The purpose of the present study is to revisit the semantics and usage of verb-derived nominals to which the derivational morpheme -tion is suffixed (e. g. produc-tion; referred to as “TN,” henceforth) and to propose an alternative descriptive model that contains the information to be explicitly provided in educational settings.

  This paper is organized as follows: the section following the introduction concerns how the suffix -tion and TNs are described in the dictionary and reference books on grammar and usage, and it is argued that much of the necessary information is presented, but not in such a way as to be fully explicit to language learners. In section 3, I discuss whether the descriptions concerned reflect the realistic functions and applications of the language well, drawing on the examples culled from the BNC and others constructed for analysis. It is then suggested that the descriptions of the relationship between the semantics and usage of TNs is far from satisfactory for language learners to properly understand and use this nominal category. Finally, I propose a new, though tentative, description that can be explicitly presented in any language learning circumstance, in order to bridge the gap between what is described and what actually happens in language.

  The core discourse function of the phrase “above all” is to choose the most important or appropriate things or persons from a certain set of things or persons and mention them. Out of this core function arise four discourse functions: the functions of mentioning the most important element, of stating the most important proposition to enforce the preceding statement, of expressing a logically contrasting view with the most important or appropriate things as a central topic, and of summarizing what has been stated on a theme.

  This study examines the peer review activity among high-level Japanese university students (an average TOEIC score of 675) in their EFL (English as a foreign language) writing class and explores the effects this activity can have on students' cognitive processes in EFL writing. Based on Schmidt's concepts, “noticing” and “understanding,” and Muranoi's concept, “intake,” which are key concepts for discussing the cognitive processes in learning a second / foreign language, this study analyzes the students' draft and revised essays, Peer-Editing Sheets (used when they wrote their comments about other students' essays and their responses to their peers' comments), and interviews. As a result, peer review can be considered to be effective for facilitating their EFL writing, because (1) it promotes “noticing” because people point out problems in their writing; (2) it deepens their “understanding” about how to solve their writing problems specifically; and (3) it motivates them to improve their essays so that others can understand them more clearly.