficiency.While learners with high lexical proficiency had fewerovergeneralisations than their lower-level counterparts,overgeneralisation was substantial at all levels ofproficiency in the directional motion class. The resultssuggest that it might be beneficial to combine grammarand vocabulary instruction in L2 curricula, with aspecial focus on semantically coherent verb classes.

03–120 Hoare, Rachel (Trinity Coll., Dublin 2,Ireland; Email: [email protected]). Attitudes andmotivations of undergraduate learners of French:An integrative approach. Revue PArole (Paris,France), 20 (2001), 235−61.

Research consistently shows that motivation andlearner attitudes are important determining factorsin the successful learning of a second or foreignlanguage (L2). The highly influential work ofGardner and Lambert (1972) on motivation in L2acquisition in the Canadian L2 context is groundedin a social psychological framework, an approachwhich largely dominated subsequent work in thisarea. The research described in this paper takesaccount of the more recent theoretical developmentswhich have informed Gardner and Lambert’s originalframework. Data elicited by questionnaire and interviewfrom first-year undergraduate students of French inTrinity College are used (1) to identify motivationalconstructs and the factorial composition underlyingthe relationships among them; (2) to establish whetherspecific components of motivation and attitudes towardslearning French are related to achievement as measuredby a series of assessments in the subject; and (3)to look more specifically at this relationship forlearning grammar. Findings from the qualitative datareinforced the quantitative data which showed a strongrelationship between the four attitude and motivationfactors identified in the factor analysis and the resultsof the language proficiency measures. The qualitativedata served to elicit the underlying reasons for therelationship established by statistical analysis, and inthis respect the paper draws attention to the value ofcomplementing quantitative research approaches to thestudy of language learning attitudes and motivation witha more descriptive qualitative approach.

03−121 Huang, Yue Yuan and Yang, Suying

(Hong Kong Baptist U., Hong Kong). Understandingthe special characteristics of Cantonese speakersacquiring Mandarin: An important component in

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■ Language learningthe training of Hong Kong Mandarin teachers. AsiaPacific Journal of Language in Education(Hong Kong), 4, 2 (2001), 107−27.

A significant change in language education in HongKong recently is that Mandarin has become acompulsory subject in both primary and secondaryschools since 1998. The second language (L2) Mandarinacquisition by Hong Kong Cantonese speakers is aspecial L2 acquisition case. Mandarin and Cantoneseare not mutually intelligible, yet the two dialects havesimilar grammar, the same written system and the samevocabulary. This paper discusses the importance ofunderstanding the special characteristics of Cantonesespeakers acquiring Mandarin in the training of HongKong Mandarin teachers. It first reports longitudinalstudies on the acquisition of Mandarin by three groupsof Hong Kong students: (1) a group of primary schoolchildren in an immersion programme; (2) a group ofprimary school children learning Mandarin one hourper week; and (3) a group of university students learningMandarin three hours per week. The findings are thendiscussed regarding how the acquisition patterns andspecific characteristics of the three groups of learners cancontribute to the development of efficient Mandarincourses for Hong Kong students.

03–122 Huh, Myung-Hye (Korea U.; Email:[email protected]). Second language activitytheory: L2 learner agency in asynchronous learningnetworks. English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002),59−74.

Much research on Computer-Assisted LanguageLearning (CALL) has focused on pedagogical questionsof the integration of technology into language andculture curricula and descriptive characterisations ofcomputer-mediated communication at the interactionallevel. To date, relatively little research has examinedthe sociocultural issues related to CALL use. Thispaper explores the implications of Vygotsky’s activitytheory, a component of sociocultural theory, forobserving how the individual operationalises the goalof the activity, in conjunction with learner agency inelectronic partnership. Based on data from retrospectivestatements of students’ learning experiences regardingtheir practices in asynchronous learning networks, thestudy argues for an awareness of second language (L2)learners as active, purposeful individual agents, whoare involved in shaping their activity based on theirhistorically specific needs, desires, and negotiations.Certainly, the language learning task in asynchronouslearning networks is best seen as uniquely situated,emergent interactions based on language learners’ goalsand subgoals and not merely task objectives andinvariant task procedures.

03–123 Hulstijn, Jan H. (U. of Amsterdam, TheNetherlands; Email: [email protected]). Whatdoes the impact of frequency tell us about thelanguage acquisition device? Studies in Second

Language Acquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2(2002), 269−73.

This peer commentary [see abstract 03–108] emphasisesthe importance of placing frequency in an overarchingtheoretical framework of language acquisition. Threeissues are raised that appear to be both importantand timely: (a) the question of how innate, or initial,cognition can deal with stimulus frequency; (b) thelikelihood that frequency has a differential impactdepending on the type of knowledge concerned; and(c) preliminary evidence that frequency affects receptivelanguage knowledge more than productive knowledge,which raises the issue of a possible dissociation betweenthe two knowledge types.

03–124 Igarashi, Kanae, Wudthayagorn,

Jirada, Donato, Richard and Tucker, G. Richard

(Carnegie Mellon U., Pittsburgh, USA). What does anovice look like? Describing the grammar anddiscourse of young learners of Japanese. TheCanadian Modern Language Review/La Revuecanadienne des langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.),58, 4 (2002), 526−54.

The purpose of this study is to describe diverse aspectsof the speaking proficiency of novice-low to novice-mid level FLES (Foreign Languages in ElementarySchool) students and to identify the syntactic knowledgepresumably underlying such behaviour. Data werecollected from students who had been studying Japanesecontinually for six and seven years on a varietyof oral production tasks. The analyses revealed anumber of interesting findings with respect to syntacticdevelopment such as their control of certain particlesand use of non-canonical word order. Additionally,although the FLES students comprehended input andspoke in ways similar to child native speakers in terms ofcertain word-level features, the quantity of their outputdiffered, with FLES students producing less output lessoften. The pedagogical implications of these findingsfor early language learning educators are discussed.

03–125 Ionin, Tania and Wexler, Kenneth

(Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, USA; Email:[email protected]). Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’?:Acquisition of tense/agreement morphology bychild second language learners of English. SecondLanguage Research (London, UK), 18, 2 (2002),95−136.

This study of first-language (L1) Russian childrenacquiring English as a second language (L2) investigatesthe reasons behind omission of verbal inflectionin L2 acquisition and argues for presence offunctional categories in L2 grammar. Analyses ofspontaneous production data show that the child L2learners (n = 20), while omitting inflection, almostnever produce incorrect tense/agreement morphology.Furthermore, the L2 learners use suppletive inflectionat a significantly higher rate than affixal inflection,

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Language learning ■and overgenerate be auxiliary forms in utteranceslacking progressive participles (e.g., they are helppeople). A grammaticality judgement task of Englishtense/agreement morphology similarly shows that thechild L2 English learners are significantly more sensitiveto the be paradigm than to inflection on thematicverbs. These findings suggest that Tense is present inthe learners’ L2 grammar, and that it is instantiatedthrough forms of the be auxiliary. It is argued thatomission of inflection is due to problems with therealisation of surface morphology, rather than to featureimpairment, in accordance with the Missing SurfaceInflection Hypothesis of Prevost and White (2000). It isfurthermore suggested that L2 learners initially associatemorphological agreement with verb-raising and, thus,acquire forms of be before inflectional morphology onin situ thematic verbs.

03–126 Knight, Susan M. (Central Michigan U.,USA) and Schmidt-Rinehart, Barbara C.

Enhancing the homestay: Study abroad from thehost family’s perspective. Foreign Language Annals(New York, USA), 35, 2 (2002), 190−201.

Most foreign language departments encourage theirstudents not only to study abroad, but also to livewith host families to maximise linguistic and culturalexposure to the target culture. While there havebeen a number of studies examining study abroadfrom the student’s and programme’s perspectives, thenative perspective of the homestay experience has beenmissing. To help fill this void, 24 host families wereinterviewed in their home settings. The interviewdata were analysed using the NUD*IST computerprogram to determine salient, recurring topics. Thisarticle discusses the study design, and also the threemajor themes that emerged: adjustment, the homestayadvantage, and problems families had with students.It concludes with the hosts’ recommendations onhow students, programmes, and the native familiesthemselves can work together to enhance the homestayexperience. Traditionally, the onus has been on thestudents to optimise their immersion experience; butthe recommendations emerging here suggest that thevoices of the families must be heard and their potentialmore fully realised, in order that the homestay be morefully exploited as a resource for students’ linguisticdevelopment and cultural adaptation.

03–127 Kroll, Judith F. (Pennsylvania State U.,USA; Email: [email protected]) Michael, Erica,

Tokowicz, Natasha and Dufour, Robert. Thedevelopment of lexical fluency in a secondlanguage. Second Language Research (London,UK), 18, 2 (2002), 137−71.

A goal of second language (L2) learning is to enablelearners to understand and speak L2 words withoutmediation through the first language (L1). However,psycholinguistic research suggests that lexical candidatesare routinely activated in L1 when words in L2 are

processed. This article describes two experiments thatexamined the acquisition of L2 lexical fluency. InExperiment 1, two groups of native English speakers,one more and one less fluent in French as their L2,performed word naming and translation tasks. Learnerswere slower and more error prone to name and totranslate words into L2 than more fluent bilinguals.However, there was also an asymmetry in translationperformance such that forward translation was slowerthan backward translation. Learners were also slowerthan fluent bilinguals to name words in English,the L1 of both groups. Experiment 2 compared theperformance of native English speakers at early stagesof learning French or Spanish to the performance offluent bilinguals on the same tasks. The goal was todetermine whether the apparent cost to L1 readingwas a consequence of L2 learning or a reflection ofdifferences in cognitive abilities between learners andbilinguals. Experiment 2 replicated the main features ofExperiment 1 and showed that bilinguals scored higherthan learners on a measure of L1 reading span, but thatthis difference did not account for the apparent cost toL1 naming. The implications of these results for modelsof the developing lexicon are considered.

03–128 Lai, Lai-kwan and Hamp-Lyons, Liz

(Hong Kong Poly. U.). Different learning patterns inself-access. RELC Journal (Singapore), 32, 2(2001), 63−79.

Self-access learning has recently received muchattention from language practitioners, educators andlinguists in the language learning field. Much emphasishas been put on the effectiveness of the self-accesssystem. However, it is difficult to locate studiesconcerning the learning patterns in self-access systems.This paper looks on two levels into the different learningpatterns among university students studying in a self-access learning environment. First, it addresses theimpact of the different learning patterns on languagelearning under self-access systems. Second, it discussesthe research findings on the learning patterns amonguniversity students when learning in the self-accessmode and proposes appropriate self-access workingmodels to enhance language learning. The data showthat there are two different learning patterns: group-learning and individual learning. The findings alsosuggest that the group learners are more effective interms of time-management, task-orientation and utili-sing tutor support in the study contexts of self-access.

03–129 Lamb, Martin (U. of Leeds, UK).Explaining successful language learning in difficultcircumstances. Prospect (Macquarie U., Sydney,Australia), 17, 2 (2002), 35−52.

This paper considers the special challenges facinglearners of English in developing country contexts,and asks why a few individuals succeed in achievingcompetence in English where the majority moreunderstandably fail. While research theory has shed

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■ Language learninglight on individual learner differences such as aptitude,motivation and learning strategies, there has beenvery little empirical investigation of whether thesefactors can explain achievement in a second language(L2) in environments where exposure to and useof the L2 are severely limited. At the same time,while it is now recognised that classroom behaviourmust be understood in its social and cultural context,there has been less interest in how context shapesand constrains out-of-classroom learning behaviour,arguably more important where formal educationalprovision is wanting. This article reports on a small-scale exploratory study into the attitudes, learningbehaviour and L2 achievement of 16 students inprovincial Indonesia. Analysis of interview data showsthat formal and informal learning opportunities areindeed scarce, frustrating the majority of Englishlearners. The few individuals who have overcomethese difficulties demonstrate a personal investmentin learning, and the autonomy and resourcefulness topursue their goals independently.

03–130 Larsen-Freeman, Diane (U. of Michigan,USA; Email: [email protected]). Making sense offrequency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition(New York, USA), 24, 2 (2002), 275−85.

Nick Ellis’s article [see abstract 03–108] is impressivefor its breadth of scholarship and the cogent casemade for frequency as an important factor insecond language acquisition (SLA). This responsebegins with a brief historical sketch, which aimsto contextualise the frequency factor in terms ofthe evolution of SLA research. Although researchershave known about a frequency effect for some time,until recently neurologically plausible models andtechnologically convenient means of measuring andtesting frequency effects in input have been lacking.Still, as relevant and important as a frequency factoris, it requires greater definition and qualification.For instance, second language learners are agents oftheir own learning process. They do not merelyrecord frequency, they categorise frequently occurringpatterns, abstract, and generalise from them. Higherlevel generalisations emerge from interactions, imposetop-down expectancies on future data, and, in turn, arealtered by the data in a perpetually dynamic interplay.In a similar fashion, it is incumbent on SLA researchersnot to be satisfied with a frequency explanation, but tointerpret it − in short, to make sense of frequency.

03–131 Lee, Haemoon (Sungkyunkwan U.,Korea; Email: [email protected]).Communicative output as a mode of focus on form.English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002), 171−92.

In the revised interaction hypothesis, output productionin a communicatively interactional setting is proposedto promote acquisition through focus on form. Studieson output production, however, have examined variouskinds of output production, both oral and written,

in communicative and non-communicative settings.This paper designs an authentic communicative outputproduction task and compares it with comprehensiontasks in terms of their effects on the acquisition oflanguage structures and vocabulary. The pre- and post-test design study involved 24 adult learners. It was foundthat the communicative output group learned neitherstructures or vocabulary significantly better than thecomprehension group. However, there were consistentdifferences between the two groups: for structures,the output group performed consistently better than thecomprehension group learners in two post-tests, whilethe reverse was true for vocabulary. Within-groupcomparison showed that the comprehension grouplearned vocabulary significantly better than structures,whereas the output group learned both of themwithout a significant difference. It is concluded that, asSwain has claimed, output production requires attentionto syntactic features as well as vocabulary, whereascomprehension seems to depend heavily on vocabularyprocessing rather than structures.

03–132 Lee, Soyoung (Inha U., Korea; Email:[email protected]). The effect of task type onnegotiation of meaning in synchronous textchatting. English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002),3−17.

This study reports how meaning is negotiated insynchronous communication by investigating the effectsof different task types on interaction. For this purpose,two tasks were given to the subjects: focused openconversational tasks in which they had a specific topicto discuss, and information-gap tasks in which theywere required to exchange information. The 20 Englishsecond language students from a college English readingclass were asked to carry out networked discussionsin dyads using a synchronous chat program, MicroSoftNetwork (MSN) Messenger. The textual data producedby the dyads as they engaged in the online tasks wereexamined in detail. Negotiation routines, and lexicaland syntactic complexity were compared quantitatively.The results show that information-gap tasks are amore productive stimulus to induce students’ activecommunication turn-takings, confirming the claimfrom some previous studies that structured interactionaltasks such as information-gap activities provide morelanguage practice than free conversation activities.However, the amount of negotiations that informationtasks triggered was not significantly different from thattriggered by conversational tasks In addition, the rangeof trigger types in conversational tasks was found to bemore varied than in informational tasks.

03–133 Lee-Wong, Song Mei (Nanyang Tech. U.,Singapore). Contextualising interculturalcommunication and sociopragmatic choices.Multilingua (Berlin, Germany), 21, 1 (2002), 79−99.

