The article asserts that case-endings in conversational Latin were consciously learned by children in Roman times, and that the endings were so necessary for comprehension that ancient architects constructed theaters with outstanding acoustics. (SW)

The teacher of black students needs to develop a sensitivity to their rich communicative language styles in order to use the varied styles in the classroom situation. (JH)

Spectrographic analysis of two lectures given without notes by Simone de Beauvoir and Margaret Mead allow detailed specification of three forms of intonation characteristic of declarative sentences in English and French. Discussion of the objectives, of analysis procedures, and of results of the study which elaborate on intonational differences…

Some 2,200 expressions with illustrative sentences in Russian are contained in this dictionary intended for use as a reference work by students in intermediate and advanced Russian studies. The idioms or colloquialisms are rendered into English and are derived primarily from the classics of Russian literature. The dictionary covers phraseological…

An overconcern with the niceties of usage can undercut English teachers' efforts to eliminate public doublespeak. (JH)

Recent studies suggest that the language deficiency often attributed to disadvantaged children, especially disadvantaged black children, is not a language deficit so much as a difficulty in dialect switching. The disadvantaged child's language patterns are different from the language patterns of the child from the mainstream of American society. A…

In addition to the communicative end served by language learning, there is another objective: the discovery, by the student, of the system and the workings of his native language. The values of this objective include: (1) formative value: the possibility of achieving a better understanding of the fundamental and uniquely human phenomenon which is…

The first of two papers on language history broadly defines historical linguistics and considers the activities of the descriptive linguist, who classifies the features of a language; the comparative linguist, who relates languages to one another; and the historical linguist, who is interested in the changes, completed and anticipated, of a living…

This paper argues for a reorganization of the educational procedures in the ESL classroom, in the interest of developing communicative competence. Special emphasis is placed on the use in the classroom of only structural and phonological patterns which are easily transferrable to real-life situations. In the interest of abolishing mechanical…

A major implication in the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages concerns classroom interaction in which students should participate. Ideally, this interaction should be identical to interaction in real-life communication situations that students will encounter. A prerequisite for determining whether these situations are in…

This volume is part of a series, which is in turn part of a course entitled "Contact Canada" and designed for adult Francophone students of English as a second language. The series contains exercises for learning conversational tools. This volume deals with opening formulas, which are grouped under the following categories: (1)…

This volume is part of a series, which is in turn part of a course entitled "Contact Canada" and designed for adult Francophone students of English as a second language. The series contains exercises for learning conversational tools. This volume deals with linking formulas, which are grouped under the following categories: (1)…

This volume is part of a series, which is in turn part of a course entitled "Contact Canada" and designed for adult Francophone students of English as a second language. The series contains exercises for learning conversational tools. This volume deals specifically with response and closing formulas. In section 1, response formulas are…

This article deals with the issue of gaining proficiency in oral expression in a second language. A functional approach to teaching oral proficiency is outlined, an approach which focuses on the audience as a determining factor in the speaker's linguistic output. Claims in the article are based on an experiment in the teaching of oral proficiency…

This is a text intended for use with adult beginning classes in ESL in a 15-week intensive course. The major objective of the text is to develop communicative competence. Therefore, the structures are taught through mechanical drills, meaningful drills, and finally communicative drills, so that "teacher talk" is gradually diminished and "student…