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This study considers a contextualized approach to grammar instruction, asking: "Does embedded instruction using published authors as mentors improve grammar and usage for young writers?" Twenty-three students in one second-grade classroom participated. Students were taught grammar conventions through use of mentor texts for 45 minutes a day, four to five days a week for nine weeks. Students' scores on the TGM, a criterion-referenced test of grammar skills, and on the RDGU, a test specific to second-grade grammar standards, showed statistically-significant improvement over the course of the intervention. Results suggest that use of mentor texts is an instructional approach that provides authentic models and increases students' understanding of the syntax of language. Such an approach contrasts starkly to ineffective methods using worksheets and isolated grammar instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research addressing the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and second language (L2) listening comprehension has been conducted mostly using measures that tap orthographic vocabulary knowledge. The few studies that have used measures that tap phonological modality to delineate the relationship between vocabulary and L2 listening have focused on either the receptive or productive dimension of vocabulary knowledge, but not both. To advance knowledge on this matter, this study investigated the degree to which two measures of phonological vocabulary knowledge correlated with, and were able to predict, scores on L2 listening comprehension. The researcher administered word frequency–based vocabulary measures tapping receptive/phonological vocabulary knowledge (RPVK) and productive/phonological vocabulary knowledge (PPVK), as well as a test assessing L2 listening comprehension, to 100 university‐level native‐Arabic‐speaking learners of English as a foreign language. Results show that PPVK correlated most strongly with L2 listening (r =.74), followed by RPVK (r =.59). Hierarchical regression modelling indicated that PPVK predicted the largest variance in L2 listening (R2 =.54) and that RPVK contributed only marginally to the overall predictive power of the regression model (R2 =.013). Findings from the study address the varying significance of different dimensions of phonological vocabulary knowledge in L2 listening comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of grammar in (compulsory and post-compulsory) schooling is the subject of international debate, with contributions from linguistics and pedagogy characterized by adopting mainly a formal conception of grammatical content and addressing the processes of teaching and learning separated from those contents. We propose to defend the relevance of placing the focus of attention on the unitary whole formed by content-teachinglearning. We will develop arguments around some basic issues that are the object of a wide debate in the disciplinary field of Language Didactics. Studies of sociocultural orientation consider that placing grammar in the use-communication axis (beyond a formal axis, in which the grammar system is approached as autonomous with respect the communicative uses), as well as consider interaction as not only a desirable classroom resource but what fuels learning and development, in which the student is involved in processes of reflection or "metalinguistic activity". The study of this metalinguistic activity can contribute knowledge about the best measures that can be arbitrated for the teaching and learning of grammar as well as for teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quasi-experimental study used a repeated measures design to examine the effects of three manipulated classroom goal structures (i.e. mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) on grammar achievement, perceived autonomy support, flow experience, and affect for 49 Greek elementary school students (ages 11–12; 48% girls). Over a period of four weeks, all students participated in three grammar classes, each emphasizing a different goal structure. Results from multilevel modeling showed that students in mastery and performance-approach goal structures achieved higher grammar scores than they did in the performance-avoidance goal structure. Additionally, students in mastery goal structure experienced greater autonomy support, flow, and positive affect than they did in the performance-approach and performance-avoidance structure. The results have implications regarding teachers' training since classroom practices are connected with achievement and students' engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether we can find reliable comprehension-to-production syntactic priming effects in children aged 2;0 to 2;11 and how phonological working memory and sentence production skills relate to the syntactic priming process. A finding of reliable syntactic priming effects would provide strong evidence that children's syntactic representations are abstracted over individual lexical items. To test children at this young age, they were primed with simple and early-acquired transitive (e.g., tickling (a) baby) and unergative intransitive (e.g., running) syntactic structures. Children aged 2;7 to 2;11, primed with alternating prime structures, revealed a reliable syntactic priming effect. In addition, phonological working memory (moderated by age) and sentence