This paper examines intercultural communication fromthe standpoint of language as a social phenomenon

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Language learning ■(Searle) and argues for the consideration of context asbasic to this approach. Based on conversation analysis oftransactional exchanges between native and non-nativespeakers of English, it is found that miscommunicationis the result of participants applying culture-specificrules to the interpretation of a single message. Theanalyses of verbal repertoire and verbal behaviour ofnon-native speakers show that interlingual transfer is acommon phenomenon. Lack of speech convergence inthe speech styles of both native and non-native speakersmay be attributed to differing participant backgroundsin cultural and communicative conventions. Thereis empirical evidence to suggest that successfulintercultural communication in a multilingual, cross-cultural setting is dependent, amongst other factors, onthe observation that: (1) verbal politeness is culture-specific; (2) speech acts are speech variety-specific; and(3) speech styles are influenced by interlingual transfer.

03–134 Lindemann, Stephanie (GeorgiaState U., USA; Email: [email protected]).Listening with an attitude: A model ofnative-speaker comprehension of non-nativespeakers in the United States. Language in Society(Cambridge, UK), 31, 3 (2002), 419−41.

This study investigates whether there is a relationshipbetween negative attitudes towards non-native speakersand poor comprehension of those speakers. Twelvenative English speakers whose attitudes towards Koreanshad been assessed were asked to complete aninteractional map task paired with native Koreanspeakers. In the task, some but not all of thosewho had been assessed as having negative attitudestowards Koreans were found to use either strategiesthat were described as problematising their partners’utterances, or strategies that were described asavoidance. All participants completed the map taskreasonably successfully except where the native Englishspeaker used avoidance strategies, suggesting that therelationship between attitude and comprehension ismediated by the native speaker’s choice of strategies.However, there appeared to be a direct relationshipbetween attitude and perceived success of interactions,which may ultimately have the same consequences forinteractants as if the relationship were between attitudeand actual success.

03–135 Lozano, Cristobal (U. of Essex, UK).Knowledge of expletive and pronominal subjects bylearners of Spanish. ITL Review of AppliedLinguistics (Leuven, Belgium), 135–136 (2002),37−60.

A number of studies investigating second language(L2) acquisition from the perspective of Principlesand Parameters Theory have focused on the pro-drop parameter, and have argued that older L2learners are sensitive to the different properties itpurportedly covers. This paper extends this work byinvestigating two of its syntactic corollaries, namely,

referential pronominal subjects (ProS) and expletivepronominal subjects (ExpS). In so-called [+pro-drop]languages both may be realised as an empty element(pro). While on the surface these forms are identical,referential subject pro is different from expletive subjectpro both syntactically and semantically; syntacticallybecause referential pro co-exists with a set of overtsubject pronouns (yo ‘1’, tu ‘you’, etc), whereasthere are no overt expletive pronouns; semanticallybecause referential pro is distinguished for three persons,number and gender features, whereas expletive prowould appear to be a third person, singular, gender-neutral pronoun. The paper examines whether older L2learners are sensitive to these differences by using pairedgrammaticality judgement tests. Results are consistentwith the claim that learners have different mentalrepresentations for ProS and ExpS.

03–136 Lybeck, Karen (U. of Minnesota, USA;Email: [email protected]). Culturalidentification and second language pronunciation ofAmericans in Norway. The Modern LanguageJournal (Malden, MA, USA), 86, 2 (2002), 174−91.

Schumann’s Acculturation Theory as presented inThe Pidginization Process: A Model for Second LanguageAcquisition (1978) predicts that the degree of a learner’ssuccess in second language (L2) acquisition dependsupon the learner’s degree of acculturation. Attemptsto test this theory have not been particularly fruitfuldue to the lack of an adequate measure of acculturationand the particular linguistic markers selected to measuresuccess in L2 acquisition. This study proposes tomeasure sojourners’ acculturation in terms of theirsocial exchange networks. It measures L2 success interms of pronunciation, which in the view of manyscholars is the strongest linguistic marker of a speaker’scultural identification. Using this framework, the studyprovides strong evidence in support of Schumann’sAcculturation Theory. The acculturation experiencesand L2 pronunciation of nine American womenresiding in Norway are described, and the relationshipexamined. It is concluded that learners who developedpositive network connections with native speakers ofNorwegian evidenced more native-like pronunciationthan those who had greater difficulty establishing suchrelationships.

03–137 Mariotti, Cristina (Universita Cattolicadel S. Cuore, Milan, Italy). Osservazioni sul ruolodell’interazione nell’acquisizione incidentale dellessico in classi CLIL. [Observations on the role ofinteraction in the incidental acquisition of lexis inCLIL classes.] Rassegna Italiana di LinguisticaApplicata (Rome, Italy), 33, 1 (2001), 119–29.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)refers to any learning context in which content andlanguage are integrated. This paper discusses the analysisof some oral interactions recorded in geography lessonsin an Italian secondary school. It looks at some features

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■ Language learningof such interactions that illustrate how certain strategiesof the teacher can lead to conscious development of thelanguage by the students, with particular reference to thedevelopment of lexis. The importance of negotiationof meaning as a language-learning strategy is alsohighlighted.

03–138 McCafferty, Steven G. (U. of Nevada,Las Vegas, USA; Email: [email protected]).Gesture and creating zones of proximaldevelopment for second language learning. TheModern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA), 86,2 (2002), 192−203.

This study investigated the role of gesture in andof itself and in conjunction with speech in creatingzones of proximal development (ZPDs) for secondlanguage learning and teaching. A university studentof English, newly arrived in the United States,was videorecorded once a week in conversationalinteraction with an American graduate student, anEnglish as a Second/Foreign Language teacher, overtwo different periods lasting 15 weeks altogether. Theview taken in the study of Vygotsky’s concept of theZPD follows that of Newman & Holtzman (1993), whoargued that it primarily concerns revolutionary activity,that learning and teaching transforms as a consequenceof interacting in the ZPD, and that this affects allparticipants. Findings indicate the important role thatgesture played both in promoting language learningand in facilitating positive interaction between the twoparticipants, helping to create a sense of shared social,symbolic, physical, and mental space.

03–139 Muncie, James (U. of Evora, Portugal;Email: james [email protected]). Processwriting and vocabulary development: ComparingLexical Frequency Profiles across drafts. System(Oxford, UK), 30, 2 (2002), 225−35.

Process writing is often used as the methodology ofchoice on writing courses in English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) countries, where there is, however, agreater need for writing courses to be able to contributeto more general language improvement than exists in theEnglish as a Second Language (ESL) contexts for whichit was designed. To see if a process writing approachwas useful in improving the vocabulary of students ata Japanese university, a timed composition and the firstand final drafts of a composition written through processwriting were analysed using the Lexical FrequencyProfile (LFP). The first and final drafts were also analysedtogether. The results showed no significant differencebetween the LFPs of the three compositions. TheLFPs of the revisions made between the first and finaldraft did, however, show a higher percentage of moresophisticated vocabulary than those of the compositionsas a whole. It is therefore assumed that process writingcan be a useful means of helping students to stretchtheir vocabulary, although it is suggested that explicitlyconcentrating on vocabulary in the pre-writing stage

may encourage even greater vocabulary development.Such an adjustment to the approach could help make itmore suitable for teachers and students in EFL contexts.

03–140 Nassaji, Hossein (U. of Victoria, BC,Canada). Schema theory and knowledge-basedprocesses in second language readingcomprehension: A need for alternativeperspectives. Language Learning (Malden, MA,USA), 52, 2 (2002), 439−81.

Despite major theoretical developments in secondlanguage (L2) reading comprehension over the lasttwo decades, many attempts at explaining the roleof knowledge in comprehension are still madealmost exclusively in the context of schema theory.This paper first reviews and critically analyses themajor assumptions underlying schema theory. It thenconsiders an alternative perspective, a construction-integration model of text comprehension, and discusseshow this perspective, when applied to L2 readingcomprehension, offers a fundamentally different andmore comprehensive account of the role of knowledgeand knowledge-based processes that L2 researchers hadpreviously tried to explain within schema-theoreticprinciples.

03–141 Nelson, Gayle L. (Georgia State U.,USA), Carson, Joan, Al Batal, Mahmoud and

El Bakary, Waguida. Cross-cultural pragmatics:Strategy use in Egyptian Arabic and AmericanEnglish refusals. Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK),23, 2 (2002), 163−89.

This study investigated similarities and differencesbetween Egyptian Arabic and American English refusalsusing a modified version of the discourse completiontest (DCT) developed by Beebe et al. (1990). ThirtyUS interviews resulted in 298 refusals and 23 Egyptianinterviews resulted in 230 refusals. Each refusal wasdivided into its component strategies. Data wereanalysed to compare the average frequencies of directand indirect strategies, the average frequencies ofspecific indirect strategies, and the effect of interlocutorstatus on strategy use across groups. Results indicate thatboth groups use similar strategies with similar frequencyin making refusals. The findings, however, suggest thatalthough methods such as the DCT may be appropriatefor collecting pragmalinguistic data, they fail to revealthe sociopragmatic complexities of face-threatening actssuch as refusals.

03–142 Nutta, Joyce W. (U. of South Florida,USA), Feyten, Carine M., Norwood, Annette L.,

Meros, John N., Yoshii, Makoto and Ducher,

Jeannie. Exploring new frontiers: What docomputers contribute to teaching foreign languagesin elementary school? Foreign Language Annals(New York, USA), 35, 3 (2002), 293−306.

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Language learning ■Two growing trends in foreign language education, thestudy of foreign languages in the elementary school(FLES) and the use of computer-assisted language learn-ing (CALL), have been well researched independentlybut rarely in concert. This study compares the useof a print and multimedia program to teach Spanishto second through fifth graders from quantitative andqualitative perspectives. The experimental portion ofthe study showed that the achievement and proficiencyof students using print or multimedia materials did notdiffer at post-test. However, a small but statisticallysignificant difference in achievement emerged at thedelayed test point in favour of the students who usedthe multimedia materials, although this finding islimited by participant attrition over the 13-month study.The qualitative portion of the study detected differencesin language behaviour, with the students who usedmultimedia spending more time to stop, check, andrevise their language production, leading to greaterprecision in pronunciation and the use of larger chunksof language when repeating phrases.

03–143 Park, Seon-Ho (Myongji U., Seoul, Korea;Email: [email protected]). Learning Englishas a second language among Korean migrantstudents in New Zealand. English Teaching (Korea),57, 3 (2002), 75−100.

In recent years the issue of migration has becomeinseparable from the English learning fever inKorea. More and more Koreans experience not onlyshort or long term overseas studies but also evenmigration, aiming at learning English in English-speaking countries. In this globalised world, overseasmigrants need to be understood as an extension of thedomestic population of Korea. In this regard the presentpaper explores the situations of second language (L2)learning among Korean migrants, especially students inNew Zealand. A questionnaire-based interview schemewas used to survey 221 students and parents. Somesocial psychological variables and language learningstrategies at a societal level were found to be crucialto understanding their L2 learning processes. Koreanstudents’ motivation for learning English tended to betemporarily integrative but more instrumental in thelong-term, which seemed to be closely related to theirprospects for the future. Students generally had positiveperceptions of their own language learning processes.It was also evident that Korean communities inNew Zealand developed ways of learning Englisheffectively and sometimes very unconventionallycompared to other communities, which can suggestpedagogical implications in the Korean context.

03–144 Pavlenko, Aneta (Temple U., USA) and

Jarvis, Scott. Bidirectional transfer. AppliedLinguistics (Oxford, UK), 23, 2 (2002), 190−214.

This paper argues for a refinement in the traditionalapproach to transfer in second language acquisition(SLA), where transfer is generally investigated as the

unidirectional influence of native (or other language)knowledge on the acquisition and use of a secondlanguage (L2). It is shown that transfer can bebidirectional, influencing an individual’s use of both theL1 and L2. It is further argued that bidirectional transfercan be simultaneous or synchronic, and this conclusionis based on the results of the authors’ analysis of oralnarratives produced by 22 Russian L2 users of English,who learned English post-puberty after having livedin the USA for three to eight years. The narratives,collected in Russian and English, demonstrate thatcrosslinguistic influence works both ways in the oralproduction of these L2 users: while Russian continuesto influence their English, their English has begun toinfluence their Russian as well. The article discusses thefactors that may influence the directionality and amountof transfer in these L2 users, as well as ways in whichvarious types of transfer are similar and different in theirtwo languages. It then outlines the implications of thesefindings for the future study of transfer in SLA andbilingualism.

03–145 Perales, Josu (HABE [Inst. for theTeaching of Basque to Adult Learners], Donostia,Spain) and Cenoz, Jasone. The effect of individualand contextual factors in adult second-languageacquisition in the Basque Country. Language,Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK), 15, 1(2002), 1−15.

The acquisition of Basque as a second language by adultspeakers in the Basque Country presents some specificcharacteristics related to the minority status of Basqueand its limited use in everyday communication. Thispaper reports a research study on the effect of individualand contextual variables on the acquisition of Basqueby adult learners in the Basque Country. Participantswere 411 learners, aged between 17 and 72, who wereattending Basque classes in nine different specialisedschools for teaching Basque to adults. They were askedto complete several questionnaires so as to obtainbackground information and measures of metalinguisticawareness, anxiety, learning strategies, attitudes andmotivation. Participants also completed tests of Basquelanguage proficiency. Once the data were collectedand recorded, statistical analyses were carried out soas to identify the relative influence of several individualand contextual factors on second-language proficiency.The results indicate that metalinguistic awareness is thestrongest predictor of Basque proficiency and they alsoshow the influence of other variables. The results arediscussed taking into account both the characteristics ofsecond language acquisition by adult speakers and thespecific sociolinguistic context in which the acquisitionof Basque takes place.

03–146 Pereiro, Myriam (Universite Nancy 2,France). Etre doue pour les langues: approchesscientifiques et representations sociales. [Having agift for languages: Scientific approaches and social

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■ Language learningrepresentations.] Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy,France), 26 (2001), 167−84.

What does it mean when we say someone ‘has agift for languages’? This article compares technical,scientific approaches to this question with popular,commonsense beliefs. The characteristics of giftedsecond language learners which have been identifiedexperimentally by various linguists are surveyed andcompared: they include precocity, autonomy, patience,concentration and diligence, but not necessarily ahigh IQ or superior social skills. To examine popularrepresentations of the gifted language learner, theauthor interviewed 60 subjects, including both languageteachers and non-teachers. The corpus of interviewswas subjected to detailed statistical discourse analysis,which revealed a very wide range of factors involved inthe social construction of ‘the gifted learner’, includinga good ear, higher/quicker intelligence, a good memory,positive self-image, extraversion, and willingness totake risks. The representations of teachers and non-teachers and of English and French respondents arecompared, and types of representation are classified interms of current theoretical models of second languageacquisition.

03–147 Platt, Elizabeth and Brooks, Frank B.

(Florida State U., USA; Email: [email protected]). Task engagement: A turning point inforeign language development. Language Learning(Malden, MA, USA), 52, 2 (2002), 365−400.

This article uses a sociocultural framework to suggesttask engagement as a viable construct in second language(L2) learning research. Clarifying and specifyingthis construct has important implications for theanalysis of conversational data, needed in the light ofclaims for the causal relationship posited for certainkinds of conversational adjustments on L2 acquisitionoutcomes. L2 learner data are examined to identify taskengagement as it emerges, unfolds in dialogic activity,and becomes associated with the transformation of task,self, and group. Data came from two pairs of L2 learners(native speakers of English) involved in jigsaw tasks, onepair using Swahili, the other Spanish. The concern withtask engagement is motivated by methodological andtheoretical issues entailed in the study of L2 learningin the interactionist perspective. It is argued that asociocultural approach offers an alternative to thatperspective, from the standpoint of method and theory,resting as it does on quite a different set of underlyingassumptions. The study asked: (1) how task engagementmight be defined within a sociocultural framework;(2) what the effect of task engagement is on data analysisand interpretation; and (3) what transformative effects,if any, can be found during task engagement. Thetwo frameworks for thinking about task performanceare juxtaposed, demonstrating that certain phenomenanot even considered data according to one perspectivecan be interpreted as crucial in selecting, analysing,and interpreting data in the other. The task data are

then presented and interpreted using the proposedanalytic framework, and conclusions drawn based onthe findings.

