Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 23, Issue 1, 2000

Reading in the Japanese language cannot be accomplished without adequate recognition of kanji words. Abundant research suggests that, when recognizing kanji words, it is crucial to use semantic and phonological information of constituent components of kanji. This paper reports on the results of a study investigating if English-speaking learners of Japanese have the ability to use kanji component information. A test measuring learners’ ability to utilise component information was devised and administered after training sessions. The analysis of the test results suggests that learners of Japanese have an ability to use component information. Judging from the findings of the study, learners are better at using semantic information than using phonological information for processing kanji words

Are nonverbal features of speech a valuable source of information in L2 aural comprehension? This paper starts with the results of a questionnaire suggesting the teaching profession’s belief that nonverbal features of speech facilitate foreign language comprehension. This belief is then examined in the light of studies in various fields (applied linguistics, social psychology, anthropology, cross-cultural studies) where research deals with nonverbal features of speech at the receptive level. Our review of this literature raises several issues: 1) the importance of the context of use in decoding the meaning and functions of gestures; 2) potential discrepancies in the use of gestures in L1 and L2; 3) the interpretability of gestural expressions across cultures; and 4) the most appropriate teaching approach to integrate nonverbal features of speech into the teaching of L2 comprehension. The paper also discusses possible avenues for further research.

Whole Class Text Response Discussions (WCTRD) are pervasive in secondary English and represent one site in which students can learn to adopt the habits of critical thought that are promoted in state and national Curriculum documents. In this study, the phasal structures (Gregory and Malcolm 1981) of a variety of such WCTRDs in Australian secondary English classrooms were examined. It was found that teachers in such WCTRDs regularly made limited selections from the available pool of phases, such selections regularly scaffolding a narrow range of literate and moral skills, but offering little support for the development of critical and analytical response. Such results suggest that despite a shift at an academic and professional development level towards more critically-oriented models of text response, day-to-day discursive practice in some secondary English classrooms in Australia is still very much grounded in Reader Response practices (Iser 1978) that contribute to the development of morally compliant citizens. One WCTRD was selected for closer analysis of how the textual, experiential and interpersonal meanings (Halliday 1994) operated to privilege students’ ‘personal response’ over critical response. Through the examination of Transitivity and Conversational Structural choices in particular, a picture was provided of how this WCTRD was structured to encourage students to rehearse previously appropriated ideologies, rather than to critically or analytically interrogate these ideologies.

This study investigated a range of formal, conversational and functional aspects of fathers’ and mothers’ speech to children aged 2;6-3;8 in two dyadic contexts (book reading and puzzle play), and one triadic context (family mealtime). Speech situation influenced the type of speech produced, and parents’ speech changed in a similar direction across contexts. Nevertheless, there were some differences found between parents across tasks. There was little difference between parents in respect of formal characteristics of speech, but differences were evidenced at the pragmatic level.

This paper explores the issues of signals and reading comprehension. A study was made of the effect of logical connectives and paragraph headings on the reading comprehension of 577 Hong Kong Secondary 6 students learning English as a Second Language. A reading comprehension placement test with normal signals was used to create three ability groups. Four versions of a text were then produced. Version 1 was a non-signalled passage; versions 2, 3, and 4 were embedded with logical connectives, paragraph headings and these two signals in combination. All four versions had the same content and level of difficulty. All signals contributed to reading comprehension for the Low Ability Group except for logical connectives, which did not aid microstructure understanding. Implications for the teaching of reading to poor readers are discussed.

Many studies of telephone interaction have concentrated on the opening sequences of telephone calls using the model developed by Schegloff (1968, 1979, 1986) using North American data as a starting point. This study uses this model as a starting point to examine telephone openings in Samoa. A comparison between Samoan telephone calls shows many similarities with Schegloff’s model, but also shows that some features of the interaction are culturally variable. These variations are primarily variations in the frequency and distribution of activities within the opening section, rather than a difference in type. In particular, Samoan telephone openings are typified by a reduced use of greetings, different types of phatic moves and less reciprocity.

This paper presents the concept of ‘organisers’ in expository text, as a tool for discourse analysis and the teaching of writing skills. The notion of an ‘organiser’ is based on the work of Harold (1995) in which he suggests that there is a universal cognitive function of early position in the paragraph called ‘organisation’. For Harold, the ‘organiser’ serves to both group and divide text, and link to what has gone before. The present classification was developed to account for differences between expository essays, judged by readers on the basis of coherence. Characteristics of essay organisation could be clearly discriminated when ‘organisers’ were given clear operational definition, and a distinction was made between ‘unifying’ and ‘dividing organisers’. The classification includes lexical and grammatical units that are not traditionally considered to be discourse ‘signposts’. Extended to other genres of expository text, the usefulness of this approach can be demonstrated and validated. This method of analysis has pedagogical implications for the teaching of writing by offering another way to explain to students the practical means and strategies available to create an ‘organised’ expository text that is easy for a reader to comprehend.

Teaching and reference materials of Japanese frequently neglect the accentual features of words, and accentual distinctions have been claimed to carry a low functional load in the language. The aim of this article is to present evidence for the communicative importance of the pitch accent, and to provide a comprehensive pedagogically-oriented description of the accentual features of one important section of the vocabulary, Japanese verbs. Full accentual paradigms of verb forms are described, and common verbs are presented in heuristic groupings as an aid to learners in internalizing their accentual category membership.