production skills positively affected transitive productions. Children aged 2;0 to 2;6, primed either with alternating or cumulative prime structures, showed no priming effect. Together, the data indicate that children have robust abstract syntactic representations for the tested structures before age three and that both phonological working memory and production skills relate to children's syntactic priming behavior, albeit in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers who seek to amplify student voice in the English Language Arts classroom must balance students' need for selfexpression with the TEKS requirement that students demonstrate command of standard English. Teachers also face a curricular landscape in which they are discouraged from teaching grammar in isolation but are held accountable for students' understanding of grammatical concepts. In this paper, we review recent research in linguistics and rhet/comp that speaks to these dilemmas. First, we explore the relationship between implicit and explicit language learning and what it means for formal grammar instruction. Second, we look at how the context of communication influences whether readers notice and are troubled by grammatical errors and consider what this means for grammar instruction. Third, we examine the grammaticality of nonstandard dialects and look for ways to bridge the gap between standard and nonstandard English. We also share research-based, classroom-tested assignments that go beyond grammar drills to raise students' metalinguistic awareness and increase their productive control of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated teachers' beliefs regarding grammar instruction integrated into communicative teaching in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context, with a focus on conflicting beliefs. First, a survey was designed and implemented to examine teachers' beliefs about (a) L2 learning theories, (b) grammar instruction and communicative teaching, and (c) obstacles in implementing communicative teaching. In total, 498 school-level teachers completed the survey. Subsequently, nine teachers participated in focus-group interviews. The survey revealed overall support for teaching grammar via communicative methods. However, in the interview data, three types of conflicting beliefs were identified. First, theoretical conflicts pertained to the role that grammatical knowledge plays in developing communicative skills. Second, experiential conflicts were based on the teachers' unsuccessful experiences in using pair and group activities that resulted in a lack of student engagement. Third, contextual conflicts entailed beliefs about the compatibility of communicative teaching with the local socio-educational context. Teaching experiences positively and negatively mediated the conflicting beliefs. Overall, teachers' beliefs about how a L2 should be learned entailed a different set of beliefs from those about how a L2 can be taught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on mentor texts to help students make sense of convention rules. Topics include working together keeps students motivated even when the content is challenging; discusses examples of exercises that involve cognitive function while teaching sentence-combining skills. It highlights that working on the individual assignment in class was important as it allowed instructional assistant and author to encourage students through the process.

The relationship between grammar and literary education will be described and analyzed in the procedural writing of the curricular contents exposed in the official curricular documents (Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios y Materiales curriculares Lengua y Literatura, Versión Preliminar, 2013, Ministry of Culture and Education of La Pampa). The objectives and contents related to the Fourth Year of the Oriented Cycle of Secondary Education are cut. The preliminary hypothesis that the writing of the curricular designs as procedural contents hide and overlap the specificity of the disciplinary contents: grammatical, textual, discursive necessary to acquire the proclaimed competences, related to reading and writing is confirmed. Next, a proposal of articulation will be outlined, as an example, between the communicative use, in particular, the practice of literary education and the systematization of grammatical contents, centered on the narrative. For this, the use of the adjective for the generic construction - the fantastic and the realistic likelihood - will be addressed as well as of significance in three stories. With this description, analysis and proposal is intended to build a contribution to sequencing of grammatical, textual, discursive and literary content with the complexity that this implies in the Oriented Cycle of Secondary Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes some of the ambiguities that arise among statements with the copular verb "is" in the mathematical language of textbooks as compared to day-to-day English language. We identify patterns in the construction and meaning of "is" statements using randomly selected examples from corpora representing the two linguistic registers. We categorize these examples according to the part of speech of the object word in the grammatical form "[subject] is [object]." In each such grammatical category, we compare the relative frequencies of the subcategories of logical relations conveyed