03–148 Rott, Susanne, Williams, Jessica and

Cameron, Richard (U. of Illinois at Chicago, USA).The effect of multiple-choice L1 glosses andinput-output cycles on lexical acquisition andretention. Language Teaching Research (London,UK), 6, 3 (2002), 183−222.

The objective of this study was to determine the effecton lexical acquisition and retention of: (a) first language(L1) multiple-choice glosses, (b) second language (L2)text reconstruction with opportunities to recheckinput and (c) combined treatments. These treatmentswere chosen for the following reasons: multiple-choiceglosses are said to require ‘mental effort’, increasingthe likelihood of retention. Reconstructing the text inthe L2 may prompt learners to notice ‘holes’ in theirlexicon and focus their attention on subsequent input.Seventy-six fourth-semester learners of German read atext in one of the four conditions (three experimental;one control). Productive and receptive word gainswere tested immediately after the treatment and againfive weeks later. Findings suggest that the multiple-choice gloss treatment resulted in significantly deeperproductive and receptive word gains immediately afterthe treatment. A significant receptive word gain wasretained for five weeks only for the combined treatmentcondition.

03–149 Schmitt, Norbert (U. of Nottingham, UK)and Zimmerman, Cheryl Boyd. Derivative wordforms: What do learners know? TESOL Quarterly(Alexandria, VA, USA), 36, 2 (2002), 145−71.

Some teachers and researchers may assume that whena learner knows one member of a word family (e.g.,stimulate), the other members (e.g., stimulant, stimulative)are relatively easy to learn. Although knowing onemember of a word family undoubtedly facilitatesreceptive mastery of the other members, the smallamount of previous research has suggested that secondlanguage learners often have problems producing thevarious derivative forms within a word family. Thisstudy examined the ability of 106 graduate andundergraduate nonnative-English-speaking students toproduce appropriate derivatives in the four major wordclasses (i.e., noun, verb, adjective, adverb) for 16 promptwords. The results indicated that it was relativelyuncommon for subjects to know either all of the fourword forms or none of them. Subjects usually hadpartial knowledge of the derivatives, with productiveknowledge of two or three forms being typical. In acomparison of derivational mastery and knowledge ofthe prompt words on a four-stage developmental scale,the subjects showed increasing knowledge of noun andverb derivatives at each stage, but adjective and adverbforms appeared to be more difficult. The results mayimply a need for more direct attention to the teachingof derivative forms.

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Language learning ■03–150 Schwienhorst, Klaus (Trinity Coll.,Dublin, Ireland; Email: [email protected]). Evaluatingtandem language learning in the MOO: Discourserepair strategies in a bilingual Internet project.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 2 (2002), 135−45.

Over the past years, the Internet has developedcommunication tools as well as information resources.Text-based tools have been established as valuablemodular environments for education. One of them,the MOO (Multi-User Domain, Object-Oriented)virtual environment, has maintained its appeal, not leastthrough initiatives such as the CALLMOO project,which developed an educational database with a Java-based interface and undertook systematic researchon educational uses of MOOs (Aarseth & Jopp,1998). This paper gives a short overview of theconcepts of learner autonomy and tandem learning. Itthen looks at repair strategies as represented in twotypes of data, questionnaires and transcripts, from abilateral tandem MOO project between Informationand Communication Technology students from TrinityCollege Dublin and the Fachhochschule Rhein-Sieg near St. Augustin, Germany. By triangulatingthe data, it is shown how repair strategies, inparticular translation and paraphrase, are distributed,and how learners’ intentions of their use (asevidenced by the questionnaire) and their actualrealisations (in transcripts) work towards regulatingnative speaker/non-native speaker discourse, therebysupporting students in becoming more autonomous.

03–151 Schwienhorst, Klaus (Trinity Coll.,Dublin, Ireland). The state of VR: A meta-analysis ofvirtual reality tools in second language acquisition.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 3 (2002), 221−39.

Virtual reality (VR) tools have played an increasinglyimportant role in instructional design theory, thoughthe significance of VR tools and their underlyingconcepts have largely been ignored in ComputerAssisted Language Learning (CALL). This article gives apreliminary definition of VR, followed by an overviewof both high- and low-end VR applications in secondlanguage acquisition (SLA). Especially text-based VRprojects have indicated how a combination of VRtheories that have largely evolved outside languagelearning and one of the most important concepts inSLA today, learner autonomy, can enhance both thedesign and pedagogy of CALL software. The articlealso reflects on the position of VR in current CALLresearch. As existing empirical research is insufficient forany conclusive claims at this stage, the author suggests anumber of avenues where further research is necessaryand promising.

03–152 Slabakova, Roumyana (U. of Iowa, USA;Email: [email protected]). Recentresearch on the acquisition of aspect: An

embarrassment of riches? Second LanguageResearch (London, UK), 18, 2 (2002), 172−88.

This review article surveys recent research on thefirst and second language acquisition of temporal andaspectual properties of natural languages. Three bookspublished in 2000 (by Bardovi-Harlig, Li & Shirai, andSalaberry) are discussed in the context of the primacy oraspect hypothesis and the prototype, the connectionistand the discourse explanations for the attested ac-quisition sequences. A potentially misleading termino-logical issue is highlighted: deictic tense, grammaticaland lexical aspect are often conflated in acquisitionstudies. Recent research from the (innatist) generativeperspective (e.g., Olsen & Weinberg, 1999) is alsoexamined. An alternative explanation of the skewedacquisition sequences in terms of processing costs isproposed. Some important topics for future aspectresearch are identified.

03–153 Song, Mi-Jeong (Seoul National U.,Korea; Email: [email protected]). The effect oflistening strategy use on listening ability: Using animmediate retrospective data collection method.English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002), 19−40.

This study reinvestigated the relationship betweenlistening strategy use and listening ability. One of theserious flaws of most previous studies on this issue hasbeen the data collection method which depends onthe participants’ self-reports in hypothetical situations.Such self-reports may be vulnerable to inappropriateinferences and therefore do not guarantee that the datareflect the participants’ actual behaviour and thoughtprocess in real listening situations. This study thereforeused an immediate retrospective data collection methodto reinvestigate three research questions: (1) whetherthere is any relationship between listening strategy useand listening ability, and (2) what the nature of thatrelationship might be; and (3) the degree of impactlistening strategy use has on listening ability. It was foundthat there was a strong relationship between the useof task-specific listening strategies and listening ability;however, the relationship between the use of generallistening strategies and listening ability was very weak.The study also revealed a linear relationship between thetwo variables, i.e., the higher the participants’ listeningability, the more they tend to use listening strategies.It was also found that the most important predictor oflistening ability was the use of task-specific listeningstrategies.

03–154 Spratt, Mary, Humphreys, Gillian and

Chan, Victoria (Hong Kong Poly. U.; Email:[email protected]). Autonomy and motivation:Which comes first? Language Teaching Research(London, UK), 6, 3 (2002), 245−66.

When motivation has been discussed in relation toautonomy in language learning, it has often been putforward as a product of autonomy. This paper suggestsa more complex relationship in which motivation

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■ Language learningin many cases precedes autonomy. It discusses someof the relevant literature and presents results from alarge-scale study of Hong Kong tertiary students.Thestudy aimed to assess students’ readiness for learnerautonomy in language learning by examining theirviews of their responsibilities and those of theirteachers’, their confidence in their ability to operateautonomously and their assessment of their level ofmotivation to learn English. It also investigated theiractual practice of autonomous learning in the formof both outside and inside class activities. Resultsindicated that motivation played a key role in thisreadiness, and this led the authors to look at therelationship between autonomy and motivation asrevealed in the study and in the literature.The findingslead the authors to conclude that motivation is a keyfactor that influences the extent to which learnersare ready to learn autonomously, and that teachersmight therefore endeavour to ensure motivationbefore they train students to become autonomous.

03–155 Stefanik, Jozef (Comenius U., Slovakia;Email: [email protected]). The critical periodhypothesis and the Slovak language. AppliedLanguage Learning (Presidio of Monterey, CA,USA), 12, 2 (2001), 161−76.

The aim of this study was to verify the validity ofthe critical period hypothesis for the Slovak language.Recordings and short essays of 10 native speakers(NSs) of Slovak and 10 non-native bilinguals (five ofwhom were Czechs) were evaluated by 114 nativeSlovak judges divided into six groups. The criticalperiod hypothesis for language and speech (based on apercentage of correct identification of 20 recordings andtexts), relationships between the age and education ofSlovak judges and their correct identification scores, aswell as the difference between the results of Czechs andother non-natives, were studied. The total percentage ofcorrect identification of the recordings was only 62.7%,significantly lower than in similar experiments carriedout elsewhere. This result contradicts the opinion thatan NS of any given language can immediately identifynon-native speakers by their foreign accent despitehearing only a short segment of their speech. It alsomeans that, even in those cases when a person startsacquiring a second language (Slovak) in adulthoodhe/she can acquire it at a very high level. The lowtotal percentage of correct identification of the texts −only 55.5% − confirms the original hypothesis thatin adulthood it is possible to acquire a (written)second language (Slovak) at the level of NSs of thatparticular language. It also contradicts the critical periodhypothesis supported by some psycholinguists whoapply it to the whole language system.

03–156 Storch, N. (The U. of Melbourne,Australia). Comparing ESL learners’ attention togrammar on three different classroom tasks. RELCJournal (Singapore), 32, 2 (2001), 104−24.

Recent literature on second language grammarpedagogy promotes the use of tasks where learnersproduce written output collaboratively. This articlereports on the findings of a study which set outto compare the performance of tertiary English asa Second Language learners of intermediate secondlanguage proficiency on three different grammar-focused classroom tasks which required the students toproduce written output: a short composition, an editingtask and a text reconstruction. Students completedthe tasks in pairs and their talk was audiotaped.Data (transcripts of pair talk) were analysed for thequantity and nature of attention to grammatical choiceseach task generated. The completed tasks were alsoexamined for the accuracy of the grammatical choicesreached. The study found that, although all three taskssucceeded in drawing the learners’ attention to a rangeof grammatical items, the text reconstruction task wasthe most successful in doing so. Furthermore, it wasfound that the learners reached correct grammaticaldecisions in a majority of instances.

03–157 Taguchi, Tatsuya (Ryukoku U., Japan).Learner factors affecting the use of learningstrategies in cross-cultural contexts. Prospect(Macquarie U., Sydney, Australia), 17, 2 (2002),18−34.

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship betweenlearner factors and the reported choice of languagelearning strategies in both an English as a Foreign andSecond Language (EFL/ESL) context, in, respectively,Japan and Australia. The study used a revised versionof the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL) designed by Oxford (1990) to ascertain thechoice of learner strategies, and a specifically designedquestionnaire to identify learner factors. These wereadministered to 46 Japanese learners of English whowere, or had been, studying at language centres inMelbourne, Australia, at varying periods between 1998and 2000. The results indicate that gender, the levelsof English proficiency, and the motivation levels oflearners were the main factors affecting the reportedchoice of strategies in both contexts. These results haveimplications not only for communicative and task-basedteaching but also for classroom organisation.

03–158 Tarone, Elaine (U. of Minnesota, USA;Email: [email protected]). Frequency effects,noticing, and creativity: Factors in a variationistinterlanguage framework. Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition (New York, USA), 24, 2(2002), 287−96.

Ellis’s target article [see abstract 03–108] suggeststhat language processing is based on frequency andprobabilistic knowledge and that language learning isimplicit. These findings are consistent with those ofsecond language acquisition (SLA) researchers workingwithin a variationist framework. This paper provides abrief overview of this research area, which has developed

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Reading and writing ■useful models for dealing with frequency effects inlanguage use, and describes a psycholinguistic model oflanguage variation currently being proposed by Preston(2000) that dovetails nicely with Ellis’s proposals. Thepresent commentary addresses the question ‘To whatextent is the learner’s interlanguage passively andunconsciously derived from input frequencies?’ Ellisdoes state that factors other than frequency are alsoimportant for SLA − specifically, conscious noticing andsocial context. A related factor is the learner’s creativity,revealed when learners’ noticing leads them to viewutterances not just as potential objects of analysis but aspotential objects of language play. Noticing results in theselective internalisation of language input in interactionswith various second language speakers, and creativityoccurs in the learner’s consequent production of anyof a range of different voices thus internalised for thepurposes of expressing social identity and of languageplay (Tarone, 2000).

03–159 Vandergrift, Larry (U. of Ottawa,Canada). ‘It was nice to see that our predictionswere right’: Developing metacognition in L2listening comprehension. The Canadian ModernLanguage Review / La Revue canadienne deslangues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.), 58, 4 (2002),555−75.

This paper examines student responses to learninginstruments used in core French in Grades 4–6 to raisetheir awareness of the processes involved in success-ful second language (L2) listening comprehension.Beginning-level students completed listening compre-hension tasks and reflective exercises, using instrumentsthat engaged them in prediction, evaluation, and otherprocesses involved in listening. Following each taskand accompanying exercises, the students completed aquestionnaire on the formative qualities of the activitiesand instruments. Results of this qualitative study suggestthat use of these instruments helped sensitise students tothe processes underlying L2 listening comprehensionand tapped their metacognitive knowledge. Studentcomments evidenced a high degree of task and strategicknowledge and, to a lesser degree, person knowledge.This evidence supports the argument that reflection onthe processes of listening can help students developmetacognitive knowledge and, potentially, achievegreater success on these types of L2 listening tasks.

03–160 Williams, John N. (U. of Cambridge, UK;Email: [email protected]), Mobius, Peter and

Choonkyong, Kim. Native and non-nativeprocessing of English wh- questions: Parsingstrategies and plausibility constraints. AppliedPsycholinguistics (Cambridge, UK), 22, 4 (2001),509−40.

The two experiments reported here investigated theprocessing of English wh- questions by native speakersof English and advanced Chinese, German, and Koreanlearners of English as a second language. Performance

was evaluated in relation to parsing strategies andsensitivity to plausibility constraints. In an on-lineplausibility judgement task, both native and non-nativespeakers behaved in similar ways. All groups postulateda gap at the first position consistent with the grammar,as predicted by the filler-driven strategy and as shownby garden path or filled-gap effects that were inducedwhen the hypothesised gap location turned out tobe incorrect. In addition, all subjects interpreted theplausibility of the filler-gap dependency, as shown bya reduction in the garden path effect when the initialanalysis was implausible. However, the native speakers’reading profiles showed evidence of a more immediateeffect of plausibility than those of the non-nativespeakers, suggesting that they initiated reanalysis earlierwhen the first analysis was implausible. Experiment 2showed that the non-native speakers had difficultycancelling a plausible gap hypothesis even in an off-line (pencil and paper) task, whereas for the nativespeakers there was no evidence that the sentences causeddifficulty in this situation. The results suggest that nativeand non-native speakers employ similar strategies inimmediate on-line processing and hence are garden-pathed in similar ways, but they differ in their ability torecover from misanalysis.

Reading and writing

03–161 Busbee, Everette (Jeonju U., SouthKorea; Email: [email protected]). ‘Pushing’written output in the computer lab: Real-time errorcorrection over students’ shoulders. EnglishTeaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002), 279−302.

