Language ability can be a determining factor in deciding a defendant's legal guilt or innocence. This was the case for Chinese immigrant, LK, a licensed gun dealer who was criminally charged with selling weapons to ineligible buyers. In his defense, LK claimed that, as an English language learner, he did not possess the sufficient language skills required to adequately complete the complex administrative forms that accompany gun purchases. This study explores whether the defendant's English language abilities were sufficient to understand the government's requisite weapon sales report forms.Data collection comes from three sources: audio body bug (wiretap) tapes, written court transcripts, and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' sales transaction forms. Using these sources as a basis for analysis, this study examines key linguistic features of the defendant's speech to evaluate his English language proficiency. Additionally, the language used by the defendant will be compared with the language found in the weapons purchase application report.Drawing upon theories on communicative competence (Bachman, 1990; Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983; Savignon, 1997), LK's functional, linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic competencies will first be evaluated. The second phase of the analysis uses the insight gained from examining LK's competencies in order to determine his level of proficiency. The Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (1996, SPEAK®) test and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines (2000) will be used. The third stage of the analysis turns to readability studies in order to determine the level of difficulty in the ATF form. Chall et al.'s (1996) rubric and Flesch's readability formula (1946, 1949, 1972, 1979) serve as the foundation for the readability assessment. And last, additional areas for a forensic linguistic investigation into this case are considered. These include thematic (topical) tracking, sociolinguistic practices, and speech accommodation.This research serves those interested in second language issues as well as members of the judicial system. It builds on and supports other work in linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistcs, as well as the more specialized field of forensic linguistics.

Research shows that L2 learners' communicative problems are often pragmatic in nature. Pragmatic competence has been defined as the ability to recognize the force and the intended meaning of an utterance by making judgments about its appropriateness (Thomas 1983). Studies on interlanguage pragmatics have provided evidence that conversational strategies differ cross-linguistically and cross-culturally. Also, recent studies on the way native and nonnative speakers of English comprehend and understand conversational implicatures (Bouton 1988, 1989, 1990) have revealed that non-native speakers of English do not interpret implicatures the way native speakers do and that this is due to cultural differences.This study investigated the way native speakers of Arabic and (American) English interpret and comprehend implicatures. It was hypothesized that, as a part of their communicative competence, the Arab speakers' ability to interpret implicatures in English may be influenced by four variables: 1) overall proficiency level in English (measured by standardized ESL tests); 2) length of exposure to American culture; 3) level of motivation to learn English andattitudes toward Americans and American culture; and 4) strategic interference due to the differences in pragmatic functions between Arabic and English.136 subjects (61 Arabs and 75 Americans) participated in this study, which employed three empirical instruments: 1) an implicature questionnaire designed in the form of a multiple-choice test to test the native and nonnative subjects' comprehension of implicatures; 2) a motivation/attitudes questionnaire to measure the non-native subjects' motivational levels for learning English and their attitudes towards American culture and people; and 3) the Michigan Proficiency Test, a standardized test of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. In addition, a post-test interview was used to gather information from non-native speakers regarding the choices made on each implicature question.Statistical analyses of the results revealed significant differences between native and nonnative speakers in their comprehension and interpretation of implicatures. In a multiple-regression, length of stay was found to be a significant predictor of non-native speakers' comprehension of implicatures. / Department of English

