Comprehension is a primary ingredient of reading success--but most educators aren't taught how to deliver structured comprehension instruction in their classrooms. K-8 teachers will find the guidance they need in this groundbreaking professional resource from Nancy Hennessy, former IDA President and an expert on reading comprehension. Meticulously…

All students can benefit from a deeper understanding of how our language works. "Playing With Language" shows elementary school educators (K-6) how to think about, talk about, and manipulate language out of context. This cognitive skill set, known as metalinguistic awareness, is an important component of reading ability. This practical…

When it comes to teaching vocabulary in foreign language classes words are often taught in isolation, without regard to the context in which they appear. The paper draws attention to the importance of teaching words in context so that the meaning of a word often results from the meaning of a larger construction it is part of. After presenting the…

For two decades, "Speech to Print" has been a bestselling, widely adopted textbook on explicit, high-quality literacy instruction. Now the anticipated third edition is here, fully updated with ten years of new research, a complete package of supporting materials, and expanded guidance on the "how" of assessment and instruction…

This practical guide shows teachers how to introduce academic language to young children, with an emphasis on appreciating and leveraging linguistic diversity. New educational standards are asking students to master content-area concepts and increasingly complex texts in earlier grades. This practitioner-friendly text provides instructional…

Children entering kindergarten and grade 1 vary greatly in their emergent literacy skills. Because preschool teachers can help set the foundation of literacy skills related to school readiness, one way to address those gaps is to build teachers' capacity to apply evidence-based strategies in their language and literacy instruction.…

Discusses the didactic implications of the object + infinitive pattern for English as a foreign language. The pattern is divided into several subgroups, the object taking different types of infinitives. The significance of the first and second objects, of objects as antecedents, and of the second object being a clause is detailed. (PJM)

For spot-dictation purposes, song lyrics can be duplicated with blanks for the words or structures that are desirable to emphasize. Lyrics quite often have repetitious structures and vocabulary, and lend themselves to reinforcing new forms or concepts. This procedure can encourage general listening comprehension while highlighting one particular…

Presents a novel approach, relying on linguistic principles of semantics, to teach grammatical usage in Spanish as a second language. (AM)

Suggests a simple, adaptable pattern for teaching the grammar of films and television, i.e., its agreed conventions of vocabulary and syntax. A variety of feature-length films and extracts are listed to illustrate the concepts being taught as well as film distributors and addresses. (MBR)

Teachers should know language structure when dealing with the diagnosis of pupils' language difficulties. Simple solutions, such as proofreading his/her work, underlining, and transcribing paragraph dictation may be suggested for students once the teacher grasps the sound/symbol/syllable structure of English. (CL)

The modal "should" can be taught by first delineating its meaning of "good advice," then proceeding to its meaning as expressing the speaker's sense of duty, propriety, and expediency, and finally dealing with its meaning of "reasonable expectation." The elements of "must" implicit in "should"…

The writing of ESL students, while sophisticated in some respects, often contains fragments and run-ons. Because these students have no reliable, self-monitoring system for analyzing their writing and because they believe they are communicating effectively, they fail to recognize their difficulties in forming complete sentences. This paper…

Discusses the need for both a "rule of thumb" grammar and more thorough grammatical rules in second language teaching. (AM)

Problems encountered in attempting to teach the Spanish verb system can be traced to misconceptions arising from the inadequate or misleading names of many of the tenses. The nature of descriptive terminology is the level at which the problem of nomenclature is treated in this study. (SL)