Grammar has made a comeback in the English as aForeign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) classroom, buterror correction in writing has come under new attack.Critics informed by a strong realism argue that papercorrection is a waste of time because students rarelylook at the corrections, and further, there is the indirectevidence that students commonly continue making thesame error in conversation although corrected manytimes. This paper describes a computer-based approachto error correction which assures that students attendto corrections while the writing is still fresh in theirminds. Monitors, as opposed to paper, allow the teacherto read over shoulders, ‘push’ output (offer hints to elicitimproved output), and verify responses. Computersalso allow students, who clearly enjoy the system, tocorrect with ease. The CALL literature appears tomake no mention of such a low-tech, personal useof the computer. One experiment suggests that thesystem improves grammatical accuracy, and anothershows that the length of timed writing (an indicator ofsecond language writing and language skills) increasesdramatically without any process writing instruction.The paper argues that in an EFL situation such asin Korea, students’ goals are better met by focusingon clean single-draft writing than lengthy pre-writing,organising, and rewriting. It is also argued that, sincewriting seems to be learned by writing, the primary

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■ Reading and writingduty of a writing teacher may be to maximise studentoutput.

03–162 Dyer, Brenda (Tokyo Women’s ChristianU., Japan) and Friederich, Lee. The personalnarrative as cultural artifact: Teaching autobiographyin Japan. Written Communication (Thousand Oaks,CA, USA), 19, 2 (2002), 265−96.

This article explores the purpose and methods ofteaching the personal narrative in foreign languageclassrooms. It offers a cross-cultural comparison ofthe history, purpose and form of autobiography infirst-language contexts in the US and Japan; a reviewof the place of personal narrative in second- andforeign-language (SL/FL) composition theory andpractice; and the results from survey research involving160 Japanese freshman students about high schoolwriting instruction in English. The article thenpresents a rationale and methodology for teachingpersonal narrative to Japanese college students ofEnglish. The five-paragraph thesis-driven personal essaypresented in English SL/FL textbooks is critiqued, withrecommendations for a more organic form synthesisingstory and essay, as in Barrington’s concept of ‘scene,summary and musing’. The limitations of peer editingare discussed, and the bundan writing workshop isdescribed as an effective alternative.

03–163 Gascoigne, Carolyn (U. of Nebraska atOmaha, USA). Reviewing reading: Recommend-ations versus reality. Foreign Language Annals(New York, USA), 35, 3 (2002), 343−48.

To determine whether the fruit of research in SecondLanguage Acquisition (SLA) is having an actual affecton students, this article reviews developments in thetreatment of second language (L2) reading, revisitsrecommendations stemming from these developments,and evaluates evidence of the recommendations inrecently published college French textbooks. Therehas been a new emphasis in recent years on the roleof the reader in top-down and interactive models ofreading, together with a recognition of the part playedby schema theory in reading comprehension. In thelight of these developments, seven recommendationsfor the treatment of L2 reading are examined here in sixtextbooks. The researcher looked for evidence of: (1)activities instantiating relevant background knowledge;(2) topics familiar to and (3) of interest to students; andtexts (4) with a recognisable agent or concrete subject,(5) with a minimal amount of description, (6) with anunambiguous intent, and (7) of an ‘appropriate’ lengthfor beginning L2 students at post-secondary level.The reviews demonstrate that the profession (textbookauthors, publishers, and consumers) has been slow toaccept and embrace the findings and recommendationsof SLA research.

03–164 Hinkel, Eli (Seattle U., USA; Email:[email protected]). Matters of cohesion in L2

academic texts. Applied Language Learning(Presidio of Monterey, CA, USA), 12, 2 (2001),111−32.

This study presents a comparative analysis of medianfrequency rates of explicit cohesive devices employed inacademic texts of students who were speakers of suchlanguages as English, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, andArabic. Specifically, it focuses on the median frequencyrates of uses of explicit cohesion devices, such asphrase-level coordinators, sentence transitions, logical-semantic conjunctions, demonstrative pronouns, andenumerative and resultative nouns in academic texts ofnative speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs).The purpose is to determine the specific differencesand similarities in the uses of such devices in anNS and NNS corpus of 897 academic essays totalling265,812 words. The quantitative analysis indicates thateven advanced NNS students who have completedtheir English as a Second Language and compositiontraining continue to rely on a restricted repertoireof features in constructing unified text: regardless oftheir native language (L1), speakers of Japanese, Korean,Indonesian, and Arabic employ sentence transitions anddemonstrative pronouns at significantly higher medianfrequency rates than do NSs. However, in secondlanguage (L2) texts the sentence transitions do notnecessarily mark a contextualised flow of information;in fact, the preponderance of sentence transitions anddemonstratives often reflects NNS writers’ attempts toconstruct a unified idea flow within the constraints of alimited syntactic and lexical range of accessible linguisticmeans. Another issue that needs addressing in L2 writinginstruction is the use of coordinating conjunctions byspeakers of Indonesian and Arabic.

03–165 Hyland, Ken (City U. of Hong Kong).Directives: Argument and engagement in academicwriting. Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK), 23, 2(2002), 215−39.

Successful academic writing involves both clear expo-sition and appropriate audience relationships, but theuse of directives potentially undermines the harmony ofsuch relationships. Because they instruct the reader toperform an action or to see things in a way determinedby the writer, directives are potentially risky deviceswhich are often regarded as bald-on-record threats toface (Brown & Levinson, 1987). The widespread useof this feature in academic writing, however, suggestsa more complex rhetorical picture. This paper exploresthe use of directives through an analysis of a 2.5 millionword corpus of published articles, textbooks, andsecond language (L2) student essays, and throughinterviews with insider informants on their perceptionsand practices. The study reveals that directives areused for very different strategic purposes and indicatesconsiderable variations in the ways they are employedacross genres and disciplines. The weight of impositioncarried by directives crucially depends on these purposesand on participants’ perceptions of rhetorical context.

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Reading and writing ■03–166 Kitajima, Ryu (San Diego State U., CA,USA; Email: [email protected]). Enhancinghigher order interpretation skills for Japanesereading. CALICO Journal (San Marcos, TX, USA),19, 3 (2001), 571−81.

Computer-mediated reading materials can help learn-ers improve their higher order interpretation skillsfor constructing coherent text representation. Thisarticle presents, as an example, computer-mediatedinstructional material that enhances students’ inter-action with, and comprehension of, expository textsin Japanese newspapers. The courseware focuses onanaphoric resolutions and backward inferences, skillsparticularly important for developing reading skillsin Japanese because of the language’s tendency toomit referents if they can be reconstructed from thetext. Such omissions, because they do not characteriseEnglish, present particular difficulties for English-speaking learners of Japanese.

03–167 Nakayama, Tomoko (U. of SouthAustralia; Email: [email protected]).Learning to write in Japanese. Babel (AFMLTA)(N. Adelaide, Australia), 37, 1 (2002), 27−38.

This project aimed to develop and implement asystematic writing programme for each foreign languageoffered at the university and provide student writersof limited proficiency in the target language with aprogramme of tasks and support materials typicallyneeded by Australian students. The paper reports onthe Japanese project and discusses the findings ofthe two-and-a-half year programme, which featureda self-access approach to maximise the use of timeand encourage students to develop as independentlearners. Data are based on a longitudinal examinationof students’ pre- and post-feedback texts and an exitquestionnaire completed by third-year students. Thewriting tasks used in the programme are described andthen the questionnaire findings discussed. Despite thereported challenge presented by composition writing tolower proficiency students, these felt writing to be aneffective means of self-expression and communicationand central to the language curriculum. Students wereseen to be pragmatic writers, using what is readilyavailable to them, revealed by their use of their firstlanguage for idea generation and drafting and thatof teacher feedback for revision. The author suggeststhe self-access approach might not be educationallyeffective until students develop at least a threshold levelof proficiency and basic writing experience.

03–168 Paltridge, Brian (The U. of Melbourne,Australia; Email: [email protected]). Thesisand dissertation writing: An examination ofpublished advice and actual practice. English forSpecific Purposes (Amsterdam, The Netherlands),21, 2 (2002), 125−43.

This article explores the extent to which publishedadvice on the organisation and structure of theses

and dissertations concurs with what happens in actualpractice. The study examines guides and handbookswhich focus on thesis and dissertation writing andpostgraduate research. The sample texts examined weremaster’s and doctoral theses written in a number ofdifferent study areas at a major research university. Thestudy found that only a few of the books examineddevoted a substantial amount of space to this topic.It also found a wider range of thesis types than theguides and handbooks would suggest occurs. The studyidentified four main kinds of thesis: ‘traditional: simple’.‘traditional: complex’, ‘topic-based’ and ‘compilationsof research articles’. The article argues for teachingmaterials which show students the range of thesisoptions they might have, highlight the kind of variationthat occurs in actual texts, and consider the rationale forthe various choices they might make.

03–169 Slikas Barber, Karen (Adult MigrantEnglish Prog., Central TAFE, Perth, Australia). Thewriting of and teaching strategies for students fromthe Horn of Africa. Prospect (Macquarie U., Sydney,Australia), 17, 2 (2002), 3−17.

Students from the Horn of Africa studying in theAdult Migrant English Programme (AMEP) at CentralTAFE (a college of technical/further education) whoenter with a 1- to 1+ International Second LanguageProficiency Rating in writing are often preventedfrom pursuing their educational and vocational goalsbecause of their inability to pass compulsory writingcompetencies in Certificates II and III in Spokenand Written English (CSWE). The Horn of Africastudents often have considerable fluency in their spokenEnglish, which is not mirrored in their writing. Fromthe teachers’ perspective, it has seemed as if there islittle discernible improvement in their writing uponcompletion of their 310 hours of English entitlementin the CSWE. This study describes the writing ofCSWE II and III students from Somalia, Eritrea,Ethiopia and Sudan, and explores possible reasons fortheir difficulties. It also describes classroom strategiesused to address these students’ writing and learningneeds, and identifies those found to be most helpful.These included explicit instruction and explanation ofactivities and assessment tasks, which developed sharedunderstandings of classroom practices and tasks, andenabled the learners to complete writing tasks success-fully. A range of whole-class and group oral activities atthe pre-writing stage was also found important. Mini-conferences with students − including the revision ofwriting while reading aloud − were also consideredeffective as both a needs analysis and teaching strategy.

03–170 Sze, Celine. A case study of the revisionprocess of a reluctant ESL student writer. TESLCanada Journal / La Revue TESL du Canada(Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19, 2 (2001), 21−36.

This case study investigated the revision process of areluctant English as a Second Language (ESL) student

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■ Language testingwriter. It focused on revisions made at the in-processstage and at the between-draft stage of the writingprocess in which the student revised in response towritten feedback. Two writing assignments were given,the topics varying in their degree of familiarity tothe participant. Some findings corroborated those ofearlier studies: the participant made more surface-levelrevisions than those related to structure and content;and he made more revisions and high-level revisions inresponse to written feedback than when working onhis own. Although familiarity with the topic seemed tohave no effect on the revision patterns of the student,the classroom teacher’s focus on form in respondingto and evaluating his writing was seen to affect hisattitude toward revision and use of revision strategies.The research challenges teachers to rethink the purposeand form of the feedback commonly given to ESLstudents, raising the possibility that all teachers, notjust ESL teachers, need to take responsibility for thisinstruction.

03–171 Woodall, Billy R. (U. of Puerto Rico;Email: [email protected]).Language-switching: Using the first language whilewriting in a second language. Journal of SecondLanguage Writing (Norwood, NJ, USA), 11, 1(2002), 7−28.

In a protocol analysis of second language (L2) writingfrom 28 adult participants (9 L2 Japanese, 11 L2 English,and 8 L2 Spanish), this research observed how language-switching, i.e., L1 use in L2 writing, was affectedby L2 proficiency, task difficulty, and language group(i.e., the L1/L2 relationship). Data analysis suggeststhat less proficient L2 learners switched to their L1smore frequently than more advanced learners, and thatmore difficult tasks increased the duration of L1 usein L2 writing. For students of a cognate language,longer periods of L1 use were related to higher qualityL2 texts; for students of a non-cognate language,language-switching was related to lower quality texts.Possible reasons for language-switching are discussedwith examples from the protocols, and suggestions madefor including language-switching in L2 writing models.

03–172 Yamashita, Junko (Nagoya U., Japan).Reading strategies in L1 and L2: Comparison offour groups of readers with different reading abilityin L1 and L2. ITL Review of Applied Linguistics(Leuven, Belgium), 135–136 (2002), 1−35.

This study compared first language (L1) Japaneseand second language (L2) English reading strategiesreported by four groups of readers with different readingability backgrounds. Information on the strategies wasextracted by a think-aloud method. The followingpoints emerged: (1) generally speaking, readers tendto transfer their L1 reading strategies to their L2reading; (2) language independent strategies are morelikely to be transferred from L1 to L2 than languagedependent strategies; and (3) high L1 reading ability

compensates for weak L2 reading ability, but there isa limit to this compensation. These results suggesteda stronger relationship between L1 and L2 readingprocesses than is predicted by the linguistic thresholdhypothesis. The possibility of explaining the results bycombining the linguistic threshold hypothesis and thelinguistic interdependence hypothesis, which have oftenbeen treated as conflicting, is discussed.

03–173 Yates, Robert (Central MissouriState U., USA; Email: [email protected])and Kenkel, James. Responding to sentence-levelerrors in writing. Journal of Second LanguageWriting (Norwood, NJ, USA), 11, 1 (2002), 29−47.

The debate between Truscott and Ferris in thelate 90s on responding to student errors in writingunderscores how difficult this issue is for writingteachers. Conventionally, pedagogies have looked aterrors separately from principles of text construction.From an interlanguage perspective, this article arguesthat many perplexing errors are the result of theinteraction between developing linguistic competenceand basic principles of ordering information in textswhich learners already know. It is shown how thisinteraction results in errors at the sentence-level.These insights are applied to published comments andcorrections of sentence-level errors in student writing.Based on the interlanguage perspective proposed, theanalysis of these comments and corrections showshow teachers may misinterpret a learner’s text. Theframework proposed here situates students’ sentence-level errors within their developing skill in constructingtarget-like texts and provides teachers with anotherperspective on such errors.

Language testing

03–174 Andrews, Stephen (U. of Hong KongSAR, China; Email: [email protected]),Fullilove, John and Wong, Yama. Targetingwashback − a case-study. System (Oxford, UK), 30,2 (2002), 207−23.

This paper focuses on the effects of changes to high-stakes tests on the performance of those who take them.These effects are explored within the specific contextof the Hong Kong Advanced Supplementary (AS) ‘Useof English’ (UE) oral examination. The UE is taken instudents’ final year of schooling (Secondary 7), and apass is a prerequisite for admission to university. A two-phase study was set up to shed light on two questions:(1) whether the addition of an oral component tothe UE exam is influencing students’ spoken Englishperformance at the end of Secondary 7; and (2)whether the impact of the test innovation on studentperformance is immediate or delayed. The results ofthe study seem to indicate that the introduction ofthe UE Oral is exerting some influence on students’performance in spoken English, and that the impact ofthe test on student performance is delayed. However,

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Language testing ■the precise nature of the washback seems to vary fromstudent to student. In some cases, the test may haveled to improved performance, but in others only tosuperficial learning outcomes, such as the ability toconform to the requirements of the exam format, orto produce memorised phrases.

03–175 Bourguignon, Claire (Universite duHavre, France). L’importance de la representationdans l’activite d’evaluation de la communicationlangagiere: application au project europoliglot. [Theimportance of representation patterns in assessinglinguistic communication: A multi-languageapplication − project EUROPOLIGLOT.] Les Cahiersde l’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 2 (2001),62−78.

