A delayed mimicry paradigm was used to assess speakers′ awareness of non-distinctive phonetic differences which in part distinguish languages. The notion of “phonological filtering” implies that second language learners may not be able to perceive phonetic differences between their native language and a foreign language unless the phonetic differences are linguistically relevant in the native language. If cross-language phonetic differences are in fact perceived poorly, it is unlikely that phonetic modification will occur in the course of naturalistic second language acquisition. In this study native English speakers familiar with Spanish-accented English attempted to read sentences with a Spanish accent. Acoustic measurements showed that two phonetic characteristics of English—the long VOT values associated with /p, t, k/ and final-syllable lengthening—were altered in the direction of Spanish and Spanish-accented English. These results provide tentative evidence that non-distinctive phonetic differences between languages are detectable by language learners and thus do not present an insuperable barrier to phonetic learning in second language acquisition.

The two studies reported here investigated the notion of politeness as perceived by native speakers of English and advanced learners of English. The questions which concerned us included: (1) Are native speakers of English really aware of the varying degree of politeness conveyed by a given English sentence?; (2) Is there a high correlation between native speakers of English and advanced learners of English in their politeness judgements?; (3) Do native speakers of English really use different politeness strategies in different situations?; (4) Is there a high correlation between native and nonnative speakers of English in the use of politeness strategies? From a theoretical point of view, Study I was concerned with Lakoff's (1973b) claim that politeness increases with decreasing imposition; Study II was concerned with the distance-politeness hypothesis which predicts that one will use polite strategies in situations where he perceives himself as psychological and/or socially distant from his addresee. From a pedagogical point of view, the comparison of the two studies here suggested that the learner's ability of judging politeness in the target language does not necessarily mean that he can use politeness strategies appropriately in actual communication situations.

This paper argues for an integration of the notion of communicative competence in the elaboration of syllabuses and the preparation of teaching materials for beginning and intermediate general foreign language courses. A distinction is made between such courses and the teaching of English as a medium of wider communication on an international basis. In FL instruction, as opposed to the teaching of a MWC, metalinguistic, epilinguistic, or cultural objectives may be more highly valued than the use of language for daily communication. In addition, the general context of FL instruction precludes the authentic use of the target language in the classroom, a prerequisite for the attainment of communicative competence. The integration of the notion of communive competence in FL instruction, including the inclusion of notions and functions, involves the grafting of these last mentioned considerations onto a structural-situational-functional base. That base would be modified by moving in five directions: (1) adopting a functional orientation, i.e., providing learners with linguistic means to express notions and functions rather than the teaching of structures for their own sake; (2) focus on semantic notions; (3) cyclical progression; (4) aiming for discursive authenticity by identifying rhetorical devices) providing stylistic manoeuver by the recognition of the role of variants.

During the course of each day, we meet many people and form quick judgments about not only their mood and general intelligence, but about their character and social background as well. Personal appearance, facial expression, body movement, and linguistic cues are but a few of the sources of data that we interpret. It has been a matter of much debate in the last fifty years as to whether these data are cross-culturally significant, or whether they have meaning only within a given cultural milieu. This study was an attempt to determine if linguistic cues of social status have such a cross-cultural significance.

This study explored the relationship between conceptual level a social cognitive variable and second language communicative competence. Conceptual level indexes both cognitive complexity and interpersonal maturity which have been related to first language communicative abilities. The research hypotheses stated that conceptual level was related to the development of communicative competence while foreign language aptitude was related to linguistic competence (mastery of the structural components of a second language).

Conceptual level was found to be related to both communicative and linguistic competence(r = .54, p < .001;r = .48, p < .001)as was foreign language aptitude(r = .40, p < .01; r = .41, p < .01). However, foreign language aptitude was not found to be related to linguistic competence when conceptual level was statistically controlled (r = .20, p < .135). Conceptual level, on the other hand, was found to be related to communicative competence when foreign language aptitude was statistically controlled (r = .42, p < .01). Thus, conceptual level appears to be an important individual variable in second language learning.

In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the way native speakers (NSs) of a language address nonnative speakers (NNSs). Indeed, research of NS-NNS conversation has become a point of convergence of a number of language research interests. Various claims have been made regarding the nature and significance of the characteristics of speech between NSs and NNSs, most important among these the notion that there exists an identifiable linguistic register which NSs consistently select for addressing less than fully proficient NNS participants.