by that construction. Within some categories we observe that the same grammatical structure alternatively conveys different logical relations and that the intended logical relation can only sometimes be inferred from the grammatical cues in the statement itself. This means that one can only interpret the intended logical relation by already knowing the relation among the semantic categories in question. Such ambiguity clearly poses a communicative challenge for teachers and students. We discuss the pedagogical significance of these patterns in mathematical language and consider the relationship between these patterns and mathematical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of 116 languages, this article investigates the typology of comparative constructions and their distribution in Melanesia, one of the world's least-understood linguistic areas. We present a rigorous definition of a comparative construction as a "comparative concept", thereby excluding many constructions which have been considered functionally comparatives in Melanesia. Conjoined comparatives are shown to dominate at the core of the area on the island of New Guinea, while (monoclausal) exceed comparatives are found in the maritime regions around New Guinea. Outside of Melanesia adpositional and other comparative constructions including particle comparatives are most frequent in Austronesian languages. The unity of the conjoined comparative type in the core Melanesian area illustrates that, while morpho-syntactic profiles of Melanesian languages are heterogenous, significant convergence in the "ways of saying things" can be found across the region. Additionally, we find no cases of clause chaining constructions being used for encoding comparatives, even in canonical clause chaining languages of central New Guinea. Our findings thus offer no support for Stassen's claim of a correlation between temporal chaining type and comparative construction type. Instead we suggest that an areal preference for mini-clauses may explain the dominance of the conjoined comparative in Melanesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the grammaticalization of body-part nouns into reflexives have often formulated cross-linguistic generalizations, but have mostly failed to provide detailed analyses of similar developments attested in unrelated languages. As a consequence, valuable insights have sometimes been overlooked. The purpose of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it identifies a higher number of languages using "head"-reflexives than previous accounts. On the other hand, its purpose is to analyze the diachronic evolution of nouns denoting "head" into reflexive markers in three unrelated language groups (Basque, Berber and Kartvelian) and to show how "head"-reflexives synchronically and diachronically interact with secondary reflexivization strategies, such as detransitivization. The results suggest that the areal factor has a considerable impact on the emergence of "head"-reflexives; they also show that none of the languages analyzed reflects all grammaticalization stages put forward in the literature. Accordingly, it is argued that the grammaticalization stages are optional, and that the correlation between formal and semantic change is not obligatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a cross-linguistic investigation of the antipassive within the framework of Radical Construction Grammar. Based on function, this study identifies constructions in 70 languages from 25 language families and four geographical macro areas. Iconically motivated correlations were found between functions and the morphosyntactic strategies they employ. The results of this study suggest that constructions indicating the lower individuation of patients and constructions indicating the lower affectedness of patients, previously grouped together as 'antipassive', should be considered two separate construction types. This is based on their separate functions, the distinct morphosyntactic strategies used to encode them across languages, and differences in productivity with regard to semantic classes of verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the implicit sequence learning abilities of dyslexic children using an artificial grammar learning task with an extended exposure period. Twenty children with developmental dyslexia participated in the study and were matched with two control groups-one matched for age and other for reading skills. During 3 days, all participants performed an acquisition task, where they were exposed to colored geometrical forms sequences with an underlying grammatical structure. On the last day, after the acquisition task, participants were tested in a grammaticality classification task. Implicit sequence learning was present in dyslexic children, as well as in both control groups, and no differences between groups were observed. These results suggest that implicit learning deficits per se cannot explain the characteristic reading difficulties of the dyslexics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author assessing the students' literacy practices and literary writings. Topics include the author conducting research on the practices followed by students in the Midwestern elementary school, examining their classroom activities, and his encounter with a student named Jairo. The author also finds out Jairo's Mexican American background's association in his writings.