This article analyses the impact of two assessmentsystems on Romanian candidates and examiners.Vocationally Oriented Language Learning (VOLL),an analytic system used by the German InternationalCertificate Conference involving written and oral tests(group interview), was contrasted with a holistic Frenchsimulation system used in the Diplome de Competenceen Langue, comprising four interactive text-basedprofessional situations designed to evaluate linguistic andpragmatic competence. The oral examinations of 17candidates (of various languages) were filmed, precededand followed by questionnaires. The first questionnairesestablished that the examiners, less knowledgeable aboutthe candidates’ professional needs, saw competenceas linguistic, while the candidates took a far morepragmatic, operational view. During the pilot, theVOLL examiners controlled the situation and candidatesconformed, responding when required, while thesimulation examiners behaved more like interlocutorsputting their candidates more at ease. Both groups sawadvantages and limitations in each system. Both hadbeen slightly ‘shaken up’ by the experience but didnot want to reject the systems, suggesting that mentalrepresentations can change when stimulated by practicalexperience. Although the examiners had been initiallyunenthusiastic about the simulation mode, it was thismode that was chosen as the preferred base for theconstruction of a new model.

03–176 Esmaeili, Hameed. Integrated readingand writing tasks and ESL students’ reading andwriting performance in an English language test.The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revuecanadienne des langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.),58, 4 (2002), 599−622.

This exploratory study investigated whether contentknowledge from reading would affect the processesand the products of adult ESL (English as a SecondLanguage) students’ writing and reading performancein a simulated English language test that madeuse of reading and writing modules. Following acounterbalanced within-subjects design, 34 first-yearengineering students with intermediate levels of English

proficiency did two reading and writing tasks intwo conditions, one when the reading passage wasrelated thematically to the writing task, and theother when the reading passage was not. In addition,participants answered interview questions and filled outa retrospective checklist of the writing strategies theyused when the writing task was related thematically tothe reading task. The students performed significantlybetter on their writing and on summary recalls of theirreading comprehension in the condition where thereading and writing tasks were thematically related. Thestudy revealed that the thematic connection betweenreading and writing enhanced both the processes andthe products of students’ writing performance.

03–177 Ginther, April (Purdue U., USA; Email:[email protected]). Context and content visualsand performance on listening comprehensionstimuli. Language Testing (London, UK), 19, 2(2002), 133−67.

The listening comprehension section of the TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language) has traditionallyinvolved audio presentations of language withoutaccompanying visual stimuli. Now that the TOEFLis computer based, listening comprehension items arebeing created that include both audio and visualinformation. A nested cross-over design (participantsnested in proficiency, level and form) was used toexamine the effects of visual condition (present orabsent), type of stimuli (dialogues/short conversations,academic discussions and mini-talks) and languageproficiency (high or low) on performance onCBT (Computer-based Test) listening comprehensionitems. Three two-way interactions were significant:proficiency by type of stimuli, type of stimuli by visualcondition and type of stimuli by time. The interactionbetween type of stimuli by visual condition, althoughweak, was perhaps the most interesting, and indicatedthat the presence of visuals results in facilitation ofperformance when the visuals bear information thatcomplements the audio portion of the stimulus.

03–178 Godev, Concepcion B. (U. of NorthCarolina at Charlotte, USA), Martinez-Gibson,

Elizabeth A. and Toris, Carol C. M. Foreignlanguage reading comprehension test: L1 versusL2 in open-ended questions. Foreign LanguageAnnals (New York, USA), 35, 2 (2002), 202−21.

This article addresses the issue of using students’ nativelanguage (L1) versus second language (L2) in testinginstruments for reading comprehension in the L2classroom. Four groups of students of third-semester,college-level Spanish were tested under four differentconditions involving combinations of L1 and L2. Thetest consisted of a reading passage in L2 and seven open-ended questions. The results suggest that open-endedreading comprehension tests may be better assessmentinstruments if some of the questions are phrased in the

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■ Language testingL1 and test takers are given the opportunity to respondin the L1.

03–179 Goodfellow, Robin (Open U., MiltonKeynes, UK; Email: [email protected]),Lamy, Marie-Noelle and Jones, Glyn. Assessinglearners’ writing using lexical frequency. ReCALL(Cambridge, UK), 14, 1 (2002), 133−45.

This study investigated the feasibility of applyingmeasures of lexical frequency to the assessment of thewriting of learners of French. A system developed foranalysing the lexical knowledge of learners, accordingto their productive use of high and low frequencywords (Laufer & Nation, 1995), was adapted for Frenchand used to analyse learners’ texts from an OpenUniversity French course. Whilst it was found that thisanalysis could not be said to reflect the state of thelearners’ vocabulary knowledge in the same way thatLaufer and Nation’s study did, elements of the system’soutput did correlate significantly with scores awardedby human markers for vocabulary use in these texts.This suggests that the approach could be used for self-assessment. However, the feedback that can be givento learners on the basis of the current analysis is verylimited. Nevertheless, the approach has the potentialfor refinement and when enhanced with informationderived from successive cohorts of learners performingsimilar writing tasks, could be a first step in thedevelopment of a viable aid for learners evaluating theirown writing.

03–180 Issac, Fabrice (Universite Paris-Nord,France; Email: [email protected]) and

Hu, Olivier. Formalism for evaluation: Feedback onlearner knowledge representation. ComputerAssisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 2 (2002), 183−99.

In any educational process, whatever the type oflearning and the field concerned, evaluation seemsimpossible to circumvent. It is used as a tool forcertification by institutions, in particular for thedelivery of diplomas, and also allows feedback onperformance for both teachers and learners. MultipleChoice Questions (MCQs) are very frequently usedbecause of their simplicity and robustness, both frompedagogical and technical points of view. However, thistype of evaluation presents some limitations. This articletherefore proposes a model allowing for implementationof any type of question, incorporating a feedback systemdesigned not only to provide simplistic informationbut to make learners think about their responses. Themodel allows the implantation of a great number ofquestionnaires, and is seen as facilitating (a) creationof evaluation interfaces, via computational tools, (b)storage/management of a question database, and (c) there-use of already written questionnaires.

03–181 Kim, Duk-Ja (Hansung U., Seoul, Korea;Email: [email protected]) and Kyungmi, O.

Washback on 12th grade English classes of theEnglish tests within Korean University entranceexams. English Teaching (Korea), 57, 3 (2002),303−31.

As a high-stakes test, the Korean Scholastic Abilities Test(KSAT) has major significance in Korean education, inpart because universities often work as a selection devicefor graduates into professional careers. The English test,a major constituent of the KSAT, is believed to have asignificant impact on English classes in Korea. Hence,the purpose of this study is to examine the relationshipbetween the KSAT English test and characteristicsof 12th grade English classroom teaching in Korea,particularly with regard to what types of skills are taught.Textual analysis, classroom observation and interviewmethods were employed. Through triangulation ofthe three types of data, the study uncovered manydiscrepancies between test designers’ intentions andwhat is actually measured on the test, suggesting thatwhat influences English classes is not what test designersintend but what is actually measured. Additionally, thestudy suggests that there may be a number of interveningvariables other than the test itself, such as teachers’workload. teachers’ English proficiency and attitudes,classroom settings, and contexts outside the classroom.

03–182 Kobayashi, Miyoko (U. of Warwick, UK;Email: [email protected]). Methodeffects on reading comprehension testperformance: Text organisation and responseformat. Language Testing (London, UK), 19, 2(2002), 193−220.

If tests are to provide an accurate measure oflearners’ language abilities, examiners must minimisethe influence of intervening factors such as textorganisation and response format on test results. Thisarticle investigates the effects of these two factorson second language learners’ performance in readingcomprehension tests. The study analyses the results ofreading comprehension tests delivered to 754 Japaneseuniversity students. The main finding is that textorganisation and test format had a significant impacton the students’ performance. When texts were clearlystructured, the more proficient students achieved betterresults in summary writing and open-ended questions.By contrast, the structure of the text made littledifference to the performance of the less proficientstudents. This suggests that well-structured texts makeit easier to differentiate between students with differentlevels of proficiency. Examiners have hitherto taken littlenotice of the impact of text structure and test formaton students’ results. By paying more attention to thesefactors, they will enhance the validity of their tests.

03–183 Major, Roy C. (Arizona State U., Tucson,USA), Fitzmaurice, Susan F., Bunta, Ferenc and

Balasubramanian, Chandrika. The effects ofnonnative accents on listening comprehension:

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Language testing ■Implications for ESL assessment. TESOL Quarterly(Alexandria, VA, USA), 36, 2 (2002), 173−90.

Tests of English as a Second Language (ESL) listeningcomprehension attempt to sample from languagethat reflects what examinees will be expected tocomprehend in the relevant contexts, but most listeningtests do not address the fact that accented English isa normal part of ESL listening. To begin to explorethe issue, this study examined the extent to whichnative-English-speaking and ESL listeners performedbetter on a test when the speaker shared their nativelanguage. Four groups of 100 listeners, whose nativelanguages were Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and standardAmerican English, heard brief lectures presented inEnglish by speakers with different native languagesand answered questions based on the lectures. Theresults indicated that both native and nonnative listenersscored significantly lower on listening comprehensiontests when they listened to nonnative speakers ofEnglish, native speakers of Spanish scored significantlyhigher when listening to Spanish-accented speech, andnative speakers of Chinese scored significantly lowerwhen listening to speakers who shared their nativelanguage. Findings suggest that, despite the authenticityof accented English in many settings, developers ofteaching and testing materials should be concerned withthe possibility of increased difficulty of accented Englishand potential bias for some listener-speaker matches.

03–184 Meara, Paul, Jacobs, Gabriel and

Rodgers, Catherine (U. of Wales Swansea, UK;Email: [email protected]). Lexical signaturesin foreign language free-form texts. ITL Review ofApplied Linguistics (Leuven, Belgium), 135–136

(2002), 85−96.

This paper presents an investigation into the extentto which the lexical choices made by learners of asecond language (L2) are distinctive. It follows onfrom an earlier paper by the same authors in whicha neural network was successfully trained to mark aset of texts produced by L2 learners to the samestandard, within broad categories, as had been awardedby experienced human markers. For this present paper,a set of L2 texts was examined, and searched for uniquelexical choices (‘lexical signatures’). The results suggesta possible explanation for the success of the neural-network trial, and may have some practical implicationsfor determining the levels of achievement reached byL2 learners.

03–185 Myers, Marie J. (Queens U., Ontario,Canada; Email: [email protected]).Computer-assisted second language assessment:To the top of the pyramid. ReCALL (Cambridge,UK), 14, 1 (2002), 167−81.

With innovative ways available to assess languageperformance through the use of computer technology,practitioners have to rethink their preferred strategies

of language testing. It is necessary to take into accountboth the new developments in language learning andteaching research and also the latest features computershave to offer to help with language assessment. Inaddition to best practices developed over the years inthe field, it is necessary for provision to be made forauthentic assessments of intercultural communicationabilities. Following a review of the latest language-testing literature and a discussion of the currentproblems identified in it, this paper explores the latestdevelopments in computer technology and proposesareas of language testing in the light of the new findings.A practical application follows. This is an adaptation, in aschool board in Ontario, of the latest evaluation model.The model represents unit planning as an isoscelestriangle with assessed assignments stacked in horizontalbands from the base to the vertex, i.e., the top. Thesuggestion is offered that this approach can be enriched,by changing the triangle into a pyramid with a differentmodel on each side. Access to the four sides by rotationof the pyramid allows a broader range of activitiesculminating in one final assessment task at the summit.

03–186 O’Loughlin, Kieran (The U. ofMelbourne, Australia; Email: [email protected]).The impact of gender in oral proficiency testing.Language Testing (London, UK), 19, 2 (2002),169−92.

To date, the role of gender in speaking tests hasreceived limited attention in language testing research.It is possible in oral interviews, for instance, thatboth interviewing and rating may be highly genderedprocesses. In tests like the IELTS (InternationalEnglish Language Testing System) interview, where theinterviewer also acts as the rater, this poses the questionof whether a gender effect, if it exists, stems from theinterview itself, the rating decision or a combination ofboth these ‘events’. The data collected for this studyconsisted of the audio-taped performances of eightfemale and eight male test-takers who undertook apractice IELTS interview on two different occasions,once with a female interviewer and once with amale interviewer. The interviews were transcribed andanalysed in relation to previously identified features ofgendered language use, namely, overlaps, interruptionsand minimal responses. The scores later assigned by fourraters (two males and two females) to each of the 32interviews were also examined in relation to the genderof both raters and test-takers using multi-faceted Raschbias analyses. The results from both the discourse andtest score analyses indicated that gender did not havea significant impact on the IELTS interview. Thesefindings are interpreted in relation to more recentthinking about gender in language use.

03–187 Orr, Michael (The British Council,Valencia, Spain; Email: [email protected]).The FCE Speaking test: Using rater reports to helpinterpret test scores. System (Oxford, UK), 30, 2(2002), 143−54.

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■ Language testingInterpreting test scores depends on understanding whatthey represent. This article reports research usingoral examiner verbal reports which attempts to gaininsights into the rating process in the Cambridge FirstCertificate in English (FCE) Speaking test. Raters’verbal reports of the decision-making process wereanalysed, and heeded aspects of the test performancesidentified, with a view to better understanding howtest scores could be interpreted. In fact, it was foundthat raters did not heed the same aspects of theassessment criteria, and heeded a wide range of non-criterion relevant information. One consequence wasthat raters produced a range of scores, but anotherwas that raters giving the same score still perceivedthe performance quite differently. The varied natureof the raters’ perceptions, with regard to what washeeded, and how it was judged, suggests that in normalcircumstances it would be impossible to say how anyone Speaking score had been reached. The validity ofthe interpretations that test users might wish to make ofthe results is thus brought into question.

03–188 Patri, Mrudula (City U. of Hong Kong;Email: [email protected]). The influence of peerfeedback on self- and peer-assessment of oralskills. Language Testing (London, UK), 19, 2 (2002),109−31.

This article investigates the agreement amongstteacher-, self- and peer-assessments of students inthe presence of peer feedback. This is done in thecontext of oral presentation skills of first yearundergraduate students of ethnic Chinese background.The research instrument consisted of a self- and peer-assessment questionnaire containing 14 items relatedto the organisation of the presentation content, useof language and interaction with the audience. Theparticipants had taken part in a training and practicesession on self- and peer-assessment before engagingin the assessment tasks. The findings show that, whenassessment criteria are firmly set, peer-feedback enablesstudents to judge the performance of their peers in amanner comparable to those of the teachers. However,the same is not found to be true with self-assessment.

03–189 Song, Bailin and August, Bonne (CityU. of New York, USA; Email: [email protected]). Using portfolios to assess the writing of ESLstudents: A powerful alternative? Journal of SecondLanguage Writing (Norwood, NJ, USA), 11, 1(2002), 49−72.

This article describes a quantitative study that comparedthe performance of two groups of advanced Englishas a Second Language (ESL) students in ENG 22, asecond semester composition course. Both groups hadbeen enrolled in ENG C2, a compensatory version ofFreshman English for students with scores one levelbelow passing on the Writing Assessment Test (WAT)at the authors’ institution (CUNY). At the end ofENG C2, one group was assessed on the basis of

portfolios, as well as the CUNY WAT; the other wasassessed using the WAT. Comparable percentages ofstudents in both groups passed the WAT at the endof C2. However, students from the portfolio groupwith passing portfolios were permitted to advance toENG 22 regardless of their performance on the WAT,while students in the non-portfolio group moved aheadonly if they had passed the WAT. (The WAT remaineda graduation requirement for all students.) The studyfound that students were twice as likely to pass intoENG 22 from ENG C2 when they were evaluatedby portfolio than when they were required to passthe WAT. Nevertheless, at the end of ENG 22, thepass rate and grade distribution for the two groupswere nearly identical. Because portfolio assessment wasable to identify more than twice the number of ESLstudents who proved successful in the next Englishcourse, however, it seems a more appropriate assessmentalternative for the ESL population.

