The commonly used categorical system for conditionals (zero, first, second, and third) has been repeatedly demonstrated to be inadequate because it is unable to account for many conditional types attested in actual usage. ELT coursebooks and pedagogic grammars are criticized for ignoring the evidence and persisting with its use, but the reality…

Undergraduate students majoring in Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia need to take an English-for-Specific-Purposes (ESP) course each year of the B.A. program. The material for all four courses was developed in-house by a group of instructors at those colleges. A review of the course material, particularly reading texts, showed many inadequacies. It…

Although the ideal in work with endangered languages is to design collaborative projects that integrate documentation and support for revitalization from the outset, the reality is that many language workers must rely on existing products of documentation to create materials. Traditional documentation, including reference grammars, dictionaries,…

In recent years, the use of English corpora to instruct grammar in writing classes has become increasingly popular. In English for Specific Purposes classes, such a novel approach is critically important since it not only allows teachers to achieve a profound understanding of which syntactic structures should be instructed, but it also increases…

This article describes the process of understanding how translanguaging is naturally used in multilingual teaching environments and then applying this analysis to the creation of translanguaging grammar rules and ultimately pedagogical materials. Focusing primarily on our work with a Maori puna reo in Aotearoa New Zealand, but also drawing upon…

Grammar can be viewed both as knowledge and as ability. When viewed as knowledge, the focus is on rules for sentence formation. When viewed as ability, the focus is on how grammar is used as a resource in the creation of spoken and written texts. Twelve principles are proposed as the basis for a pedagogy that focusses on acquiring learning to use…

The purpose of this chapter is to present a task-based approach to materials development. In the first part of the chapter, I sketch out the evolution of task based language teaching, drawing on a distinction between synthetic and analytical approaches to syllabus design first articulated by Wilkins (1976).

Summarizes a discussion on the revision of the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) held during the 1980 ACL Institute at the University of New Hampshire by CLC users and Cambridge University Press representatives. Emphasizes suggestions by users on grammar instruction strategies better suited to American students' needs. (MES)

Explores the decision-making process that went into producing the Blossom computer-assisted instruction (CAI) materials for French instruction at Pennsylvania State University. Some of the attributes, limitations, and questions concerning the user, validity, and usefulness of CAI materials are also discussed. (Author/SED)

A program designed to provide instruction in specialized English for Southeast Asian and other refugees redeveloping their skills as licensed practical nurses (LPNs) contained two language proficiency tracks and provided language instruction incorporating high school equivalency test practice material in the specialized English course. Technical…

The report describes an Ontario (Canada) project to establish standards for the written and oral languages of its natives, including two language families and 13 languages still present in the province. The project has two streams: (1) a series of language conferences intended to establish consensus within an entire community regarding standard…

A Peace Corps workshop for prospective language teachers is reported. The workshop's goals were to train a team of teacher candidates in effective language instruction methods, Peace Corps organization and operations, cross-cultural skills, and adult second language instruction techniques. Workshop content covered: discussion of the teacher…