Language learning is one of the key predictors of how well immigrants will integrate into a new society. In many European countries, the resources reserved for language education have proved insufficient as people fleeing the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have entered Europe. This situation has called for ways of mobilising volunteer workers to help newcomers in a coordinated manner. In Finland, a method called Toisto has been developed to enable volunteers with little or no teaching experience to teach the basics of Finnish to newcomers. From the pedagogical and linguistic point of view, Toisto derives from a usage-based notion of language, according to which the spoken modality in general, and modelling-based instruction in particular, can be used to teach grammar without the explicit formulation or explanation of rules. In addition, Toisto aims to compensate for the written language bias very much present in the L2 context in the Finnish education system. In this paper, we outline the theoretical grounding and basic characteristics of the Toisto method. We map the ways in which a usage-based notion of language motivates a communicative, oral language pedagogy, and provide some initial evidence of the feasibility of the method. Finally, we discuss the implications of the Toisto method for adult language education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the use of Pixton for enhancing grammar and vocabulary teaching in a public high school in the South region of Ecuador. In this intervention, 163 junior high school learners and 14 pre-service English teachers participated during a period of 4 months. The data for this study was obtained by gathering information from pre and postquestionnaires, pre and post-tests, and observation sheets. Students were divided into control and experimental groups. The control group (78 students) received English lessons without using Pixton, while the experimental group (85 students) used Pixton. After analyzing the data quantitatively and qualitatively, the results indicate that Pixton is an effective teaching tool that motivates students to learn grammar and vocabulary in an enjoyable way; this was evident through an improvement in students' post-test scores in the experimental group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14–15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation for English Language examinations. Students were interviewed twice, with prompts to discuss a sample of argument text in interview one, and a sample of their own writing in interview two. The interviews and subsequent analysis drew on Gombert's taxonomy of metalinguistic understanding, focusing on metasemantic, metasyntactic and metatextual reflections, and probing students’ ability to link these to metapragmatic concerns. Similarly to previous studies, the findings suggest that students struggle to articulate the impact of metasyntactic choices; however, here it is suggested that this may be a particular artefact of the need for a specialised metalanguage for discussing syntax. Results also indicate a tendency to reify form-function relationships, and signal the potential benefit of using students’ own writing as a platform for exploring authorial choices. Finally, the study contributes to the theorisation of metalinguistic understanding by suggesting how declarative knowledge may emerge from procedural activity, with interviews scaffolding students’ ability to articulate what had initially been tacit language choices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This lexical decision eye-tracking study investigated whether horizontal and vertical readings elicit comparable behavioral patterns and whether reading directions modulate lexical processes. Response times and eye movements were recorded during a lexical decision task with Japanese bimorphemic compound words presented vertically. The data were then analyzed together with those obtained in a horizontal lexical decision experiment of Miwa, Libben, Dijkstra, and Baayen (2014). Linear mixed-effects analyses of response times and eye movements revealed that, although response times and first fixation durations were notably shorter in horizontal reading than vertical reading, the vertical reading elicited fewer fixations. Furthermore, while compounds were recognized largely in comparable ways regardless of reading direction, several lexical processes were found to be reading-direction-dependent. Particularly, processing of the first morpheme was modulated by reading direction in a late time frame, such that a horizontal reading advantage was observed for words with a high frequency first morpheme. All in all, the two reading directions do not only differ quantitatively in processing speed, but also qualitatively in terms of underlying processing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates teachers’ beliefs relating to grammar teaching in modern foreign language (MFL) learning in England. Focus on grammatical form has been consistently supported by linguistic research and teacher practice, and has progressively been reinstated in England’s National Curriculum. However, MFL learning assessment in England has remained focused on generic communicative, skill-focused criteria, leaving teachers caught in the conflicting discourses of policy, linguistic research, teacher education and teaching practice. This exploratory–interpretive enquiry explored how eight MFL teachers translated grammar teaching policy and theoretical guidelines into their teaching practices. Data from interviews, observations and think-alouds were collected and analysed using an inductive approach. The findings revealed disparate interpretations of the concept of grammar and grammar teaching. In this period of ongoing reform of MFL examinations at age 16 in England, critical exploration of what happens in the range of MFL classrooms should inform clearer theoretical and methodological guidelines for MFL teaching and learning, leading to a more consistent pedagogic