03–190 Wilhelm, Kim Hughes and Rivers,

Marilyn (Southern Illinois U., USA). An audienceapproach to EAP writing assessment: Learners,teachers, outsiders. Applied Language Learning(Presidio of Monterey, CA, USA), 12, 2 (2001),177−90.

This paper focuses on the evolution of an assessmentscheme implemented in an EAP (English for AcademicPurposes) process writing course which sought tomeet the assessment needs of three different audiences:learners, teachers, and outsiders. Desirable assessmentoutcomes were that learners would self-assess andactively participate in their own learning, that teacherswould be encouraged to function as instructionaldevelopers, and that both proficiency and progressjudgements could be made. A formative approach wasemployed by the curriculum coordinator and writingcoordinator when implementing a new process writingcourse for international students enrolled in their finallevel of a pre-university intensive English programme.Assessment plans and revisions made by curriculummanagers and writing teachers are described across18 months (10 terms) of implementation. Assessmentplans included criterion-referenced grading, norm-based achievement testing, portfolio assessment, andprocess-oriented measurements. The notion of meetingthe needs of various assessment audiences is seen asa useful model that allows reflection on assessmentschemes within a framework of desirable instructionaloutcomes.

03–191 Yien, Liju (Nat. Lien Ho Inst. ofTechnology, Taiwan). Effective test-taking strategieson English tests: Implications from Taiwanesestudents. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics(Hong Kong), 6, 2 (2001), 22−43.

The growing body of research into the effect of test-taking strategies on the testing process, as well asresearch regarding the relationship between test-taker

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Teacher education ■characteristics and test performance, continues to grow.Only limited research, however, has attempted todefine more precisely the relationships between allof these data sources. This paper, utilising as subjects523 two-year college freshmen from Taiwan, exploresthe relationships among test-taker characteristics, test-taking strategies, and test performance. Test-takingstrategies applied by Anderson et al. (1991) are adaptedas an instrument for the study; and Yien’s (1999) findingsconcerning the relationships between the characteristicsof test-takers and test performance also serve as referencepoints. The results indicate that significant relationshipsamong test-taker characteristics, test-taking strategies,and test performance exist. It is suggested that test-taking strategies play a role in mediating between test-taker characteristics and test performance. The overallfindings thus suggest that, if classroom teachers were ableto determine what their students are really doing whiletaking tests and were to apply those test-taking strategiesthat genuinely help the performance of their students,they would be able to design their class activities morecarefully and with more success.

Teacher education

03–192 Catroux, Michele (IUT Bordeaux I,France). Introduction a la Recherche-Action:Modalites d’une demarche theorique centree sur lapratique. [An introduction to Action Research:Aspects of a practice-centred theoretical process.]Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble, France), 21, 3(2002), 8−20.

Drawing on Lewin (1946) and Kemmis and McTaggart(1988), this paper outlines the chief identifyingcharacteristics of Action Research, emphasising itspotential as a collaborative process designed to empowerteachers with the means to improve their practices andreflect upon their pedagogy. The cyclic nature of ActionResearch is illustrated incorporating explanations ofthe five activity types: identification of the problem,deciding on a plan of action, implementation of theplan, evaluation of the effects, and communication andvalidation of the research. Claims are also made for theknowledge-building and awareness raising potential ofAction Research.

03–193 Farrell, Thomas S. C. (Nat. Inst. ofEd./Nanyang Technological U., Singapore). Conceptmaps to trace conceptual change in preserviceEnglish teachers. RELC Journal (Singapore), 32, 2(2001), 27−44.

Teacher educators usually set the curriculum of themethods courses. However, it is now understood ingeneral education that preservice teachers come to theteacher education course with prior beliefs and values. Itis not therefore clear what concepts/ideas the preserviceteachers believe are useful as a result of taking the course;and, hence, differences may exist between what teachereducators think is important for their students to learn

and what the students actually learn. One method at thedisposal of teacher educators to trace conceptual changein preservice teachers is the use of concept mapping.This paper examined the conceptual change(s) of 24preservice teachers in Singapore as a result of takinga Reading Methods Module. Pre-module and post-module concept maps were elicited and participantswere also asked to write short descriptions of changesthey saw and to consider reasons for these changes intheir thinking. Results show that the course had someimpact on the trainees and that the concept map maybe a useful research tool for gathering qualitative data totrace preservice English teachers’ conceptual change.

03–194 Gonzalez-Bueno, Manuela (U. ofKansas, USA). Pronunciation teaching componentin SL/FL education programs. Training teachers toteach pronunciation. Applied Language Learning(Presidio of Monterey, CA, USA), 12, 2 (2001),133−46.

In spite of the traditional relegation of the teaching ofpronunciation from the second and foreign language(SL/FL) classroom to a position of lesser importance,some language specialists have pointed out a renewedinterest in the importance of oral communication inthe past few years. This interest has taken the shapeof new approaches to the learning and teaching of thespeech/ pronunciation component of oral communica-tion. However, pronunciation specialists have observedthat many professional development programmes giveSL/FL pronunciation teaching inadequate attention,and recognise the need for addressing this lack of pro-fessional training. They suggest that more attentionto conceptually grounded implications for teachingSL/FL pronunciation be incorporated within Phon-etics/Phonology courses, and that SL/FL teachingpreparation programmes be redesigned to includeappropriate modern-day theory and practice in speech/pronunciation instruction. This article proposes a modelfor the inclusion of a pronunciation teaching unit withinSL/FL teacher preparation programmes. A pilot coursewas offered at the University of Kansas in the spring of1998. It was expected that this component would giveprospective language teachers the requisite backgroundfor making sound instructional decisions concerningpronunciation teaching.

03–195 Gwyn-Paquette, Caroline (U. ofSherbrooke, Quebec, Canada; Email:[email protected]) and Tochon, Francois

Victor. The role of reflective conversations andfeedback in helping preservice teachers learn touse cooperative activities in their second languageclassrooms. The Modern Language Journal(Malden, MA, USA), 86, 2 (2002), 204−26.

The object of this qualitative study was to examinehow preservice second language teachers navigatethrough the difficulties of introducing cooperativelearning into their classrooms during student teaching,

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■ Teacher educationdespite the fact that this approach differs from theircooperating teachers’ customary teaching strategy. Thestudy sought to determine what helps or inhibitsthe student teachers’ progress. Although convictionsabout the usefulness of the cooperative approach andother personal motivation provided the springboard forexperimentation, it became evident from the analysisof supervisory conversations that expert coaching andcontinuous moral support are essential to foster thedevelopment of the preservice teachers’ ability toinnovate in their teaching approach. In the absenceof informed in-school support, expert help is neededfrom outside the school. Under these conditions, theuniversity supervisor becomes a central player in thepreservice teacher’s construction of knowledge aboutcooperative learning.

03–196 Lamie, Judith (U. of Birmingham, UK;Email: [email protected]). An investigationinto the process of change: The impact ofin-service training on Japanese teachers of English.Journal of In-service Education (Wallingford, UK),28, 1 (2002), 135−61.

The interim findings of a (1998) research project bythe present author designed to assess teacher responseto the Japanese Ministry of Education (Monbusho)innovation, the New Revised Course of Study,suggested that if English teaching is to fulfil its aims inJapan, the restructuring of teacher training must becomea priority. One in-service training programme designedto support this innovation is provided at the author’sinstitution. This article presents the overall findingsand recommendations of the research examining theimpact of the programme on four Japanese teachers ofEnglish by analysing their communicative status beforeand after the training period. The research focuseson attitudes, espoused methodology and classroompractice. It concludes that changes have taken place inall cases. In the wider context, the research highlightsimpact areas in the process of change which challengethe established notion that change in practice occursbefore change in attitude.

03–197 Lozano, Albert S., Sung, Hyekyung,

Padilla, Amado M. and Silva, Duarte M.

(Stanford U., California, USA). Evaluation ofprofessional development for language teachers inCalifornia. Foreign Language Annals (New York,USA), 35, 2 (2002), 161−70.

The California Foreign Language Project (CFLP),established in 1988 by the California legislature, isa professional development programme designed toimprove and expand foreign language (FL) teaching inCalifornia while promoting access and equity withineducational institutions for every student. As oneof the nine content areas of the California SubjectMatter Project, CFLP is a voluntary project that served609 elementary, secondary, and post-secondary FLteachers from 43 counties in 1998/1999. This article

describes the origin and rationale of the CaliforniaForeign Language Project and discusses the importanceof professional development programmes, a topic ofgrowing interest given the nationwide focus on studentperformance and school reform. The components ofprofessional development programme evaluation, andspecifically of CFLP’s Evaluation Design, are presented,along with the findings from the 1998/1999 programmeyear. The results provide evidence that the programmeis having a positive impact on participating teachersand their students. What seems most promising aboutCFLP’s Evaluation Design is that it allows regionalsites and CFLP evaluators to both plan and refineprogrammes and activities to best serve participatingteachers, most notably in service to low-performingschools.

03–198 Macrory, Gee (Inst. of Ed., TheManchester Metropolitan U., UK). Learning to talklike a language teacher: Crossing the boundarybetween university and school. Prospect(Macquarie U., Sydney, Australia), 17, 2 (2002),62−70.

This paper presents the results of a small research studywith a group of student teachers of foreign languageson a one-year postgraduate teaching course in anEnglish university. Notably, two thirds of the trainingin this particular course takes place in school. The studyfocused on the student teachers’ experience of acquiringthe professional discourse of foreign language teaching,and the extent to which there was a unified discourseacross the training contexts of school and university. Themain findings are that the student teachers were initiallydaunted by the range of terminology to be learned,and that they recognised both the social-referentialand cognitive functions (Freeman, 1991) of the newdiscourse, but that there was also evidence of differencesbetween the two discourses of school and university.These differences, in turn, have implications for theacquisition of the professional discourse.

03–199 Narcy-Combes, Jean-Paul (Universitede La Rochelle, France). La recherche-action endidactique des langues: apprentissage,compagnonnage ou evolution libre? [Actionresearch for language teachers in French highereducation: From a traditional approach tocollegiality.] Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble,France), 21, 2 (2001), 40−52.

This article situates its argument within cognitive workwhich emphasises the role of the metacognitive and ofconscious reflection in learning and within a scientificepistemology. Arguing that action research is theappropriate methodology for research into teaching andlearning, it distinguishes between an anglo-americanand a French model, seeing these as at the twoends of a continuum. The strongest version of theanglo-american model is seen as practical, ideologicaland social constructivist while the French model is

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Teacher education ■characterised as scientific, objective and concerned withthe testing of hypotheses. The concepts of action andresearch are examined to show the possible evolutionwithin French higher education of a practising teacher(action) into first an apprentice- and then an expert-researcher, as the capacity for distancing/reflectionincreases. It sees open relationships between expertand apprentice researchers and respect for the differentcompetencies of others as strengths of this researchmodel.

03–200 O’Brien, Teresa (U. of Manchester, UK).‘Recherche-action’/‘Recherche basee sur lapratique’ et developpement professionel. [Actionresearch/Practice-based research and professionaldevelopment.] Les Cahiers de l’APLIUT (Grenoble,France), 21, 2 (2001), 7−23.

This article briefly traces the development of actionresearch from the work of the German socialpsychologist Lewin in the 1930s and 1940s throughthat of Stenhouse, Elliott, Carr and Kemmis, to itspresent day use within language teacher developmentas practice-based research. It emphasises the critical anddemocratic aims of action research and argues, withreference to examples of teacher research in languagesupport work with ethnic minorities in the north ofEngland, that although it may not always be possibleto fulfil these aims within the constraints of dailyteaching, the need for reflection which the modeloccasions is in itself a valuable stimulus to teacherdevelopment. This point is exemplified with referenceto the understandings of teachers involved in research,based loosely on the Allwright model of reflectivepractice, in their own classrooms.

03–201 Schocker-von Ditfurth, Marita (U. ofEd., Schwabisch-Gmund, Germany; Email:Marita@Schocker Ditfurth.de) and Legutke,

Michael K. Visions of what is possible in teachereducation − or lost in complexity? ELT Journal(Oxford, UK), 56, 2 (2002), 162−71.

This article discusses some of the insights gainedwhile looking at ways in which computer-mediatedcommunication (CMC) can help bridge differentand often separate fields of practice, school, anduniversity, and offer learning experiences for pre-service and in-service teachers alike. The authorsrefer to their experiences with various strategies forre-designing foreign-language (FL) teacher educationthrough seminars offered in a joint research project at theUniversity of Giessen and the University of Educationin Freiburg, and thereby explore ways in which co-operative contexts of participation can be created andsustained. The learning environment they developeddeparts quite radically from standard practice. Whileit maintains a university course as a core component,this is extended by contact with up to 10 EFLclassrooms a term, whose teachers participate in theuniversity work through face-to-face encounters and byemail. At the same time, the student teachers become

part of the school classroom for some time throughpersonal participation and CMC with the teacherand the students. Thus, groups of student teacherscollaborate with one of the participating EFL teachersin a classroom-based field study project. Computertechnology is both the content and the vehicle of thecollaborative work: teams of student teachers develop,carry out, and evaluate web-based research projectsfor their partner teachers’ classrooms. It is expectedthat this will allow prospective EFL teachers to beginto develop the process competence, team skills, andmedia competence needed to be able to respond tothe challenges of multiple roles in the pupil-orientedlanguage classroom.

03–202 Sercu, Lies and Peters, Elke

(KU Leuven, Belgium; Email: [email protected]) Learning e-learning − acomprehensive investigation of course developers’and language teacher trainees’ views regarding theusefulness and effectiveness of a multimediaself-tuition course. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 14, 1(2002), 32−46.

This paper presents the results of a comparativeinvestigation of course developers’ (designers) andteacher trainees’ views regarding the usefulness andeffectiveness of a multimedia self-tuition coursedesigned to introduce foreign language (FL) teachertrainees to tools and methods for organising Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The self-studycourse consists of a text part, a reference section, aseries of workshops, and five evaluation tasks. Viewsregarding the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursewere collected by means of written questionnairesand assessment sheets (for the trainees), and individualinterviews (with both trainees and designers). The datashowed that the designers felt the course possessed thekey features of a powerful learning environment andwould help teacher trainees to reflect on various aspectsrelated to CALL. The teacher trainees, however, felt thatthe course focused too little on potential uses of ICTin FL teaching: for them, bridging the gap between theself-tuition course and actual teaching practice was toolarge a step to take. The paper describes the changesbrought about in the course as a result, and reflects onthe necessity to take account of future users’ views andrequirements in the design and development process ifthe training of FL teachers is to benefit from web-baseddelivery.

03–203 Ypsilandis, G. S. (U. of Macedonia,Thessaloniki, Greece; Email: [email protected]).Feedback in distance education. ComputerAssisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 15, 2 (2002), 167−81.

This study investigates the feedback features of a distancelearning teacher training course in second/foreignlanguage (L2/FL) learning (Greek). The courseattempted to offer a balanced syllabus on the theory ofL2/FL learning and practical information for language

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■ Bilingual education/bilingualismteachers to adopt and implement in the classroom. Itembodied 10 units incorporated into five modules:(i) methodology of teaching; (ii) teaching of listening;(iii) teaching of writing; (iv) teaching of spelling;and (v) testing. Each module was designed to takeapproximately 2–4 hours for students to complete. Allthe material was stored on the Internet and participantswere provided with user names and passwords to accessit from their location. Instructions on how to run thesoftware and useful tips relating to distance self-studywere also provided on-line. Where possible, the materialwas written in a conversational style in order to activatethe participants’ knowledge of the subject. From atotal of 51 applications, 33 applicants were selected,and 21 actually started the course. All participants hadto submit a compulsory assignment for every module(every 15 days) and two final projects (of their choicefrom a total of five topics), after having completed thefive modules. Drop-out rates were very low: 18 studentsfinished the course successfully and completed aquestionnaire related to technical, design, relevance, andfeedback issues. The results revealed several interestingissues related to design, application and feedback,resulting from the way in which each student exploitedthe material for self-study.

