Typically, most native speakers of Japanese, who have been taught English in Japan, have had limited exposure to prosodic features of English. Consequently, their ability to understand the meaning of different intonation patterns is limited as well. Though it is generally accepted that intonation plays a crucial role in English communication, comprehensive pedagogical materials for teaching English intonation to native speakers of Japanese are not widely available or used in Japan. This is, in part, due to the complexity of English prosodic features and their abstractness. A better understanding of these barriers requires that the extent and the nature of native speakers of Japanese' understanding of English intonation be explored. The scope of this study is restricted to the examination of the following questions: (1) How well, compared with native speakers of English, can Japanese adult learners comprehend intonation patterns of English? (2) Are there any patterns in their misinterpretations of test sentences, according to three types of errors: paraphrase, categorization, or attitudinal judgments? (3) Can Japanese learners who comprehend one variation of intonation also interpret correctly the same sentence with the contrastive variation of intonation? Seventy-four native speakers of Japanese and thirty-one native speakers of English (control group) listened to twenty pairs of sentences presented with contrastive intonation. For each sentence they were asked to choose one of three different interpretations. Their responses were evaluated, at a 0.05 level of significance, using statistical tests of hypothesis (t and chi-square), and measures of correlation (r, phi and Cramers' s V). Major findings of this study are (1) the Japanese students had more difficulty with comprehending English intonation than the American students; (2) the Japanese students seemed to lack know ledge of grammar-intonation relationships; (3) they were able to understand attitudinal judgment intonation as well as native speakers.

The objective of this project is to investigate the items and factors that may be prematurely stabilized in advanced adult second-language learners' interlanguage, in order to propose effective instructional interventions.

The technique of asking questions in the classroom has prevailed in first language classes for many years. This teaching technique has also been widely used in ESL reading classes. Though there has been extensive research about teachers' questions and students' responses in first language classrooms, there is a paucity of studies in second language classrooms. This is a descriptive study of six experienced college level English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and their discussions of the same reading selection with ninety-eight non-native speakers in each of their classes. Teacher-led discussions were audiotaped and twenty minutes of each class were transcribed and analyzed. Teachers' questions were coded according to Long and Sato's (1983) seven-category taxonomy of functions of teachers' questions. Students' responses were analyzed according to their mean length, syntactic complexity, and the use of connectives.

English articles are perhaps the most difficult grammatical items for Japanese students to master. However, because these are among the most frequently occurring grammatical items in English, Japanese students must concern themselves with them.

Phrasal verbs are a pervasive and distinctly Germanic part of the spoken English language that has been alive for centuries. They have preceded American history, and yet considered to be "the most active and creative pattern and word formation in the American language" (Meyer, 1975). Distinctly colloquial, idiomatic and varying in shades of literalness and figurativity, phrasal verbs are largely dominant in casual usage, such as conversation, while the Latinate verbs of English are dominant in formal usage, such as in making reports (McArthur 1989). While foreign educators and their students, such as from Chinese countries, are found to emphasize English study for formal and academic purposes, the acquisition of phrasal verbs may not be considered instrumental to the purposes of the students coming to the United States in pursuit of academic degrees. Because of the pervasiveness of phrasal verbs in spoken English language, and because of the largely conversational nature of American lectures, this study is intended to answer the following research questions: 1. In university classrooms, are the phrasal verbs spoken by native English speaking lecturers? 2. Are figurative phrasal verbs in academic lectures significantly greater in frequency than non-figuratively classified phrasal verbs in the academic lectures? 3. Do certain academic subjects tend to generate a significant increase in the number of phrasal verbs spoken by instructors, of either figurative phrasal verbs, or the more literal non-figuratively classified phrasal verbs?

This study was based on a study by Joy Reid (1987) on the perceptual learning style preferences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptual learning style preferences of three groups of students: Japanese students studying in the US, Japanese students studying in Japan, and American students studying in the US. The perceptual styles studied were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, with the additional styles of group and individual learning also being studied. The learning style preferences were identified so as to determine the relationship between style and the variables of native language, length of stay in the US, and major field of study.

Japanese ESL students are often evaluated negatively by their teachers because of their quiet verbal behavior in the classroom; yet, this study suggests that such silence may be situation specific. The purpose of this study is to describe characteristics of eight Japanese ESL students' production and interaction by comparing with those of four non-Japanese students, across three settings: teacher-fronted, group work, and NS-NNS conversation.

