The article looks at syntactic deficiencies involving simple clause structures and grammatical morphology in young children. A framework for understanding the development of simple clause structures is presented followed by a discussion of the correlates of early syntactic development. Procedures to assess and remediate syntactic deficiencies are…

Discusses a general strategy for helping students acquire vocabulary, specifically how to master the vocabulary problem of "ser" and "estar." This is done by showing students, in interesting and recognizable ways, that English is sensitive to many of the same semantic differences of "ser" and "estar." (SED)

Dramatic advances in personal computer technology have given language teachers access to vast quantities of machine-readable text, which can be analyzed with a view toward improving the basis of language instruction. Corpus linguistics provides analytic techniques and practical tools for studying language in use. This volume includes both an…

This paper discusses how an understanding of speech acts contributes to the communicative competence in foreign language learning. Reviewing John Searle's five categories of speech acts (1976), the directive is discussed in terms of its manifestations in various foreign languages. Examples of directives in English, German, French, and Spanish are…

Contains five articles titled: "How to Fill an Application,""How to Utilize Outdated Documents,""Old and New (1 & 2)," and "Discovering the Future." (MES)

The article describes the application of the box method for teaching English skills with hearing-impaired students. The method employs teaching steps which make use of sequential fading techniques to achieve a low error rate. Examples demonstrating improvement in English syntax, morphology, and semantics of two profoundly hearing-impaired…

Describes a word game developed by a sixth-grade teacher that has groups of students "bid on" and "buy" words, with the object of forming as many grammatically correct sentences as possible. Points are awarded based on sentence length, correct punctuation, and sentence type (simple, complex, or compound). (MDM)

This article argues that knowledge of the historical background of a language can be profitably integrated into its teaching at the elementary and intermediate levels. The use of diachronic linguistics is illustrated in the teaching of first-year college French, with specific applications based on pronunciation, vocabulary, morphology, and syntax.…

The paper describes methods of natural language enhancement which both teachers and parents can use with young children who have language delays. The importance of connecting language to meaningful, functional communication is stressed. The reinforcement for the child becomes the adult's natural and spontaneous response. Adults, then, must prove…

This study is intended to assist teachers of advanced second language students with the problems of vocabulary errors. The aim is to help avoid the formation of incorrect hypotheses about vocabulary when it is first presented, and more importantly, to help teachers deal with errors as they occur. (SL)

The syntactic distribution and behavior of five English and Persian "measure" nouns and their adjectives are compared. From this, errors attributable to transference and those due to inconsistencies in English are enumerated. A unified analytic model of Persian errors in learning English suggests useful teaching strategies. (PMJ)

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…

This paper discusses five language roots of reading: phonology, syntax, semantics, short-term and long-term memory, and auditory segmenting. Teachers are urged to focus early school experiences toward development of these five skills to reduce the incidence of reading difficulties. Specific teaching suggestions are offered. (Author/DB)

Three high-school students with deafness and additional disabilities used microcomputer software featuring graphics and cartoons to improve their creative writing. Though use of correct syntactic structures did not improve, output of written language did increase. Descriptions of the software used and case studies of the three students are…

This guide highlights problems Vietnamese speakers are likely to have in learning English because of differences between the two languages and suggests ways of helping Vietnamese students of English over difficulties caused by these differences. The first section of the guide provides an overview of the Vietnamese language: the alphabet, word…