In this article, the author shares her experience and the lessons learned in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for a decade. After thousands of lessons, uncountable revisions to those lessons, numerous hours of professional development, access to dozens of talented colleagues, and an abundance of thoughts and insights from…

Although summer is a glorious time for many, with a summer off, comes the real issue of potential loss of skills. When English language learning is taken into account, summer has an even greater potential for backslide not only in terms of content but also in English language development. For some ELLs, a summer away from school can also mean a…

High school teacher J. Arias recommends valuable activities that teachers can use to "build communities of respect, tolerance, and acceptance" for language diversity in schools. Many of the activities are directed toward helping native English speakers empathize with and better understand English language learners' experiences with language…

Finds confirmation of the humanizing influence of language in anthropological and linguistic studies, in creation myths, and in the lives of individuals such as Anne Frank and Helen Keller. Sees in George Orwell's "1984" and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" examples of the dehumanization created by empty or deceptive…

An elementary school English teacher relates her school experiences, both as a child and as a teacher, to explain her attitudes toward teaching writing as communication and not as a corrected/correctable language form. (RL)

Discusses the problems encountered in getting pattern practices into the English program at the secondary level in New Orleans Public Schools. (RB)

Reports on the visit to Japan of a 60-year-old man who had last been there over 40 years ago. Relates several amusing anecdotes about language fluency and Japanese customs, mostly based on the changes a language undergoes in the passage of many years and the importance of an up-to-date vocabulary. (NKA)

Presents an interpretation of the history of the development of visual and verbal language, and argues for the place of electronic technologies of visual and oral languages in the language arts curriculum. (DF)

The study of psycholinguistics seems to enable English teachers to make their classes more effective and more enjoyable. (JH)

A teacher initiates and successfully develops a new method for increasing the vocabulary of eighth grade students. The new method abandons rote-memory techniques for a method which allows the students to choose the words they will learn while participating in the teaching of the new vocabulary. (LF)

Encourages teachers to foster students' metaphoric thought. (DD)

Questions whether the emphasis placed on the teaching of grammar in the American school curriculum will yield more than modest benefits. Suggests that literacy cannot be attained primarily through analyzing sentences and memorizing rules. (RBW)