ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 117, Issue 1, 1997

This study investigates the acquisition of Chinese aspect markers of -le, -guo, and -zhe by English-speaking learners at the university level. The speech and written data produced by students at two different levels of proficiency were collected, compared and analyzed. The results show that English-speaking learners of Chinese acquire the perfective aspect marker -le and the past experience marker -guo before the durative aspect marker -zhe. The process by which learners acquire the aspect markers appears be meaning-based and can be summarized into: 1) looking for logical temporal sequences; 2) using time adverbials and conjunction for the time references; 3) using lexical aspects and word meanings; and 4) using pragmatic cues with the aspect markers of -le and -guo. Learners, especially at the lower level of proficiency, rely more on the time adverbial expressions and lexical aspects than learners at the more advanced level.

Identity is an important phenomenon both in traditional and in modern Africa. Before the advent of colonialism, people and communities were identified largely by ethnicity within a political framework. However, within each of the ethnic units, there were other parameters by which people were sub-categorised such as family, ancestral trade/calling, Many language attitude studies have investigated the relative popularity of competing languages in multi-ethnic and multilingual mainstream societies (GREENFIELD 1968, LAMBERT et al. 1975, GILES et al. 1983). In post-colonial Africa focus is on the competition between the languages of complex ethnic societies and erstwhile kingdoms now yoked together as one. In communities which straddle the continents' arbitrarily fixed international political boundaries, attitudes have been established as expressing the political alignments and preferred identities of their residents (OMONIYI, B. 1994). This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the language attitudes of members of borderland communities are also expressions of their identities which are variable. The data upon which the discussion will be based come from the Idiroko/Igolo border on Nigeria's southwestern frontier with Benin. Sociolinguistics, Boundaries, Bilateral, Language Politics, Identity.

University level students of English as a Foreign Language in Japan, enrolled in a special class for students who had failed English, did a semester of extensive reading in place of the traditional curriculum. Their gains in reading comprehension were significantly greater than a comparison group of traditionally taught regular students, and they clearly enjoyed the class.

Despite the growing amount of research supporting the use of extensive reading for improving second language competence (e.g. ELLEY and MANGUBHAI, 1983; TUDOR and HAFIZ, 1989; HAFIZ and TUDOR, 1989; ELLEY, 1991; PILGREEN and KRASHEN, 1993; CHO and KRASHEN, 1994; (1995a), (1995b); CONSTANTINO, 1994), many teachers are still uncertain about how effective it is. Some maintain that extensive reading will only benefit more successful and more motivated students, and will not help those who are unmotivated and who have not done well in language classes. These poor students, it is argued, lack the grammatical knowledge and vocabulary that is necessary for reading comprehension and enjoyment.

In this study, we investigate whether so called “bad students” or failures in EFL could improve with an extensive reading treatment.

In this article we will give an overview of the findings of L1 and L2 self-repair studies to date. A comparison between L1 and L2 self-repair research shows that, while L1 studies are firmly based in theory, most L2 studies are not. In order to contribute to theories and models of L2 production and acquisition, L2 self-repair studies will have to be more theory-driven than has been the case so far. Moreover, it is essential that large-scale investigations be conducted which focus on self-repair by L2 speakers at different levels of proficiency as well as on intra-individual comparisons between L1 and L2 self-repair.