Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores the nature of vocabulary and its implications for classroom instruction. After defining vocabulary and discussing some of the sources of English vocabulary, the digest examines how children's vocabularies develop. It then discusses the role of vocabulary…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest examines the current state of the plain English movement, which is an effort to persuade government agencies, businesses, and professional organizations to write in clear, understandable English. After enumerating the benefits that the use of plain English can generate…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest explores issues surrounding methods of teaching thinking skills and who should teach them. Following an introduction that acknowledges the need for teaching such skills but a lack of consensus on how to meet this need, the digest discusses theories of isolating specific…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest identifies for prospective purchasers various sources that offer reviews of educational computer software for English and the language arts. Following an introduction, the first section of the digest discusses content-specific as well as general educational computing…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest offers selection strategies for consumers of English/language arts computer software. Following the introduction, the digest discusses initial considerations when evaluating software, including examining both the accompanying documentation and the actual program. It…

Literature on classroom drama suggests that there is considerable untapped potential for using drama as a teaching method in the English classroom. Studies have shown that high school students using dramatic enactment experienced more instances of higher order thinking, more topic-specific emotions, decreased apprehension, and less…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest discusses the nature of narratology and how it relates to language arts instruction. The digest first defines narratology as the structuralist study of narrative aimed at understanding how recurrent elements, themes, and patterns yield a set of universals that determine…

Children from different backgrounds come to school speaking a wide variety of dialects. Questions concerning the use of dialects in schools have become increasingly complex and controversial in recent years. A central issue is the requirement of a standard dialect in school. Some find it discriminatory, others find it necessary to broaden student…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores issues related to teaching English to the gifted student. The digest begins by examining the criteria used for identifying gifted/talented students, noting that some successful programs for the gifted in English and language arts do not restrict admission…