Research Findings: Early childhood teachers' talk is a key ingredient in children's early language and literacy development, but there has been little systematic synthesis of observational studies that examine relationships between teacher talk and child oral language. In this systematic review of 54 studies, we investigate and synthesize the…

Discusses recent research highlighting both the child's growth as a reflective language user and the school's capacity to enhance or hamper that growth. The research is concerned with the need for children eventually to use language in decontextualized ways, without the supporting context of visible or manipulable objects or actions. (HTH)

A series on language teaching and learning for teachers includes books on the following topics: (1) psycholinguistics (Titone); (2) the role of the brain in language acquisition (Danesi); (3) the creative language of children (Crema & De Robertis); and (4) suggestopedia (Lozanov & Gateva). (CFM)

Looks at research and practice in the area of idioms and offers suggestions for teaching them effectively. (FL)

Reviews research on the value of innovative and traditional methods of teaching language and encourages teachers to provide classroom opportunities for students to communicate and to teach language skills. (DD)

Provides an overview of current research on grammatical, phonological, semantic, and pragmatic development in African American English child language, as opposed to adult or adolescent language, and discusses the implications of these findings for professionals involved in second-dialect instruction, speech-language assessment, or intervention…

Examines children's acquisition of language meaning through their use of homophony, riddles, and other word play. Discusses ways to encourage the study of meaning, using classroom techniques such as finding metaphorical relations among words and phrases, learning word origins, or studying naming strategies of other cultures. (HTH)

This monograph discusses the state of the art in child second language acquisition research. It is of particular interest to teachers, administrators, and others concerned with educating children whose first language is not English. The first chapter deals with preschool second language acquisition. It examines processes of acquiring the sound…

Mainstreaming students means moving them out of segregated learning environments in special education classes and integrating them into regular classes with "normal" children. Mainstreaming also has relevance to gifted children. Both gifted and handicapped students are searching for meaning, for which the primary source is language. The main…

Concludes that it is time for teachers to be more critical of the commercial materials and classroom practices commonly used to sensitize children to different semantic cues and morphological units. Argues that without a firm knowledge of context clues and morphemes on the part of teachers, the teaching of these skills will remain incidental. (FL)

Noting that the idea of reading as a natural language communication process has been well established by research, this paper identifies learning strategies and suggests teaching methods for developing the young child's awareness of the communication nature of reading. The paper concludes that learning strategies based on imitation, drawing, and…

Metalinguistic awareness is discussed in terms of the new national curriculum in English language education in Great Britain. A chronology is presented of events surrounding national curriculum legislation that prompted controversy in Britain concerning the teaching of the English language. One result of this legislation has been the creation of…

As human understanding is largely metaphorical, what metaphor is, how children use it, and how they can be taught to use it more effectively are important educational concerns. A direct or indirect comparison between two apparently unlike things, metaphor consists of a topic, a vehicle of comparison, and ground--or traits--linking the topic and…

Each of the 12 articles in this book deals with an aspect of linguistics theory and its application to understanding or teaching reading. The topics covered include: defining reading in proper perspective, the relevance of applied linguistics for teachers of reading, why children should want to learn to read, dialects and reading, the features of…

The English-as-a-second-language teacher's role is explored, with five specific areas of responsibility elaborated: (1) providing comprehensible input; (2) preparing learners to cope with nonclassroom language; (3) providing references and resource materials; (4) providing focused instruction in particular areas of language; and (5) providing…