This study considers how students’ perceptions of their teachers’ communicative style, particularly the extent to which teachers are perceived to support students’ autonomy and to provide useful feedback about students’ learning progress, are related to students’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivational orientations. It also examines the link between these variables and various language learning ou...

Starting with naturally occurring (proto) pointing gestures of two infants, I examine the role and nature of early gesture in language acquisition and socialization in the Tzotzil-speaking community of Zinacantán, in Chiapas, Mexico. Early “words” are, not surprisingly, only part of the story, since verbalizations are embedded in wider communicative routines which characteristically involve ges...

PURPOSE To verify whether the use of a shorter filmed sample influences the results of pragmatic assessment in children with language impairment. METHODS Data was obtained from videotaped samples and protocols for pragmatic analysis of 30 children between 3 and 6 years old. Each 15-minute sample (total moment) was analyzed and divided into three moments with five minutes each (initial, medial...

In this artide, I have considered the main FLT methods still in use at schools and presented the theory of language and leaming underiying them, their main features, activities and techniques, their foundation and decline, as well as a general assessment of ai! of them. The following methods have been analysed: the Grammar-Translation Method, the Structuralist Methods, and the Communicative App...

We found that infant gaze following and pointing predicts subsequent language development. At ages 0;10 or 0;11, infants saw an adult turn to look at an object in an experimental setting. Productive vocabulary was assessed longitudinally through two years of age. Growth curve modeling showed that infants who gaze followed and looked longer at the target object had significantly faster vocabular...

BACKGROUND The FOCUS© is a new outcome tool for use by both parents and clinicians that measures changes in the communicative participation skills of preschool children. Changes in communicative participation skills as measured by the FOCUS were compared across three groups of children: those with speech impairments only (SI), those with language impairments only (LI) and those with both speech...