Over the past decade criterion-referenced testing (CRT) has become an emerging issue in language assessment. Most language testing books have hitherto focused almost exclusively on norm-referenced testing, whereby test takers' scores are interpreted with reference to the performance of other test takers, and have ignored CRT, an approach that examines the level of knowledge of a specific domain of target behaviours. It is designed to comprehensively address the wide variety of CRT and decision-making needs that more and more language-teaching professionals must address in their daily work....

The influence of cognitive processing on second language acquisition (SLA), and on the development of second language (SL) instruction, has always been a subject of major interest to both SLA researchers and those involved in SL pedagogy. Recent theoretical research into SLA and SL pedagogy has shown renewed interest in the role of cognitive variables such as attention, short, working, and long term memory, and automaticity of language processing. This volume first examines the theoretical foundations of research into the cognitive processes underlying SLA, and then describes various...

Pragmatics in Language Teaching examines the acquisition of language use in social contexts in second and foreign language classrooms. Included are 2 state-of-the-art survey chapters, and 11 chapters reporting the results of empirical research. The empirical studies cover three areas: incidental acquisition of pragmatics in instructed contexts, the effects of instruction in pragmatics, and the assessment of pragmatics ability. The studies address a number of areas in pragmatics, from speech acts and discourse markers to conversational routines and address terms, and represent a range of...

An important new collection of original papers dealing with essential issues and research in the learning of language by deaf people. The book addresses issues in the fields of second language acquisition and deafness, and draws upon the fields of linguistics, psychology, and education. Of particular importance is the relationship between the learning of English by the deaf and by hearing speakers of other languages. The first five chapters concern theoretical issues on language varieties among the deaf population, American sign language and the biology of language, sign language instruction,...

In recent years the concept of 'register' has been increasingly replaced by emphasis on the analysis of genre, which relates work in sociolinguistics, text linguistics and discourse analysis to the study of specialist areas of language. This book is a clear, authoritative guide to this complex area. He provides a survey of approaches to varieties of language, and considers these in relation to communication and task-based language learning. Swales outlines an approach to the analysis of genre, and then proceeds to consider examples of different genres and how they can be made accessible...

This important new book provides a critical overview of recent classroom-centered research and its implications for the teaching and learning of languages. Chaudron synthesizes and evaluates crucial research about the way student and teacher behaviours affect language learning and discusses research methods. Second Language Classrooms will be of vital interest to researchers, language teachers, and curriculum specialists, as well as readers with a general interest in education, linguistics, sociology, or psychology.

O'Malley and Chamot review the literature on learning strategies, describe and classify learning strategies in second language learning, and discuss why learning is affected in a positive manner when such strategies are used. The authors present instructional models for learning-strategy training that teachers can apply to their own classes. The material is based on current research in second language acquisition and cognitive theory.

Traditionally, the curriculum has been regarded as a statement of what should be done in a course of study. The Learner-Centred Curriculum takes as its starting point what is done by language teachers in their classes. Nunan develops a concept of the negotiated model in which the curriculum is a collaboration between teachers and students. The author looks at the curriculum from a teacher's perspective and reports on what instructors focus on in planning, implementing, and evaluating language courses. He synthesizes theoretical models and recent empirical studies, and considers the vital part...

Issues of language curriculum development underlie all stages in the planning and implementation of language teaching programmes. This authoritative collection of papers argues for these isses to be made explicit. The stages which the book deals with are: curriculum planning, specification of ends and means, programme implementation, and classroom implementation. Evaluation is also of crucial relevance at each stage. The 'curriculum' is taken to mean all the factors which contribute to the teaching and learning situation, and the emphasis of the book is on the interdependence of these...

The author shows how similarities and differences between languages can influence grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation acquisition. Terence Odlin reconsiders a question that many language teachers and educational researchers have addressed: How much influence can a learner's native language have in making the acquisition of a new language easy or difficult? Odlin analyzes and interprets research showing many ways in which similarities and differences between languages can influence the acquisition of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. In addition, he provides a detailed look at work on...