Discusses when an infinitive may appear directly after a noun in Spanish and which word is used and why if a preposition or other such word is required. Examples used are where the infinitive phrase is the predicate nominative with the verb "ser," where the infinitive acts as the grammatical subject, and where the infinitive phrase is a…

Discusses the difference between a complex sentence and a compound sentence, and how they are used in technical writing and in Victorian fiction. (SR)

Presents a structural definition of the basic sentence unit, and suggests some guidelines for teaching this material. This concept of "X-word Grammar" has proven to be very helpful to students encountering difficulty with the concept of a sentence. (SL)

Discusses the benefits of short answers and how they differ in German and English. Provides hints on how to teach students to produce reduced answers that are grammatically acceptable in spoken German. (EKN)

Discusses using structure drills in the foreign language classroom including use of same grammatical structure with slight variation, notional/functional drills, and situational dialogs. Suggests necessity of looking more closely at techniques in order to better understand teaching operation. (Author/BK)

This article discusses preliminary research that found that more than 90 percent of sentences written by children or for children contain verbs from 1 of 13 verb semantic-syntactic subsets. A strategy for assessing a child's knowledge of verbs from each subset is described, along with an assessment protocol. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

The article examines the child's ability to produce complex sentences with sections on a structural framework for complex language (clausal and nonclausal complexity), a developmental perspective (coordination of clauses, subordination of nominal, adverbial, and relative clauses), and applied considerations (evaluating and teaching complex…

As an orientation to the actual composition process, learning-disabled students should be taught methods for the development and organization of ideas. Strategies are presented for helping learning-disabled students improve composition skills by improving flexibility in vocabulary and sentence structure and by planning and sequencing ideas and/or…

Four short articles are combined: "Adding Discourse-Level Practice to Sentence-Level Exercises" (Eric S. Nelson); "Presenting Picture Books in the ESL Classroom" (Lijun Shen); "Role Playing in a Large Class" (Ellen Rosen); and "Calvin and Hobbes and Other Icons of Americana" (Daniel J. Conrad). (Contains seven references.) (LB)

Discussion of Gal'perin's theory of step-by-step formation of mental actions includes descriptions of experimental applications of this activity approach to teaching foreign languages. Constructing and understanding sentences are discussed, and activities for the construction of a sentence and the orientation base of action (OBA) for German,…

Reviews over 50 textbooks grouped into three categories: (1) workbooks; (2) sentence style books, most of which use sentence combining as the fundamental type of exercise; and (3) copy books, which are used by directly copying passages with signals for particular changes. (EL)