Summarizes recent theory on communicative processes in language use, on the creation and exchange of meaning, and on the negotiation of roles in the classroom. Suggests exercises for activating and developing interactive skills between speakers and hearers in the foreign language. (EKN)

Discusses the use of stereotyped speech patterns as teaching material or as the basis of communicative exercises. Gives examples of the use of these gambits in drills and exercises in German. (EKN)

Shows, by discussing presupposition and speech acts, that the interplay between background information and linguistic surface is highly subtle and complex. These ideas are not always obvious to teachers, let alone English as a Foreign Language students. An examination of background information and speaker's intentions will facilitate an…

Speech act theory jargon has several advantages over the traditional composition jargon. First, it is new and therefore potentially exciting. Its newness means that all students have an equal chance at it and need not feel that because they failed to understand a term presented in high school, that notion is forever lost to them. Second, jargon is…

Describes ERIC resources that present research on children's language usage and development and that suggest activities for the promotion of language development. (ET)

Describes classroom language as used in teaching an FL, recognizing it as belonging to an artificial rather than a real-life situation; this fact must be kept in mind and "the game played" in the classroom. Examples are given. (IFS/WGA)

Argues that television advertising is now the most powerful language in existence. Provides a "TV advertising test" to prove the point and outlines a unit designed to make students aware of the language of television commercials while improving their writing and thinking skills. (FL)

"Gambits" are conversational tools for introducing what we're about to say, such as "Excuse me for interrupting, but..." A three-part textbook series for students of English as a Second Language entitled "Gambits" contains exercises for advanced students which attempt to recreate "real-life" language…

The reading program described in this lesson plan extends the study of Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech to demonstrate the ways Native Americans also resisted oppression through rhetoric. During five 50-minute lessons, students will: develop an awareness of both Native and non-Native movements to resist…

A classroom-oriented therapeutic program was devised for four pragmatically impaired preschoolers who showed little spontaneous language use within the classroom. Intervention strategies focused on facilitating interactions during free play and were based on four principles for practitioners: be child-oriented; engineer the environment; use…

To investigate the speech of black college students for nonfluencies--linguistic elements breaking the flow of words or ideas--and to ascertain if students' attendance of a largely black or largely white university influenced their use of nonfluencies, 21 black students at a predominantly black university and 25 black students at a predominantly…

This book focuses on how to teach, analyze, and assess arguments. The book merges current thinking on argumentation from the fields of composition, rhetoric, speech, logic, and critical thinking. Noting that teaching students how to argue is largely the responsibility of writing and speech teachers, this book builds the case for teachers' learning…

Intended for use by both elementary and secondary school teachers, the two papers in this report stress the importance of developing students' oral and written communication skills. The first paper, "Relationship of Oral Communication to Reading," by Phil Backlund and John Johnson, argues that ability in oral communication is a prerequisite to the…

The goal of instruction in mainstream dialect (MD) acquisition should be to expand students' oral communication skills to include skills needed for academic and economic success, thereby making alternate dialect speakers bidialectic. This implies recognizing students' home dialect as a valid linguistic system and a part of their identity. Although…

Based on the realization that professors' cultural and personal backgrounds affect the way they transmit information and the way they interact with men and women students in their classes, this booklet is designed to help faculty members assess how they are presenting subject matter to their students. The first section of the booklet,…