From the Editors

This is a special issue of Language Learning & Technology on using corpora in language teaching and learning. The Guest Editors, Christopher Tribble and Michael Barlow, have written an Introduction to the issue. In addition to the fine collection of articles and reviews in this issue, we are delighted to announce the addition to the LLT site of a bibliography focused on language corpora. This site is maintained by LLT and your contributions to it are welcome. Although the journal is free and available to anyone with Internet access, subscriptions are important. The information obtained through subscriptions allows us to demonstrate to our funders the primary reason to continue supporting the journal, namely, our broad readership. If you have not already done so, please take a moment to subscribe to the journal. If you are already a subscriber, we appreciate your continued support and welcome your feedback. Finally, we are pleased to announce an upcoming special issue on Distance Learning , to be guest edited by Margo Glew of Michigan State University. With the current rate at which distance learning is being embraced around the world, we anticipate an exciting issue and look forward to your contributions. Mark Warschauer & Dorothy Chun Editors Pamela DaGrossa Managing Edito

The meanings of sex: University students in northeast Thailand

This ethnographic study examines the understanding ofthe concept of sex (pheet) among university students in Mahasarakham province in northeast Thailand. Specifically, it describes different categories of sex and related concepts, meanings associated with each, and how those are communicated through social action. Northeast Thailand has shifted away from an agricultural-based society to a cash-based agro-industrial one. This, combined with the influence of a Bangkok-centered national elite and international globalization, has resulted in an influx of new cultural knowledge and shifting meanings related to sex, some reinforcing each other, others in conflict. Many of these conceptual conflicts are located in tensions between tradition and modernity, local culture and Bangkok culture, and Thai-ness and foreign-ness. At these points oftension, meanings are reinterpreted and recreated. This study relies on a variety of research methods including participant-observation, interviews, and questionnaires, and thus is methodologically situated at a crossroads of qualitative and quantitative traditions. This mixed method approach facilitates a broad understanding ofthe concept of sex, including categories of sex, sex roles, and sex behavior