There are two good reasons for incorporating historical linguistic insight into second language instruction: (1) to answer students' questions about why certain puzzling facts and irregularities occur in the language they are studying; and (2) as in other disciplines, a historical perspective can shed light on current practice. From a historical…

This book is intended to help teachers in the upper grades lead their students toward an understanding of the history of the English language. It demonstrates the value of studying language history and provides material and suggestions which can be used to complement a language arts program. The book stresses making students aware of the…

A discussion of the teaching of nonsexist language to learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) reviews the history of the awareness of gender bias in language, outlines the arguments for and against nonsexist language teaching, and concludes in favor of nonsexist language use in the second language classroom. It is proposed that those…

Examination of a small segment of French morphology involving the role of the final consonant illustrates the applicability of the natural morphology approach to linguistic analysis. Representative examples of modern French adjectival, verbal, and nominal word forms are subjected to analysis in terms of iconic, non-iconic, and counter-iconic…

No language is as varied in history as American English and no language is as rich in word choices. Additions to our language from other cultures are discussed. Four categories of activities involving words are presented. (MT)

Discusses the teaching of derivatives of irregular Spanish verbs in order to reinforce irregular patterns and increase the students' active vocabularies. (NCR)

A morphological analysis of a French language corpus focuses on patterns of truncation, shortened versions of multisyllabic words, in modern spoken usage and in the language used in newspapers. Specific examples of truncation are included.(MSE)

A discussion of Occitan, a Romance language spoken in a large portion of France, looks at the history; irregular characteristics; orthographic and morphophonemic variations across dialects; and present status, which is in danger of becoming extinct because of neglect, of the language. (MSE)

Acknowledging that to study the development of a language is to study the history and culture of people and that English has been influenced by many geographic, political, economic, social, and linguistic forces, this booklet provides a ready reference for elementary and middle school/junior high school teachers confronted with students' questions…

The importance of training second language learners in the patterns of occurrence of certain phonemes is discussed, focusing on the use of spelling as a primary predictor of pronunciation. Four different pronunciations of "ng" in English (as in "engaging, singer, changing, dangle") are used to illustrate this principle. A review of pronunciation…

Intended for college teachers and students of Anglo-Saxon literature, this paper provides an overview of the sophisticated poetic devices used by the "Beowulf" poet. The paper examines how old English words for color range in hues in a way that modern English words do not, and how these words for color are used in "Beowulf."…

Intended for college students and teachers of English literature, this paper examines the lives and works of three great medieval Anglo-Saxon priestly scholars whose Latin writings have preserved the Anglo-Saxon roots of the English language. The paper first describes the works of Aldhelm, born in 650 A.D., whose poetry was not in the Latin…

Derivations of the term "gerund" are examined as they pertain to native English speakers learning French, Italian, and/or Spanish. The form's etymology is chronicled from Latin, and its current usage in student textbooks in the three languages is examined. A solution to the terminological confusion surrounding the term is proposed. (41…

During the first half-century of the existence of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the teaching of grammar aroused furious debate among its members. In 1924, Charles C. Fries assembled a panel of six language scholars to answer three questions: (1) What should English teachers know about the English language? (2) Do the usual…

A context-based framework for teaching the history of Portuguese is presented. It incorporates passages from a medieval Galician-Portuguese work to illustrate diachronic linguistic processes in the evolution of the language. Advantages of the approach, prerequisites, text, and syllabus are described, and a sample analysis is provided. (53…