Bilingual education/bilingualism

03–204 Bilash, Olenka S. E. (U. of Alberta,Canada). The challenges and successes ofdeveloping a literacy community in a minoritylanguage in Western Canada: An action researchstudy. Foreign Language Annals (New York, USA),35, 3 (2002), 307−19.

This article describes a community action research studyin the spirit of Elliot (1991) and Carr and Kemmis(1983), i.e., a form of ‘self-reflective enquiry undertakenby participants in social situations in order to improvethe rationality and justice of (our) practices and thesituations in which these practices are carried out’(p. 5). Language leaders in the Ukrainian communityundertook a complex literacy initiative to investigateand improve Ukrainian-English bilingualism/biliteracyin Western Canada and throughout the diaspora. Inthe context of the long-term absence of researchfunding for developing and maintaining literacy innon-majority or non-official languages, this articledocuments project activities over several years, presentsthe findings of student/teacher needs assessments, sharesthe approach to reading preferred by participatingteachers, and reveals some of the transformationsteachers experienced in their own thinking aboutbilingualism and biliteracy as a result of theirinvolvement in this initiative.

03–205 Capirci, Olga (Inst. of Psychology, Nat.Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy; Email:[email protected]), Iverson, Jana M., Montanari,

Sandro and Volterra, Virginia. Gestural, signedand spoken modalities in early languagedevelopment: The role of linguistic input.Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (Cambridge,UK), 5, 1 (2002), 25−37.

The aim of this study was to examine potential effectsof early exposure to sign language on the use ofcommunicative gestures by a bilingual hearing child ofdeaf parents. Data collected monthly during the firsttwo years were analysed in order to identify types andtokens of communicative gestures, words, and signs andthe ways in which they were combined. These data arecompared with those obtained from 12 monolingualhearing children observed at 16 and 20 months of agewho were exposed only to spoken language. Findingssuggest that while exposure to sign language does notseem to provide the bilingual child with an advantage inthe rate of early linguistic development, it does appear toinfluence the extent to which he communicated in themanual modality and made use of its representationaland combinatorial potential. This suggests that gestureis a robust feature of early communicative development.

03–206 Francis, Norbert (Northern Arizona U.,USA; Email: [email protected]). Modularperspectives on bilingualism. International Journalof Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Clevedon,UK), 5, 3 (2002), 141−61.

This review of the research traces the current discussionon models of bilingualism to the contributions ofVygotsky and Luria. The attempt to differentiate amongthe different components of language ability in childdevelopment has from the beginning sparked sharpdebate. Bilingualism, as an object of study, offersresearchers a privileged viewpoint on the questionsin dispute: the distinction between interpersonalconversational discourse and literacy-related academicdiscourse; the relationship between the developmentof linguistic knowledge of two languages and generalcognitive development; and aspects of developmentthat are universal and those aspects of child bilingualdevelopment that show wide variation. The articleproposes that a modular approach to studying thedifferent aspects of bilingual development promisesto chart a course toward finding a broader commonground around research findings and interpretations thatcurrently appear to be irreconcilable.

03–207 Ghadessy, Mohsen (Zhongshan U.,Guangzhou, P. R. China; Email: [email protected]) and Nicol, Mary. Attitude change inbilingual education: The case of Brunei Darussalam.International Journal of Bilingual Education andBilingualism (Clevedon, UK), 5, 2 (2002), 113−28.

This study compares and contrasts the scores of 285students from several primary and secondary schools inBrunei Darussalam in relation to a number of variables,including attitudes towards (1) teachers, (2) learning

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Bilingual education/bilingualism ■processes, (3) language arts, and (4) mathematics, andincluding also the students’ reading and comprehensionability in English. The study used Arlin-Hills AttitudeSurveys and suitable reading materials. The majorresearch questions posed were whether there are: (1) anyrelationships between the five variables; (2) anysimilarities/differences within and across groups; and(3) any differences in scores for the above fivedependent variables and a number of independentvariables including age, sex and race. The results indicateboth positive and negative correlations among the fivedependent variables and significant differences betweenthe primary and secondary students. AdditionalANOVA statistics indicate that the reading ability ofstudents differs significantly in relation to a numberof independent variables. The paper discusses some ofthe major factors that could have contributed to thesefindings and calls for additional relevant research in thisarea.

03–208 Gutierrez-Clellen, Vera F. (San DiegoState U., CA, USA; Email: [email protected]).Narratives in two languages: Assessingperformance of bilingual children. Linguistics andEducation (New York, USA), 13, 2 (2002),175−97.

Studies with monolingual children have demonstratedthe significance of children’s narrative development forthe acquisition of literacy skills. However, little is knownabout the narrative skills of Spanish-speaking childrenwho are in the process of becoming bilingual. Thesechildren may exhibit various levels of competence inthe first (L1) and second language (L2). For some ofthese children, their English narrative skills may notbe sufficient to facilitate their literacy development.This study examined the narrative performance of 33typically developing bilingual children in both (Spanish)L1 and English (L2), using story recall and storycomprehension tasks. Most children exhibited greaternarrative recall and story comprehension in English, andsome children showed significantly poorer performanceon the narrative recall than on a spontaneous narrativeproduction task for one of the languages. The dataunderscored the notion of bilingualism as a continuumof proficiencies. Narrative assessment tasks in L1 and L2,which appear to be comparable, may not pose similarprocessing demands on a bilingual speaker.

03–209 Helot, Christine and Young, Andrea

(Universite Marc Bloch, Strasbourg, France; Emails:[email protected]; [email protected]). Bilingualism and languageeducation in French primary schools: Why and howshould migrant languages be valued? InternationalJournal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism(Clevedon, UK), 5, 2 (2002), 96−112.

While bilingual education programmes in Europeanmainstream languages are becoming increasingly

popular in France, the bilingualism of migrant childrenremains overlooked and is believed by many to delaythe acquisition of French. An institutionalised languagehierarchy lies all too often unchallenged within theFrench education system, and linguistic policies forprimary schools, while trying to develop foreignlanguage (FL) learning from the earliest age, fail to dealwith the question of minority languages. This studypresents a language awareness project in a small primaryschool in the Mulhouse area of Alsace as an exampleof how languages of unequal status can be placed onan equal footing in a school context, how childrencan be educated to linguistic and cultural variety andteachers made aware of the linguistic and culturalwealth present in their classes and their community.It is argued that language awareness programmes donot have to compete with early FL teaching, but canbe implemented in a complementary way, to educatechildren about language, languages and cultures, thusvaluing differences as a source of learning, helpingto foster tolerance and fight racism, and extendingteachers’ knowledge and understanding of multilingualand multicultural issues.

03–210 Holowka, Siobhan, Brosseau-Lapre,

Francoise (McGill U., Canada) and Petitto, Laura

Ann (Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, USA; Email:[email protected]). Semantic andconceptual knowledge underlying bilingual babies’first signs and words. Language Learning (Malden,MA, USA), 52, 2 (2002), 205−62.

This study addressed the question of how babies exposedto two languages simultaneously acquire the meaningsof words across their two languages. It attempted inparticular to shed new light on whether babies knowthat they are acquiring different lexicons right fromthe start, or whether early bilingual exposure causesthem to be semantically confused. A collection ofresearch methods is proposed that, taken together, cananswer these questions, which have hitherto receivedscant attention. Six hearing babies were videotaped forone hour on average seven times over one year (agesranging from 0;7 to 2;2); three babies were acquiringFrench and English, and three French and Quebec SignLanguage. These populations offer unique insights intothe semantic knowledge underlying bilingual as well asmonolingual language acquisition. It was found that thebabies (1) acquired their two languages on the sametimetable as monolinguals and (2) produced translationequivalents in their very first lexicons. Further, theirearly words (signs) in each language (3) were constrainedalong kind boundaries, (4) showed fundamentallysimilar semantic organisation across their dual lexicons,and (5) reflected the meanings of their favourite thingsfirst. The article discusses why attributions that youngbilinguals are delayed and confused have prevailed, andshows that they are neither at this point in development.The present findings show how research of this type canprovide a method for making bilingual norms whollyattainable.

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■ Bilingual education/bilingualism03–211 Huver, Emmanuelle (Universite Nancy 2,France). Quelle scolarisation pour les enfants demigrants? [What kind of schooling do immigrants’children receive?] Melanges CRAPEL (Nancy,France), 26 (2001), 111−36.

The past fifteen years have seen a new wave ofimmigration into France. Immigrant children may beplaced in special reception classes or, very often,absorbed directly into the ordinary school system.However, no research has been carried out to evaluatethe relative efficacy of these two forms of schooling inaiding pupils to achieve mastery of French as a secondlanguage, or to avoid or overcome culture shock. Thisarticle reports the findings of a survey carried out in1998 which aimed to identify the kinds of linguisticand cultural difficulties immigrant children encounterin France and to examine to what extent they could berelated to the type of schooling they received. Interviewswere conducted with 25 teenagers who had been inFrance for less than two years. Their extremely diverseaccounts reveal a lack of any systematic policy for dealingwith these young people and their impression that toomuch attention is paid to cultural differences betweenthemselves and French youngsters, whereas their realproblems are personal and individual.

03–212 Jake, Janice L. (Midlands Tech. Coll.,USA; Email: [email protected]),Myers-Scotton, Carol and Gross, Steven. Makinga minimalist approach to codeswitching work:Adding the Matrix Language. Bilingualism:Language and Cognition (Cambridge, UK), 5, 1(2002), 69−91.

This paper shows how some proposals within theMinimalist Programme are compatible with a modelof codeswitching that recognises an asymmetry betweenthe participating languages, the Matrix Language Framemodel. The discussion of an analysis of NPs in aSpanish-English corpus illustrates this compatibility andshows how recent minimalist proposals can explainthe distribution of nouns and determiners in this dataset if they adopt the notion of Matrix Language asthe bilingual instantiation of structural uniformity ina CP. The central premises of the Matrix LanguageFrame model are outlined, and the Uniform StructurePrinciple is introduced − this requires that thestructure of constituents be uniform at an abstract level.Previous applications of the Minimalist Programmeto codeswitching are then reviewed. Much recentresearch in minimalism has focused on issues relatedto feature checking. Earlier approaches to featurechecking required matching of features in grammaticalstructures, although more recent proposals considerdistinctions in the values of features and in types ofmatching. Because phi-features for grammatical genderin Spanish and English differ, an analysis of NPsin this corpus of naturally occurring Spanish-Englishconversations provides a test for minimalist applicationsto codeswitching. The general findings of the

distribution of types of NP constituents are presentedand explanations of these distributions are considered inthe light of minimalist proposals. It is possible to explainthese distributions in a recasting of the Matrix LanguageFrame model in minimalist terms, if the construct of theMatrix Language is maintained. The requirement thatone language, the Matrix Language, provide an abstractgrammatical frame in bilingual constituents correspondsto the type of uniformity that Chomsky (2001) suggestsis necessary for the explanatory study of language andvariation in language.

03–213 Montrul, Silvina (U. of Illinois atUrbana.Champaign, USA; Email: [email protected]). Incomplete acquisition and attrition ofSpanish tense/aspect distinctions in adultbilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition(Cambridge, UK), 5, 1 (2002), 39−68.

This study investigates whether age of onset ofbilingualism has an effect on ultimate attainment,and documents incomplete acquisition and attrition oftense/aspect morphology in Spanish. A group of 20monolingual Spanish speakers, 31 US-born bilingualsand 8 Latin-American-born bilinguals, participated. Ofthe US-born bilinguals, 16 were simultaneous bilingualswho had been exposed to Spanish and English fromages 0 to 3, the remaining 15 learned English betweenages 4 to 7 (early child L2 learners), and the Latin-American-born bilinguals learned English between ages8 and 12 (late child L2 learners). Results of an oralproduction, a written completion and two meaning-interpretation tasks showed that the simultaneousbilingual and the early child L2 groups differedsignificantly from monolingual Spanish speakers, whileonly a few individuals in the late child L2 groupshowed erosion with some aspects. Results suggest thatmorpho-phonological spell-outs and semantic featuresof functional categories are affected by incompleteacquisition and language loss, and that many of thepatterns of divergence found resemble stages of secondlanguage acquisition.

03–214 Pavlenko, Aneta (Temple U.,Philadelphia, USA). Bilingualism and emotions.Multilingua (Berlin, Germany), 21, 1 (2002), 45−78.

While several scholars have examined the influenceof emotions on bilingual performance and secondlanguage (L2) learning and use, to date very littleis known about ways in which bilinguals talk aboutemotions in their two languages. The present studyinvestigates discursive construction of emotions in thetwo languages of Russian-English bilinguals. Previousstudies have demonstrated that Russian and Englishdiffer in ways in which emotions are conceptualisedand framed in discourse. The goal of the present studyis to examine ways in which late Russian-Englishbilinguals, who learned their English post-puberty,negotiate these differences in narratives elicited in bothlanguages. It is argued that, in cases where the two

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Bilingual education/bilingualism ■speech communities differ in the conceptualisation ofemotions, the process of L2 socialisation may result inthe conceptual restructuring of emotion categories ofadult language learners, as evident in instances of secondlanguage influence on first language performance.

03–215 Piske, Thorsten (U. of Kiel, Germany),Flege, James Emil, MacKay, lan R. A. and

Meador, Diane. The production of English vowelsby fluent early and late Italian-English bilinguals.Phonetica (Basel, Switzerland), 59, 1 (2002),49−71.

The primary aim of this study was to determine if fluentearly bilinguals who are highly experienced in theirsecond language (L2) can produce L2 vowels in a waythat is indistinguishable from native speakers’ vowels.The subjects were native speakers of Italian who beganlearning English when they immigrated to Canadaas children or adults (‘early’ vs. late’ bilinguals). Theearly bilinguals were subdivided into groups differing inamount of continued L1 use (early-low vs. early-high).In experiment 1, native English-speaking listeners rated11 English vowels for goodness. As expected, the latebilinguals’ vowels received significantly lower ratingsthan the early bilinguals’ vowels did. Some of the early-high subjects’ vowels received lower ratings than vowelsspoken by a group of native English (NE) speakers,whereas none of the early-low subjects’ vowels differedfrom the NE subjects’ vowels. Most of the observeddifferences between the NE and early-high groups werefor vowels spoken in a nonword condition. The resultsof experiment 2 suggested that some of these errorswere due to the influence of orthography.

03–216 Silliman, Elaine R. (U. of South Florida,USA; Email: [email protected]), Bahr,

Ruth Huntley, Brea, Maria R., Hnath-Chisolm,

Theresa and Mahecha, Nancy R. Spanish andEnglish proficiency in the linguistic encoding ofmental states in narrative retellings. Linguistics andEducation (New York, USA), 13, 2 (2002), 199−234.

This study investigated whether differences existedamong 28 sequential bilingual children, ages 9–11 years, with varied English proficiency, in theirclausal and non-clausal choices for encoding subjectiveconcepts in narratives in both Spanish and English.The subjective categories examined were perceptualaction, psychological action, and private state reports.Despite a significant difference in age between thetwo proficiency groups, results present evidence forsimilar patterns of ability and variability in the syntacticencoding of subjective categories. Both proficiencygroups expressed private state reports most frequentlyacross languages; however, English language use mighthave influenced the proportion of subjectivity categoryuse. Furthermore, differences between proficiencygroups were not found for a measure of clausalcomplexity, but differences in clause type usage andaspects of non-clausal complexity were attributed to the

language of retelling. Patterns of performance reinforcethe importance of assessing children in both Spanish andEnglish.