rationale and more consistent strategies for teacher education and MFL provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is about the discursive pathway of grammatical structures such as y'a bon ‘there's good’, documenting how, in Hexagonal France, it has become an ‘enregistered emblem’ for indexing sub-Saharan Africans and, by extension, any African as allegedly incapable of speaking French competently. I argue that tracing pathways makes it possible to unveil the intricacy of the historicities of production, circulation, and interpretations of such racially based linguistic stereotypes. One of the central questions addressed in this article is: What are the sociohistorical conditions of the emergence and maintenance of these linguistic stereotypes? I show that these are grounded in long-standing linguistic ideologies of French as an exceptional language and of African languages and, therefore, their speakers, as primitive. I demonstrate how the rise of first age mass culture in the nineteenth century contributed to both the entextualization and the circulation of these stereotypical representations. (Stereotypes, mediatization, enregisterment, language ideology, France, Africa)* [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we investigated criterial discourse features in L2 writing through the use of recurrent word combinations, a.k.a. lexical bundles, taking a corpusdriven and expert-judged approach by examining L2 English data across various proficiency levels from L1 Chinese learners. Proficiency was determined by a robust rating procedure which is often used in high-stakes tests, instead of the traditional approach of utilizing extra-linguistic judgement such as program levels. Expository and argumentative essays produced by learners were rated by experienced raters and then subjected to post-rating statistical analysis. Three sizeable subcorpora, representing the Common European Framework of Reference B1, B2, and C1 levels, were then selected for investigation. After lexical bundles were retrieved and refined, structures and discourse functions were manually annotated. The findings suggest that learner writing at lower levels tends to share more features with conversation, whereas the discourse of more proficient writing is closer to that of academic prose. The implications and limitations of the study will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores relationships among reading literature, creative writing, and language development in a university-level advanced French grammar course through the theoretical lens of the multiliteracies framework. The goal is to investigate reading-writing connections and whether these literacy practices facilitate students' understanding and use of resources such as grammar, vocabulary, genre, and style. Qualitative and quantitative findings show that students recognize reading-writing connections and their contribution to language development; they perceive reading and writing as contributing to their understanding of language and text-based features; and they can apply to varying degrees textual resources learned through reading to creative writing tasks. The implications of these findings lend support to a growing body of research that explores the feasibility and outcomes of literacy-based approaches to teaching and learning in university-level foreign language contexts that have as their goal development of students' advanced FL competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how and when to write the word "church" in upper case and in the lower case.

The present article is focused on the specific character of the story as a learning text in foreign language education in primary school. For this purpose a set of linguistic, psychological and cultural criteria for selecting the story-telling material is taken into account. A set of techniques is elaborated for the children's future success as story-tellers. Efficient and attractive ways of learning vocabulary and grammar and teaching pronunciation, reading and writing are presented. An example of lesson plan is given to illustrate how the language - learning skills could be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study implemented grammar teaching by using task-based teaching approach to improve grammatical competency for ten low intermediate Kachin students in Myanmar. The researcher collected the data by using multiple data collecting instruments. They are pre-test, post-test, and two formative assessments. The data obtained were analyzed quantitatively. After taking 32 hour long task-based grammar classes, the students' grammatical competence resulted to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined mainland Chinese and Taiwanese students' perceptions of two aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): phonology and lexico-grammar. The researchers surveyed a total of 400 students at two universities in mainland China and at two universities in Taiwan (200 in each area). The results indicated that although students in both groups were aware that they could not speak English as native speakers did, they still preferred to achieve a native speaker accent. They admitted that they spoke with Chinese accents, but they believed that their accents were intelligible and acceptable. Nevertheless, the students in both groups tended to not maintain their local accents in English. With respect to ELF lexico-grammar, both groups considered some features incorrect, but they were uncertain about others. However, they could understand and tended to accept all the ELF sentences. The present study also revealed variations between the two groups with respect to their perceptions of ELF phonology and lexico-grammar. Given that little research has compared ELF users' perceptions across different geographical areas, this study addresses an important research gap by investigating the interaction of ELF perceptions and local contexts. Findings of the study may have important implications for ELF researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the beliefs, knowledge and practice of specialist teachers who teach the English Language to dyslexic learners in Singapore. It explores the pedagogical bases of teachers' work in grammar teaching and investigates the extent to which personal beliefs and knowledge have informed instructional practices. The results reveal weaknesses in the teachers' language awareness and a lack of grammatical knowledge, which have negatively impacted their effectiveness as teachers of dyslexic learners. There is a call to provide teachers the knowledge on language teaching in teacher development programmes and to develop a common belief system on pedagogical practice amongst them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study are to compare quantitative and qualitative differences for noun/verb retrieval across language-impaired groups, examine naming errors with reference to psycholinguistic models of word processing, and shed light on the nature of the naming deficit as well as determine relevant group commonalities and differences. This includes an attempt to establish whether error types differentiate language-impaired children from adults, to determine effects of psycholinguistic variables on naming accuracies, and to link the results to genetic mechanisms and/or neural circuitry in the brain. A total of 89 (language-)impaired participants took part in this report: 24 adults with acquired aphasia, 20 adults with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, 31 adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and 14 children with specific language impairment. The results of simultaneous multiple regression analyses for the errors in verb naming compared to the psycholinguistic variables for all language-impaired groups are reported and discussed in relation to models of lexical processing. This discussion will lead to considerations of genetic and/or neurobiological underpinnings: (1) Presence of the noun-verb dissociation in focal and non-focal brain impairment make localization theories redundant, but support for wider neural network involvement. (2) The patterns reported cannot be reduced to any one level of language processing, suggesting multiple interactions at different levels (e.g., receptive vs. expressive language abilities). (3) Semantic-conceptual properties constrain syntactic properties with implications for phonological word form retrieval. (4) Competition needs to be resolved at both conceptual and phonological levels of representation. Moreover, this study may provide a cross-pathological baseline that can be probed further with respect to recent suggestions concerning a reconsideration of open- vs. closed-class items, according to which verbs may actually fall into the latter rather than the standardly received former class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research report by linguistics experts Colin Phillips and Lara Ehrenhofer, on learning native language. Topics discussed include understanding of language processing among learners, theories of grammar and learning, grammatical gender as linguistic phenomena, perception of language processing research and implementation of distributional learning mechanism.

This study examined introductory journalism writing courses and compared hybrid (part online/part classroom) versus online grammar instruction. The hybrid structure allowed for grammar topics to be taught online, with a pretest following, and then reviewing missed/difficult pretest concepts in class prior to a posttest. The quasi-experimental separate-sample pretest–posttest research design spanned four semesters and included data from 567 students. Although differences emerged between hybrid and online regarding different grammatical concepts, overall results indicated that student grammar scores improved regardless of teaching method. However, students in the hybrid course were significantly more satisfied with overall media writing skills acquired than were online students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite an increased emphasis on form-focused instruction (FFI), the use of the computer as a grammar tutor has remained largely unexamined for nearly two decades. With new technologies at hand, there is a need to take a fresh look at online grammar tutors and link designs more strongly to contemporary second language acquisition (SLA) principles and the concept of a teaching presence. The aim of this study, therefore, is to investigate the potential of using a purpose-built digital video series as a virtual grammar tutor. To achieve this aim, we used a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test to evaluate the impact of a purpose-built grammar video on 62 EFL university students. The results of the study demonstrate that purpose-built video has strong potential for use as a virtual grammar tutor. Consequently, it may be possible to improve the state of Tutorial CALL from a drill-based approach to one that is more substantive through the development of a series of step-based video tutorials that tutor, allow for the practice of and evaluate second language (L2) grammar skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable debate about the relevance and applicability of SLA theory and research for L2 pedagogy. There are those who maintain that SLA must be applicable to L2 pedagogy: a view based on the argument that because SLA is a subfield of applied linguistics, it should have direct relevance to L2 teaching. Others take the view that not all areas of SLA research need to be relevant to L2 pedagogy – only the more ‘applied’ areas. While I would agree that much of the work in SLA should be applicable to L2 pedagogy, particularly research on instructed SLA, my presentation takes a different perspective on the SLA/L2 pedagogy interface. It focuses on misapplications of SLA theory and research to L2 pedagogy. I argue that the applicability of SLA research for L2 instruction requires a careful consideration of context and that specific