Describes a study designed to determine the differential effects of text with and without logical linguistics connectives (e.g., because, since, as a result) on developmental college readers' comprehension. Results strongly suggest that text with explicit connectives facilitates readers' ability to make inferences. Discusses implications for…

The paper presents and demonstrates a heuristic for helping students learn how to read and understand figuration in literature. The heuristic contains elements from linguistics, New Criticism, and rhetorical analysis in a recursive process which enables students to see how features of words combine into figurative patterns. Beginning at the level…

Linguistics, as one of the cognitive sciences, has much to offer the teaching of basic science, i.e., the teaching of how to ask and investigate interesting questions. Linguistics is particularly well-suited for teaching about the process of "doing" science because the methodology appropriate to the study of language from a generative…

Limitations to the goals educators set for their students originate primarily from two sources: (1) students' individual abilities and attitudes, and (2) cultural influences that contradict or countermand instruction rather than reinforce it. These contradicting cultural influences are particularly evident in reference to the skills and knowledge…

A theoretical framework is presented for understanding difficulties in foreign language learning, based upon a linguistic coding model that hypothesizes deficits in phonological, syntactic, and semantic information processing. Incidence of linguistic coding problems in 22 college-enrolled or college-bound students who petitioned to have the…

Linguistics gives the student of literature an analytical tool whose sole purpose is to describe faithfully the workings of language. It provides a theoretical framework, an analytical method, and a vocabulary for communicating its insights--all designed to serve concerns other than literary interpretation and evaluation, but all useful for…

Guidelines are offered for serving learning-disabled (LD) students in college writing labs. LD student characteristics identified by clinical observation and data-based research are reported for spelling, cohesion/coherence, and syntactic complexity/maturity. LD writers are distinguished from basic writers. Current practice in writing centers is…

Intended as a text to help teachers introduce college freshmen and sophomores to language through writing or to writing through introduction to language, this book emphasizes the relationship of linguistics to composition, literature, and the human condition. The nine chapters discuss the following topics: (1) three approaches to language, (2)…

This book addresses the growing need to familiarize classroom teachers with the structure and use of language. Written with future teachers in mind, it addresses the core areas they will find most relevant, introducing them to various types of linguistic analysis while covering the basics of phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. Seven…

An instructional manual for reference use in college and university teaching is presented, based on a 2-year study of the specific difficulties that students have in receptive communication (listening and reading) in introductory courses. Although the investigation focused primarily on the disciplines of psychology, physics, and philosophy, many…

Three dictionaries are compared for their usefulness to teachers of English as a foreign language, teachers in training, students, and other users of English as a foreign language. The issue of monolingual versus bilingual dictionary format is discussed, and a previous analysis of the two bilingual dictionaries is summarized. Pronunciation…

This study investigated sensitivity to morphological, semantic, and syntactic cues to grammatical gender among 64 students of college-level Italian. Results showed sensitivity to cues in word-final phonemes, but low awareness of gender associations of derivational suffixes. Students had more difficulty dealing with multiple cues, particularly when…

This report examines the importance of an individual's linguistic capability and its impact on academic achievement. Main areas of examination include an historical perspective on linguistics, descriptions of formal linguistics and psycholinguistics and their role in understanding academic achievement, and the educational implications of…

The methodology reported in this paper argues for a synthesis of various theories and methods. First, a synopsis is given of the pedagogical and linguistic approaches that should underlie a successful attempt to teach the contrast in two verb tenses in Portuguese. Secondly, a contrast unique to Portuguese is examined and a multistage approach for…

Seven research-based papers on writing disorders of learning-disabled college students are listed and reviewed. The papers deal with persistent auditory language deficits in adults with learning disabilities; error patterns and instructional alternatives relating to college learning-disabled writers; syntactic complexity in written expression;…