03–217 Tse, Lucy (California State U., LosAngeles, USA; Email: [email protected]).Heritage language literacy: A study of USbiliterates. Language, Culture and Curriculum(Clevedon, UK), 14, 3 (2001), 256−68.

This paper reports on a study involving a groupof 10 US-raised adults who have managed to attainrelatively high levels of heritage language (HL) literacy(in Spanish, Cantonese and Japanese), defying thetypical pattern of intergenerational language shift. In-depth retrospective interviews were used to explorethe types of access to HL print and the HL literacyexperiences of this diverse group. The participants hadthe greatest access to HL print in their home and in theHL community, and primarily through participating inreligious worship and leisure activities. The participantsalso had (1) the assistance of more literate people,who acted as literacy conduits and literacy models;(2) contact with community institutions, namelyreligious organisations, which used and provided accessto HL print and literacy experiences beyond the home;(3) the access to ‘light’ reading materials which helpedfoster an interest in recreational reading; and (4) theopportunity to act as literacy mediators for parentsand family which supplied an authentic and importantpurpose for developing the heritage language. Theimplications of these findings are discussed and therole of school programmes in promoting HL literacyis considered.

03–218 Uribe de Kellett, Angela (U. ofNewcastle, UK). The recovery of a first language: Acase study of an English/Spanish bilingual child.International Journal of Bilingual Education andBilingualism (Clevedon, UK), 5, 3 (2002), 162−81.

This paper explores the process of language recoveryin an English-Spanish bilingual six-year-old child. Oneof the first languages of the child had become passive,that is, she was able to understand what was said toher in Spanish but was no longer able to speak it.On a subsequent visit to a Spanish-speaking country,data were gathered to piece together the process of herrecovery of the production abilities in the language. Thispaper documents the rapid process of recovery that tookplace and, based on these results, considers the valueof maintaining ‘passive bilingualism’ in children andexamines the strategy employed by the family to achievethis. The paper contributes to the study of the languagedevelopment of the bilingual and documents languagechange in progress. It also provides a positive alternativeapproach to maintaining bilingualism in children incontrast to the more ‘strict/purist’ line advocated inthe literature on bilingualism.

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■ Sociolinguistics03–219 von Studnitz, Roswitha E. and Green,

David W. (U. College, London, UK; Email:[email protected]). Interlingual homographinterference in German-English bilinguals: Itsmodulation and locus of control. Bilingualism:Language and Cognition (Cambridge, UK), 5, 1(2002), 1−23.

This paper investigates the control of the bilinguallexico-semantic system in visual word recognition. Avisual lexical decision task was used to explore controlprocesses in a proficient German-English bilingual.Participants pressed a ‘yes’ button if the letter string wasa word in English and a ‘no’ button if it was not. Thecritical stimuli were interlingual homographs such as thelow-frequency English word TAG. In German, TAGmeans ‘day’ and is a relatively high frequency word.Overall, the participants responded more slowly to aninterlingual homograph than to a control word matchedto its English frequency. As was expected, the size ofthis interference effect depended on various factors.First, including ‘pure’ German words in the stimuluslist increased interference. However, participants wereable to reduce the degree of interference over timeeven in the presence of such words. Second, in theabsence of pure German words, informing participantsabout the presence of interlingual homographs from thestart of the experimental trials allowed them to reduceinterference. The locus of these control effects wasexamined by analysing carry-over, i.e., reaction timeson word trials immediately following an interlingualhomograph or its matched control. It was inferred fromthe patterns of interference and carry-over that theprimary locus for reducing interference is external tothe bilingual lexico-semantic system. The implicationsof these data for theories of control are considered.

03–220 Westby, Carol (Wichita State U., USA;Email: [email protected]), Moore,

Celia and Roman, Rosario. Reinventing theenemy’s language: Developing narratives in NativeAmerican children. Linguistics and Education(New York, USA), 13, 2 (2002), 235−69.

Because narratives involve decontextualised language,they can facilitate students’ transition from oral toliterate language. Narratives, however, vary acrosscultures in structure, content, and function. Thesenarrative variations may influence academic perform-ance of children from non-mainstream backgrounds.Understanding of children’s development of mainstreamnarratives can be useful in planning educationalstrategies to facilitate students’ literacy success. Thisinvestigation documented English narrative develop-ment in third through fifth-grade children identifiedas regular (n = 18) and special education (n = 18)students who were from a traditional Southwest NativeAmerican community in which Keres was the homelanguage. Children told stories in response to a wordlesspicture-book and book covers, and wrote a storyin response to a wordless cartoon video. Narrativeswere evaluated in terms of syntactic complexity,

story grammar complexity, and use of landscape ofconsciousness elements. Results revealed that boththe regular and special education students exhibitednarratives with increasing syntactic and story grammarcomplexity and the use of landscape of consciousnesselements. However, story grammar levels were lowerthan reported data on story grammar structures ofnarratives produced by mainstream children. Manystories reflected characteristics of Native Americansyntactic structures and story structure and content.

03–221 Youssef, Valerie (The U. of theWest Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago;Email: [email protected]). Issues of bilingualeducation in the Caribbean: The cases of Haiti, andTrinidad and Tobago. International Journal ofBilingual Education and Bilingualism (Clevedon,UK), 5, 3 (2002), 182−93.

The language situations in the Caribbean have longposed challenges for language education and, despitea number of enlightened proposals for bilingualeducation, none have been implemented on a largescale. A major challenge has been the low status of theCreole languages and societal unwillingness to admitthese languages into the classroom. In Haiti, 90% ofthe population remains monolingual in a basilectalCreole; individually teachers informally accommodatethe Creole, but French remains the languages of‘enlightenment’ and learning, excluding the majority. Inanglophone Creole territories like Trinidad, lip serviceis also paid to valorising the Creole, but the reality is amixed language classroom without clear cut-off pointsbeing made between the varieties. This paper reviewsthe current situations and the potential for bilingualprogrammes in Haiti and in Trinidad, bringing outmajor differences between the language situations in thetwo. It suggests ways by which bilingual programmesmay be implemented in Haiti, and the ensuing benefits.In contrast, it shows why bilingual programmes are notlikely to be implemented in Trinidad, what is beingdone to alleviate the problems, and how the situation islikely to evolve.

Sociolinguistics03–222 Assaf, Azim S. (U. of Qatar). Palestinianstudents’ attitudes towards Modern StandardArabic and Palestinian City Arabic. RELC Journal(Singapore), 32, 2 (2001), 45−62.

This study investigates Palestinian students’ attitudestowards Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and PalestinianCity Arabic (PCA) in the context of two extralinguisticfactors: speakers’ educational level and setting. Thespeaker’s level of education is defined by the academicdegree they hold, i.e., either highly educated or lesseducated, the former holding a four-year-universitydegree or higher, the latter not. Setting is definedin terms of formality and informality which are usedto differentiate between structured and unstructuredsituations in conversational interactions. Data were

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Sociolinguistics ■collected from 22 male and female undergraduatePalestinians studying in a US university: they expressedtheir views on the use of the varieties under discussionin different language situations, via responses to a 32-item questionnaire on the basis of two tape-recordedpassages, one in MSA and another in PCA. The paperaddresses two major concerns: (1) the setting for whicheach variety is considered appropriate; and (2) thepurposes/functions for which the educated and less-educated groups use each variety. It was found that(1) generally, MSA is deemed more appropriate forformal, and PCA for informal settings; (2) in formalsettings, the highly educated group mainly uses MSA,and the less educated group PCA; and (3) in informalsettings, the highly educated group employs MSA at ahigher rate than the less educated group. However, thereis a slight tendency, among members of the less educatedgroup, in favour of using MSA for formal settings.

03–223 Foldes, Csaba. Deutsch in Ostmittel-,Ost-, Nordost- und Sudosteuropa − als eineHerausforderung fur die Sprachenpolitik. [Germanin Eastern Central-, East-, North-Eastern- andSouth-Eastern European states − a challenge forlanguage policy.] Deutsche Sprache (Berlin,Germany), 29, 4 (2001), 349−69.

This article contains a survey of the situation, positionand tendencies of the German language in EasternCentral, East-, North-Eastern- and South-EasternEuropean states from the fall of the iron curtain tothe present day. It concludes among other thingsthat in the area under investigation the Germanlanguage − judged by quantitative criteria − still hasa firm position and is enjoying a remarkable boom.Nevertheless, it has become evident that English isshowing higher accretion rates and establishing itselfat an even faster pace and more permanently from theCentral European Czech Republic to former SovietCentral Asia. The survey suggests that in these countriesvarious qualitative parameters seem disadvantageous toGerman, which results in a peculiar sociolinguisticprofile of the German language. Within this frameworkthe author formulates some postulates for stringentlanguage concept-formation in language policy andconsequently for a targeted and efficient spread orfurtherance of the German language.

03–224 Holland, Robert (U. of Birmingham, UK).Globospeak? Questioning text on the role of Englishas a global language. Language and InterculturalCommunication (Clevedon, UK), 2, 1 (2002), 5−24.

There is a wide range of opinion about precisely whatthe global role of English might be, and about the extentto which its rapid spread is beneficial or pernicious.This paper suggests that the acrimony of the debateon ‘Global English’ is partly explained by a ‘top-down’approach taken in much of the literature. It proposesinstead a text-based approach, aimed at examining theparticular uses of English lexis in non-English contexts

and with a view to observing how these relate to larger-scale issues. It goes on to consider the deployment ofEnglish vocabulary in four sample Indonesian texts, andto discuss possible connections with an emergent ‘globalorder of discourse’.

03–225 Karstadt, Angela (Gavle U., Sweden).Standard Englishes: What do Americanundergraduates think? English Today (Cambridge,UK), 18, 3 (2002), 38−45.

This article reports on a small-scale pilot study whichinvestigated attitudes towards varieties of English amongAmerican undergraduates, specifically the extent towhich they accepted other varieties of spoken English.Undergraduates were selected because they are at thethird of the three main stages in the developmentof an individual’s dialect. A questionnaire requiredstudents to judge the acceptability of 50 sentencescontaining syntactic and lexical variants and asked themwhat variety of English they would advise a Swedishspeaker to learn in order to study at their university.Responses were analysed using various descriptivestatistical techniques. Because the sample was small,the author tentatively concludes that older males wereleast tolerant of different varieties of English, whileolder females were most accepting. It seems likelythat students shared similar views about non-acceptableforms but views differed on standard or acceptableforms. Advice to potential exchange students included:learn British English, study certain Mid-Westernvarieties of American English or New York dialect asopposed to Southern dialects, or simply concentrate onaccurate grammar and expression. Proposals for furtherresearch include increasing the sample size, comparingthe views of American undergraduates with adolescentsand incorporating the views of Swedish students.

03–226 Kioko, Angelina N. and Muthwii,

Margaret J. (Kenyatta U., Nairobi, Kenya). Thedemands of a changing society: English ineducation in Kenya today. Language, Culture andCurriculum (Clevedon, UK), 14, 3 (2001), 201−13.

English plays a key role in Kenya’s educational system,not only as an important subject but especially as themedium of instruction. It has been claimed that themodel and the norm of the English used in Kenya,apart from pidgin varieties, is the British Standardvariety and, in particular, Received Pronunciation (RP).Is this indeed the case? If not, what are the actualnorms of correctness and appropriateness with regardto pronunciation, grammar, semantics, or pragmaticswithin the Kenyan community? There exists a dis-crepancy between the theoretical norm and the actuallanguage behaviour − what challenges does this stateof affairs present to an education system that reliesheavily on the use of the English language? In examiningthese issues this paper adopts a historical perspectiveand discusses the factors that indicate the presence of adiscrepancy between a theoretical norm and the actual

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■ Sociolinguisticslanguage behaviour and then explores the consequencesof such a situation. It also considers the valuable lessonsthat could be learnt, firstly from local creative writers’adaptation to the sociolinguistic/sociocultural reality,secondly from the move towards the democratisationand Africanisation of education in Kenya’s history, andthirdly from what is happening in other non-nativeEnglish contexts.

03–227 Van Sickle, Meta, Aina, Olaiya and

Blake, Mary (Coll. & U. of Charleston, USA; Email:[email protected]). A case study of thesociopolitical dilemmas of Gullah-speakingstudents: Educational policies and practices.Language, Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK),15, 1 (2002), 75−88.

Most of the languages spoken along the West Africancoastline are different from European languages butsimilar to Black English. Gullah, a West Africanand English Creole language, still spoken today onthe sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia, isthe predecessor of American Black English which ismost similar to the languages of West Africa. Earlyresearch in reading comprehension and science languagedevelopment has supported the belief that divergentlanguage usage, such as Gullah, has a negative impacton the visible demonstration of academic readingachievement. Unfortunately, the educational systemhas been insensitive and ineffective in addressing theissue of the language differences between Black Englishand White English. This paper reports a qualitativecase study, which was chosen because students withextreme examples of non-traditional English wereneeded to illustrate easily the patterns that emerged.For all the students, description through language wasa very complex issue. Often they omitted words or didnot know the specific content words to complete adescription. While their indigenous language patternscreated holistic pictures, they did not use the exact orprecise word to communicate the appropriate meaningto those unfamiliar with their language..

03–228 Villa, Daniel J. (New Mexico State U.,USA). The sanitising of U.S. Spanish in academia.Foreign Language Annals (New York, USA), 35, 2(2002), 222−30.

The rapidly increasing number of Spanish speakers inthe United States has resulted in increased national

linguistic tensions. Groups such as U.S. English aimto restrict the use of all non-English languages ingeneral, and Spanish in particular, in certain publicdomains. At the same time, another group, whichincludes a nucleus of language scholars, is engaging inefforts to change or suppress the use of U.S. Spanish,particularly in the domain of education. In this article,the author asserts that the arguments put forward bythe latter group are based principally on the attitudesof its leaders and not on carefully constructed linguisticbases. He offers an alternative model, one suggestedby Cameron (1995), as a means of carrying out well-reasoned debate on the use of the Spanish language foracademic purposes in the United States. It is suggestedthat the analytical paradigm proposed by Cameron,which she calls verbal hygiene, offers a powerful tool forgaining a better understanding of what at first glancemight seem a wholly contradictory set of attitudestowards U.S. Spanish; and that an achievable solutionto the ‘sanitising’ of Spanish in academia is for teachersand researchers to engage among themselves in the“acceptable public discourse of language and value”,as Cameron suggests..

03–229 White, Carmen M. (Central Michigan U.,USA; Email: [email protected]). Language,authenticity and identity: Indigenous Fijian studentsand language use in schools. Language, Culture andCurriculum (Clevedon, UK), 15, 1 (2002), 16−29.

Many indigenous minorities are in the process ofrevitalising their languages lost through such colonialpolicies as the use of colonial languages for instructionin schools. In these revitalisation movements, theindigenous language becomes a symbol of groupauthenticity. The literature suggests that indigenouspopulations define group authenticity as part of anoppositional identity relative to that of a dominantor former colonising group and their language. Thispaper focuses on the case of Fiji, where English isthe language of instruction in secondary schools butwhere the indigenous Fijian language has a strongpresence, ironically due in part to the historical useof the vernacular for academic instruction in missionschools. The paper explores the attitudes of indigenousFijian secondary school students on English-languageusage among peers and suggests that an indigenousgroup can define group authenticity independently ofan oppositional identity.

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