SLA constructs – even those considered to be important within instructed SLA – may not have direct relevance to L2 pedagogy. Three areas of SLA research that I will discuss with respect to misapplication and relevance are: the role of instruction in SLA, the role of age in SLA, and the nature of and distinction between implicit and explicit L2 knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The first purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consciousness-raising (C-R) activities and tasks on learning grammatical structures by Iranian guidance school EFL learners (the simple present tense in this case). The second one was to investigate the effect of gender on learning the simple present tense through C-R activities and tasks. The design of the study was experimental and the participants were one hundred and five male and female students selected from two guidance schools in Zahedan city, Iran. A proficiency test was administered to ensure the homogeneity of the two groups at the outset of the experiment. Based on the results of the proficiency test, the participants were divided into two groups, functioning as the experimental and control groups. Then, a pretest of the simple present tense was given to the participants and its results showed that the participants didn't know the simple present tense before applying the treatment (C-R activities and tasks for experimental group). The classes were held two times per week. During the total span of ten sessions the two groups were taught the simple present tense based on different approaches; the experimental group was taught based on C-R activities and tasks while the control group was instructed using pattern drills and practice. At the end, the same pre-test was used as the post-test. Data analysis through an independent t-test indicated that using C-R activities in grammar teaching is significantly more effective than the traditional approaches (such as Grammar Translation Method and pattern practice). The results also indicated that the male learners outperformed females in learning grammatical structures through C-R tasks. Therefore, it is recommended that other teachers consider C-R activities as useful options in teaching grammar and other language aspects in their classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study clarifies the impact of switching context between noun and verb number agreement rules in written language production. In Experiment 1, children from grade 3 to 6 were asked to fill in sentences with nouns and verbs in either a switching condition (noun followed by verb) or a repeating condition (noun followed by noun). The results showed that third- and fourth-grade children produced more erroneous agreements in the switching condition than in the repeating condition, showing that switching between rules comes at a cost, whereas fifth- and sixth-grade participants' performance was not affected by the switching context. Based on these findings, Experiment 2 aimed to assess whether a switching treatment offers a greater opportunity to improve the acquisition of grammatical agreement production, as compared to a simple treatment. Teachers from grade 3 gave either a switching treatment (mixed noun and verb exercises) or a simple treatment (noun exercises followed by verb exercises). The results show that children learned better from the switching treatment than from the simple treatment. These findings highlight the cost of switching between noun and verb agreement rules during the acquisition of grammatical number agreement and also how grammatical spelling acquisition can be improved at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 15 years, a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that a powerful distributional learning mechanism is present in infants, children, adults and (at least to some degree) in nonhuman animals as well. The present article briefly reviews this literature and then examines some of the fundamental questions that must be addressed for any distributional learning mechanism to operate effectively within the linguistic domain. In particular, how does a naive learner determine the number of categories that are present in a corpus of linguistic input and what distributional cues enable the learner to assign individual lexical items to those categories? Contrary to the hypothesis that distributional learning and category (or rule) learning are separate mechanisms, the present article argues that these two seemingly different processes-acquiring specific structure from linguistic input and generalizing beyond that input to novel exemplars-actually represent a single mechanism. Evidence in support of this single-mechanism hypothesis comes from a series of artificial grammar-learning studies that not only demonstrate that adults can learn grammatical categories from distributional information alone, but that the specific patterning of distributional information among attested utterances in the learning corpus enables adults to generalize to novel utterances or to restrict generalization when unattested utterances are consistently absent from the learning corpus. Finally, a computational model of distributional learning that accounts for the presence or absence of generalization is reviewed and the implications of this model for linguistic-category learning are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The universal generation problem for unification grammars is the problem of determining whether a given grammar derives any terminal string with a given feature structure. It is known that the problem is decidable for LFG and PATR grammars if only acyclic feature structures are taken into consideration. In this brief note, we show that the problem is undecidable for cyclic structures. This holds even for grammars that are off-line parsable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the philosophy education is secondary schools in Ireland, and mentions the mishandling of syntax and grammar by the students in schools.

