In learning the phonetics of a foreign language an adult student takes in new sounds still sustaining the definitive influence of the phonological categorization of his or her mother tongue. In Russia phonetic correction mainly makes use of such methods as visual display as well as tactile and motive drills aimed at developing articulation. By making pronunciation subordinate to myoneural control that procedure virtually disregards the prosodic component of the speech. Teaching foreign language prosody as presented in this article is based on the fact that a student cannot only hear but also see the appropriate audio signal. The use of the visual channel enhances work on the prosody of a language to be studied both at the stage of its perception and at the stage of production.

Drawing on learner verbal report, this paper describes ways in which verbal report data reflecting the use of mental and written translation strategies have provided insights into language learning and language use. The paper characterizes the use of mental translation strategies, considers the choice between mental and written translation, and then deals with translation strategies in the different modalities.

In the field of French language education, the developments of corpus linguistics have spurred a reassessment of the importance of pedagogical norms and linguistic variation in teaching curricula. In this article, we focus on the phonetic-phonological dimension of the teaching/learning process and, after a short glance at pronunciation models in French, we examine the impact of sociolinguistic descriptions of varieties of French on pronunciation education. Referring to the notions of 'errors' and 'accents' among non-native speakers, we point out the need for broad and systematic corpus-based studies, comparable with native databases. Finally, we introduce the InterPhonologie du français contemporain project and look at the notion of non-native norms, both from theoretical and applied perspectives.

In French L1 syllabuses, the term connecteur is defined according to semantic criteria and covering invariable words, and even syntagms commuting with adverbial phrases. They are given in lists and thus cannot be really used to interpret L1 texts.L2 learners are not made aware of the functioning of these heterogeneous L2 units, which makes their task even more arduous. The L1 filter compounded by limited awareness of the functioning of L1 thus leads to one-to-one relations that hinder L2 skills especially when items learnt by rote are artificially inserted instead of being used to connect ideas. A unified and contrastive grammatical terminology would allow an efficient metalinguistic awareness.

The aim of this paper is to offer new elements to the discussion on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in foreign language learning. In particular, we want to know how chats, forums and face-to-face work can contribute to the achievement of a written macro-task in FFL (French as a Foreign Language). We base our analysis on a computer-mediated learning system, based on both face-to-face and distance sessions via forums and chatting between French-learning Cypriot students and FFL teachers-to-be. Two types of data are considered: synchronous and asynchronous interaction data and questionnaires which were administered to the participants at the end of the project.

Italian grammars written for French speakers do not pay much attention to però and touch very briefly upon its difference with respect to ma. The present study is based upon a detailed analysis of French translation equivalents of però in Veronesi's novel Caos calmo (2005) and draws upon Italian oral data from the LIP corpus (1993). Results of this study show how the grammars considered fail to offer clear indications concerning the freedom of position inside the sentence and the stronger value of però. Furthermore, the introduction of the diachronic dimension shows the gradual development of contrast relations out of temporal and causal lexical sources along paths already established for the processes of grammaticalization and highlights the present-day distribution in both languages.

Is there a correlation between the grammatical developmental level and the lexical developmental level in the written production of learners of French as a foreign language ? We have applied a number of quantitative lexical and grammatical measures to 40 texts in French written by two groups of Swedish adults with different proficiency levels. All analyses were carried out using different software (among them a system wear developed by ourselves) in an attempt to demonstrate the possibilities of current automatic analyses. The results show that, even if several measures discriminate between the two independently established groups, there is no simple correlation of correlation between them. The measure of lexical sophistication was the only one showing a significant correlation with the grammatical measure used.

The main goal of this study is to show through the comparative study of the adjuncts décidément and decididamente (and some others) in French and Spanish respectively that a) morphological similarity between two languages is far from being a reliable criterion for translation, as exemplified in: Décidément, quel désastre ! / ¡Desde luego! *¡Decididamente!, ¡Qué desastre! ('It's definitely a disaster!'); b) using elementatry linguistic properties leads to better results. In addition to French décidément, which is the core of the debate, some others cases will also be considered like définitivement, naturellement, incontestablement, indubitablement vs desde luego, decididamente, naturalmente and sin duda. To avoid making arbitrary choices, a good translation of connectives and discursive markers must establish and apply very strict operating rules, as regards syntax and semantics of course, but also contextual and cotextual characteristics.

The present article reflects an ongoing research project on the grammar and pragmatics of interrogative constructions in French. The perspective is that of second language acquisition with advanced learners. The aim of the article is to show that the use of a particular interrogative construction in French, which in the language of native speakers is governed by restrictions at different levels, is, in the case of learners, characterized by an imperfect knowledge of these restrictions and by the necessity to rely on specific production strategies.

While the study of vocabulary knowledge has been for a long time the domain of psychologists and psycholinguists, the eighties have seen a growing interest for word knowledge and word learning.. In this paper, I review shortly some results from psycholinguistic research on the mental lexicon that are relevant for applied linguistics. I further discuss a series of publications concerning factors that influence success in word learning. Finally, I report on a recent study done at the University of Amsterdam on the relative role of sound, image and context in word learning.

Numerous initiatives are currently underway in Australia to try to prevent the dramatic loss of traditional Aboriginal languages. Teaching these languages at school is one of them. However, this process of language revival raises issues that go beyond the pedagogical framework: Is there still enough data available to save all the languages? Are there enough trained staff to provide quality teaching? Following a general presentation of these issues, I account of my own endeavour to produce a teacher's guide of Bardi, an Aboriginal language of Western Australia. Although no one doubts the benefits of saving endangered languages, the issues that crop up once "in the field" are not the only ones that might have been expected.

Interest in Conversation Analysis (CA) and its possible applications in the fields of language learning and language teaching has grown considerably over the last five years. The article therefore attempts to synthesise the current state of the research and identify the issues and problems that have arisen and those areas which are suitable for further research. This article focuses on language classroom interaction and on teaching languages for specific purposes. It also discusses the relationship between CA and Applied Linguistics and examines the complex issue of what CA can contribute to the study of 'learning'. The issues are illustrated by an example of a CA analysis of language learning processes. The article concludes by considering possible future directions for research.