This paper aims to study new techniques in second language learning involving the active use of the mother tongue in classroom situations. Several teaching methods will be discussed such as The Alternating Approach, The New Concurrent Method, and Community Language Learning method. These methods of employing the first language recognise the link…

We demonstrate a U-shaped developmental trajectory in the interpretation of scopally ambiguous sentences, with 4-year-olds and adults, but not 5-year-olds, accessing inverse scope. These results argue against any view that treats 5-year-olds failures as resulting from immaturity of a single mechanism. Instead, we propose that this developmental…

About 10 years ago, Robert J. Connors's article "The Erasure of the Sentence" questioned the disappearance of writing style and examined the validity of some of the reasons given for its disappearance. Since that 2000 article, the study of style has undergone a kind of renaissance, with numerous books and articles on its uses in composition theory…

I propose that we think about what a paragraph is by considering its "function," what it does in a piece of writing, whether in a popular novel, a newspaper article, an e-mail, a business report, or a lofty piece of literary criticism. We might think about a paragraph as a "rhetorical dwelling."

This paper introduces a procedure for analyzing sentential themes and demonstrates how it may be useful to students when they consider the effectiveness of their own sentences in the process of revising a piece of writing. The paper shows that, by analyzing sentential themes and their function in academic writing, students can learn to perform the…

In this article, the author shares her journey with evidence-based reading instruction. Her experience with evidence-based reading instruction (as the adult basic education coordinator at Windham Adult Education in Windham, Maine) has been a journey of change both professionally and programmatically, and the students at Windham Adult Education are…

Teachers may resist the notion of teaching as a performance but his or her voice, gestures, and movement in the classroom can help or harm student attentiveness. Strong skills in voice and movement can help illuminate a teacher's questions and ideas for students, drawing attention to what matters, holding their attention through a long class, and…

The approach to writing as a process of problem-solving through experimentation is used in a sentence-expansion technique for college-level remedial English. Students are presented with an uninteresting, two-sentence story that they expand by experimentation, building confidence in their knowledge of appropriate sentence structure and grammar. The…

Presents a developmental perspective on text construction, understood as managing information within and across sentence boundaries. Claims that the systematicity in non-standard constructions in basic writer's texts reflects student awareness of three obligatory areas of information management in texts: topic management, reference tracking, and…

The freshman composition course at Mayville State College (North Dakota) progresses from basic grammar to sentence combining to the development of expository writing skills based on the principles of generative rhetoric. The course begins with a brief review of grammar, emphasizing the phrase, clause, and sentence, and then moves on to the process…

Examines the effect of the misuse and over-use of logical connectives in English-as-a-Second-Language undergraduate writing, and suggests that students use a small subset of relatively comprehensible connectives, employ connectives for phrasal expansion, and view logical progression as an integral stage in writing. (Author/CB)

Describes the natural language computer program, "Vinci." Explains that using an attribute grammar formalism, Vinci can simulate components of several current linguistic theories. Considers the design of the system and its applications in linguistic modelling and second language acquisition research. Notes Vinci's uses in linguistics…

Although sentence combining practice has been shown to be an effective instructional technique for improving students' writing, scant attention has been paid to the appropriate sequence for such instruction. Studies of the natural development of oral and written language point out two general trends that should be considered in sequencing sentence…

Describes Sentence Patterns, a software program designed to help teach sentence structure to college freshman composition students. Topics discussed include traditional teaching methods for the effective use of written language, software development, use in computer labs, and student surveys used for courseware evaluation. (LRW)

Suggests that the acquisition of German syntactic patterns can be facilitated by providing 10 rules for German word order at the beginning of the first semester of instruction. The 10 rules and illustrative examples are included as well as notes on their use. Two sample student handouts are appended. (SED)