The author discusses her experiences with bigotry in a classroom environment focused upon Reed-Kellogg (RK) sentence diagramming. According to the article, the author's course was called Constructing Thought and created in response to students who wished to master the RK system in order to improve their writing. The article states that the course begins with diagramming skills as outlined in the book "Diagramming Step by Step," the acquisition of skills in standard American English (SAE), and the diagramming of a sentence from African American Antoine Dodson.

The author describes her experiences as an English grammar instructor at York College and her efforts to create a grammar course that can be of significance to students' writing outside of the classroom and meet the desires of grammar students. The author presents two sentence-building assignments for her introductory grammar course, particularly concerning the teaching of standard American English rules, and examples of student writing.

Effective writing requires mastering grammar. For journalists, this mastery is critical because research shows poor grammar erodes media credibility. College writing instructors say students do not understand basic grammar concepts, and greater numbers of students are enrolling in remedial writing classes. This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examines whether using games to teach basic grammar skills helps college students understand and retain grammar concepts. It also examines student perceptions of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historiografía Lingüística (BSEHL) is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Historiografia Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historiografía Lingüística (BSEHL) is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Historiografia Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is often asserted that UK school-leavers know less grammatical terminology than in earlier years. However, objective data on this supposed phenomenon are somewhat scarce. The study reported in this paper aimed to see whether and to what extent knowledge about language (KaL) has declined over three decades, and how this might relate to university studies and the English school-leaving examinations known as A-level. We analysed data collected in a test-based survey of UK university undergraduates and compared them with a similar test-based survey conducted in 1986. We also put the studies in context by comparing the performance of UK home students with that of students in and from other countries. In addition, we analysed recent pre- and post-test data on whether courses of instruction in grammar improve undergraduates’ knowledge of grammatical terminology. Our results show a general reduction in school-leavers’ knowledge of grammatical terminology since 1986. Moreover, UK students have a much weaker knowledge than do non-UK students. Studying a foreign language leads to somewhat better levels of KaL, but this is not true for English language A-level. However, our results confirm that university-level instruction does improve awareness of and ability to use grammatical terminology. We end by discussing the value of KaL. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Highlights: [•] Subjects acquired implicit knowledge in an artificial grammar learning experiment. [•] Mindfulness impaired performance on subsequent preference and classification tasks. [•] Masked affective primes resulted in faster and more negative preference judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examined whether simultaneously observing and making gestures while studying animations would lighten cognitive load and facilitate the acquisition of grammatical rules. In contrast to our hypothesis, results showed that children in the gesturing condition performed worse on the posttest than children in the non-gesturing, control condition. A more detailed analysis of the data revealed an expertise reversal effect, indicating that this negative effect on posttest performance materialized for children with lower levels of general language skills, but not for children with higher levels of general language skills. The finding that for children with lower language ability, cognitive load did not decrease as they saw more animations provided additional support for this expertise reversal effect. These findings suggest that the combination of observing and making gestures may have imposed extraneous cognitive load on the lower ability children, which they could not accommodate together with the relatively high intrinsic load imposed by the learning task. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]