This paper argues that we are moving toward a more experimental approach to language, one which is characterized less by introspective judgments and more by empirical evidence. The first section of the paper is a general discussion of the directions linguistic theories are taking. The second section discusses some of the fundamental problems…

Piaget's research on the processes and products of cognitive and representational development in early childhood is employed to outline the bases of early language development. The processes of assimilation and accommodation, leading to horizontal decalage; empirical and reflective abstraction, resulting in schemas and schemes; as well as…

This paper discusses research and thinking on the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness for teachers, school leaders and school improvement, and explores implications of the use of NLP in relation to personalisation and the children's agenda. It outlines initial research carried out as part of the Fast Track Teaching…

An analysis of two different WH-clause types (relative clauses and free relatives/indirect questions) in Yiddish investigates the acceptability of a gap in the first position. A model is presented that accounts for the differences between the two by positing three constraints on their formation. It is then argued that either these constraints…

Under the assumption that, with the exception of certain learned, retarded, and borrowed words, the bulk of any language undergoes sound changes that are regular over any given geographical area, over any given time span, and in any given sound environment, these sound changes have been reduced to logical terms and have been programmed to generate…

The research orientations and perspectives of people participating in the international dialogue about the redefinition of English language studies have been varied. Two broad and overlapping areas are distinctive to English studies: the exploration of human values and experience through the study of literature and the media, and the development…

This paper reviews the bilingual educational needs of Indochinese peoples in the United States and suggests ways that these needs can be met. Outlined are two models of bilingual/bicultural education. The first model, which emphasizes a strong English as a Second Language (ESL) component, meets the needs of students born in Indochina. The second…

Intended for students in regular and advanced composition classes, each of the four controlled composition exercises presented in this paper aims at teaching writing style through carefully constructed short passages that concentrate on an isolated problem in style such as parallel structure, relative clauses, pseudo-relative clauses, and…

Describes attempts to formalize and characterize a theory of communicative competence, focusing on the advantages of a preference model (which identifies and grades learning variables in order of importance) and of models developed on the premise of parallel distributed processing (which suggest that such rule-based processing are in fact gross…

A schema developed for the teaching of reading involves five factors: learning, language, clues, mediums of communication, and adaptive processes. Learning involves four tasks, taught in the following sequence: comprehension, comparison of semantic shapes, composition of the whole into parts, and concentration. There are four general language…

This paper investigates some of the underlying assumptions prevalent in much of the research concerning the language patterns of black children and compares two competing research approaches: the deficit model, which assumes that black children from the ghetto hear very little language, much of it ill-formed, and that they are impoverished in…

Use of Robert Gagne's model of instructional design for teaching English as a Second Language is illustrated in a unit intended for community college students of varying linguistic and educational backgrounds. Students must be literate in English, have a prescribed level of listening comprehension, and be familiar with certain English vocabulary…

Sociolinguists have recently demonstrated the value of directives in indicating the relationship between status and linguistic form. The purpose of the instrument developed for this study was to quantify the coerciveness of directives on the basis of the theoretical approaches in the literature to objectify the comparison of directive forms.…

The role of language structure in the classroom is discussed, and the limitations of the formal analysis of language is enumerated. It is argued that most language problems derive not from difficulties with language form, but from covert differences in value which are characteristically associated with those forms. Examples are given of conflicts…

Language contact and the resulting interference has long been diagnosed as one of the primary forces behind language change. In cases of multilingual contact within geographically restricted areas, converging changes of the languages in contact have been uncovered and described. The geographic areas characterized by such linguistic situations came…