This study looks at English as a Second Language (ESL) students• use of vocabulary learning strategies and whether use of specific strategies is related to success in vocabulary recall and comprehension tests. The primary part of the study focuses on the hypothesis that phonological practice with new words will aid long-term recall and comprehension of these words. An empirical experiment with an experimental and control group was designed to test this hypothesis. The secondary section of the study discusses how often subjects reported using the vocabulary learning strategies categorized by Rebecca Oxford in Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. In addition, it researches possible correlations between use of these strategies, and scores on subsequent vocabulary recall and comprehension tests. Finally, this study describes how a representative group of students actually apply specific strategies to their vocabulary learning.

Within the population of adult English-language learners in the United States, the largest portion is comprised of Spanish speakers from Mexico and Central and South America. At the same time, Spanish is the second-most commonly spoken language in the U.S., and an increasing presence in U.S. media and culture. This puts English learners from this demographic in a unique position with respect to language and culture acquisition and the experience of working towards their goals within U.S. society at large. The purpose of this study is to explore motivations and beliefs about language and culture held by a small number English-language learners belonging to this huge, diverse community. Drawing on theory from the fields of second language acquisition and sociolinguistics, a survey eliciting opinions about cultural affiliation and language standards was created and versions in either English or Spanish were distributed to volunteers from this population living in Oregon. Fifty-two surveys were returned. The responses to the surveys were then compared with one another to examine any connections between participant beliefs about language value, cultural affiliation, and learning strategy preferences. Statistical comparisons were also carried out to determine whether certain orientations correlated with one another. Analysis of the survey responses showed that while affiliation to United States culture was variable, all participants maintained at least a moderate feeling of affiliation to their home countries, despite twenty-seven, or just over half, of them having lived in the U.S. for over ten years. However, all but one of the participants were also interested in learning about U.S. culture and thirty-nine believed in the possibility of being part of more than one culture at a time. Participants were more likely to prefer collaborative strategies for learning about culture, but for learning language they preferred individual strategies, and had a general low estimation of the utility of non-standard forms of language, including non-standard English and Spanglish. A moderate negative correlation (Spearman p=.521) that was statistically significant (p=.001) was found between the degree to which participants had a multicultural affiliation and their beliefs about the importance of knowing non-standard forms of English. While the participating sample is too small and opportunistic for the findings to be generalizable, from the results of the surveys it can be concluded that: multicultural affiliation is something that can be (and is) experienced to varying degrees by some language learners in this population sample; individual learning strategies seem preferred for learning language; and non-standard English is not considered as valuable as standard English. Additionally, a negative correlation between multicultural affiliation and the perceived importance of knowing non-standard English is suggested. These findings may have implications for language instructors and others who wish to investigate the motivations, priorities, and language beliefs of adult English students from this particular demographic.

There is increasing interest on the part of ESL educators in the inclusion of contemporary, global issues in their classrooms. Theory about content-based ESL, as well as trends in education, generally, lend support to such enthusiasm. However, ESL educators may be erroneously assuming that their interest in this material is shared by their students. Global issues can also be controversial. Their inclusion in the classroom has the potential to create an uncomfortable, and therefore ineffective, learning atmosphere in a multicultural ESL setting. This qualitative case study examined the use of global issues as the content material in a university-based ESL advanced listening/ speaking class, from the perspective of ten students. A variety of data-gathering methods were employed: direct observation of whole-class sessions; observation and audio-recordings of small-group discussions; tape-recorded journals created by the subjects; audio-recordings of two interviews conducted with each subject. The study focused on three areas: awareness of/interest in global issues developed by the subjects while in their home countries; background experiences and interest in critical analysis developed by the subjects prior to the study; possible changes experienced by the subjects, both in comfort and interest in using global issues in the ESL classroom, during the study. The results indicate that the majority of the subjects entered the classroom with some exposure to several specific global issues. Most had little experience in analyzing the issues using the type of critical analysis common to American academic settings. Initially, most felt hesitant about publicly expressing opinions regarding controversial issues; this reluctance was alleviated by the end of the term. Interest in the material also increased for most subjects during the term. The primary difficulties were found to be related less to global issues and more to the activities performed while working with the subject matter. The study concludes that global issues may be better- suited to classroom activities requiring less public expression of individual ideas and opinions. It also recommends training for ESL educators in intercultural conflict resolution, to enable them to facilitate effective classroom discussion of controversial issues.