The Swedish school, or more precisely, the school results of Swedish pupils, is a topic widely discussed in media, the newspapers and among teachers and parents. Everyone seems concerned about the knowledge requirements and there are many discussions about how to change the negative spiral. With the change of national study plans from the earlier Lpo94 to today´s Lgr11, many questions have arisen about how to plan and evaluate teaching. Against this background, the aim of this essay is to verify what influence the new national study plan has had on Spanish teaching, the study books in Spanish and evaluation in upper secondary school in the communities of Skövde and Mariestad. Our focus is delimited to the five competences of a language: listen, read, write, speak and communicate. In this essay we part from four hipotheses. In the first place, we believe that the national study plans, Lpo94 and Lgr11, are very similar, but that there is a greater focus on the competence of communication in Lgr11. In the second place, we believe that the tests in the teacher´s guides are more or less adapted to the five competences depending on if they were published before or after the change of national study plans. Our hipothesis is that the newer tests are more adapted to the competences than the older ones. In the third place, we believe that some teachers have adapted (more or less) to the new system and that others have not. In the fourth place, our hipothesis is that those teachers who have adapted to the new system, evaluate all the five competences, with greater frequency and also make their own material to a greater extent than others. The method used in this essay is a comparison between the national study plans and the Spanish teacher´s guides. We have also made surveys among the teachers in the communities of Mariestad and Skövde. The results of our study show that there is a high similarity between the national study plans, but that there is a greater focus on communication in Lgr11 when it comes to knowledge requirements. The tests in the teacher´s guides differ a lot, and not many of them have been republished since the system change. Interestingly, there is only one of the teacher´s guides with tests that correspond to all five competences, and it is a book published before Lgr11. Furthermore, the teachers in our study respond differently on how they believe that they have adapted to the new system. Half of them think that they ii have made no changes at all, but the results show, surprisingly, that all the teachers evaluate the five competences of a language and there is also a tendency to evaluate the pupils more often than before. It seems like the new national study plan has had an impact on all the teachers in our study.

This study investigates the perceptions different groups of hearing impaired adults have of the difficulties experienced in the acquisition and retention of satisfactory employment. A societal reactions perspective is adopted: departures from 'standard' communicative competence which violate expected norms of interaction are heavily sanctioned in our society. Those who 'deviate' in this respect tend to be negatively categorised in a fairly uniform manner. Thus the mildly impaired suffer similar imputations of deviance as those more severely impaired, variations being of degree rather than of kind, Despite this common categorisation, however, the hearing impaired adopt differing strategies to deal with stigma according to their skill in achieving 'standard' communicative 'competencies'. The semi-closed field of employment was chosen as illustrative of my arguments, as the hearing impaired must contend daily with a hearing environment. Participant observation activities were combined with in-depth interviewing of fifty respondents, covering a diverse range of clinical loss, age of onset and communication skills. My major speculation was confirmed. Respondents, as a group, felt under-involved, if not totally segregated from participation in economic goals by the stereotyping and stigma reactions their handicap was perceived to elicit from work colleagues and employers. Outcomes, however differed according to skill in communicative performance, although the work setting constrained options overall for successful strategy management. Other findings include the power of informal labellers to instigate deviant outcomes; the situational and sequential nature of deviance defining; the legitimation of limitations extrinsic to a respondent's handicap as intrinsic, and their rationalisation as 'insuperable obstacles'; and adherence by respondents to the work ethic. An appreciation of the commonalities of the deviantising process as applied to different groups of the hearing impaired is a pre-requisite for suggested anti-discriminatory legislation: to proscribe overt stigmatising behaviour, and ultimately eradicate stigma's 'small beginnings' at the level of individual interaction.

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the reading difficulties (problems) of Freshman EFL students attending the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University. The study attempted to integrate notions of strategic, linguistic, discourse and sociolinguistic competence into the construct of reading: a first approximation at integrating and applying a model of reading ability to a model of communicative language ability. To examine the reading difficulties and factors related to EFL reading, the researcher investigated the sub-competencies of reading comprehension in the following areas of Communicative Competence: linguistic, strategic, socio-linguistic and discourse competence. For this purpose, 6 reading quizzes were administered to 29 EFL readers and the results were analyzed by three different reading instructors to explore, from a Communicative Competence perspective, where the difficulties in L2 reading were experienced. The results showed that students&amp / #8217 / difficulties frequently originated from discourse competence, followed by sociolinguistic, strategic and linguistic competences, respectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1982. / Bibliography: leaves 228-239. / Microfiche. / xiv, 239 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-45). / v, 45 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Mémoire (M.Ed.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1998. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Oct. 22, 2009). Creative project (M.A.), 3 hrs. Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-80).