Susan Gass

Joyce Neu

This book investigates the notion of Speech Act from a cross-cultural perspective. The starting point for this book is the assumption that speech acts are realized from culture to culture in different ways and that these differences may result in communication difficulties that range from the humorous to the serious. Importantly, a recurring theme in this volume has to do with the need to verify the form, the function and the constraining variables of speech acts as a prerequisite for dealing with them in the classroom. The book deals with three major areas of Speech Act research: 1) Methodological Issues, 2) Speech Acts in a second language, and 3) Applications. In the first section authors discuss general issues of methodology and present data in an effort to detail the efficacy of different methodologies. Research clearly shows the effect of methodology on the results. This section is followed by a discussion of specific speech acts, including speech acts and strategy use that have as their goal the creation and maintenace of solidarity (i.e. greetings, compliments, apologies) and speech acts that involve face-threatening acts (i.e.complaints, favor-asking, suggestions). In the final section, authors consider applications of speech act research within the context of advertising and business relationships.

Challenges to Communication in a Second Language

Speech Acts Across Cultures

The purpose of this workbook is to provide students with practice in analyzing second language data. For the student of second language learning, "hands-on" experience with actual data is essential in understanding the processes involved in learning a second language. Working through exemplars of the kinds of interlanguages that learners do and do not create brings about a clearer understanding of the principles underlying these interlanguages, as well as the universal principles of language learning (those that are independent of particular languages and interlanguages). The goal in this workbook is to present data organized in such a way that by working through pedagogically presented data-sets, students are led to a discovery and understanding of theoretical and/or methodological issues. In addition, they acquire the ability to interpret data and to begin to draw conclusions from them. The authors intend that students should go from the data to a conclusion that includes a 3-part statement: *what else you should want to know about these data; *why this, specifically, and not something else; and *how one can empirically research what you want to find out. This sequence of questions forces students to constantly keep in mind the important question of falsification: What kind of data would it take to falsify the particular conclusions the students come to? As with the earlier edition of this workbook (Sorace, Gass, & Selinker), two audiocassettes provide language samples for use in the exercises. These cassettes and the teacher's manual are offered free of charge on adoption of the workbook for classroom use; a three-part set (workbook/manual/tapes) is also available.

Second Edition

Second Language Learning Data Analysis

Susan M. Gass

Jacquelyn Schachter

Michael H. Long

Series editors' preface Introduction Susan M. Gass and Jacquelyn Schachter Part I. Theories of Acquisition: 1. Second language acquisition theory: the case for a generative perspective Kevin R. Gregg 2. What is the logical problem of foreign language learning? Robert Bley-Vroman Part II. Syntax: 3. Testing a proposed universal Jacquelyn Schachter 4. The role of the head-initial/head-final parameter in the acquisition of English relative clauses by adult Spanish and Japanese speakers Suzanne Flynn 5. On some properties of the 'pro-drop' parameter: looking for missing subjects in non-native Spanish Juana M. Liceras 6. The adjacency condition on case assignment: do L2 learners observe the Subset Principle? Lydia White Part III. Semantics/Pragmatics: 7. Interlanguage and pragmatic word order William Ruthford 8. How do learners resolve linguistic conflicts? Susan M. Gass Part IV. Lexicon: 9. Canonical typoligical structures and ergativity in English L2 acquisition Helmut Zobl 10. Semantic theory and L2 lexical development Wesley Hudson Part V. Phonology: 11. A constructivist perspective on non-native phonology Josh Ard 12. Stress assignment in interlanguage phonology: an analysis of the stress system of Spanish speakers learning English Jane Lowenstein Mairs Index.

Susan Gass

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