Four ideas for classroom French instruction are described, including a lesson in the use of indicative and subjunctive moods; creative writing exercises; a comparison of the text styles of letters with different purposes; and a beginning French geography lesson. (MSE)

This paper discusses findings from an extensive project examining gender, language and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the context of undergraduate psychology courses. The contributions of 197 introductory psychology students (148 females, 49 males) participating in asynchronous CMC as part of their course were collated and coded for…

A lesson designed to teach usage of pronoun case within a communicative paradigm in English as a Second Language is presented. The target population consists of adult, intermediate-level ESL students. The lesson begins with a chant to gain students' interest and create a relaxed learning atmosphere. Next follows a pantomime that illustrates the…

Prepared as part of a series applying recent research in oral and written communication instruction to classroom practice, this booklet focuses on how children and young adults make meaning in speech and writing and on ways teachers can encourage their language development. Following a brief introduction, the first major section of the booklet…

Differences between reporting and classificatory functions in writing were examined in the responses of grade 10 and grade 12 students: 60 who were successful English students, and 60 on the borderline of passing in each of the grades. The reporting tasks required students to write compositions describing their first day in a high school or some…

A collection of essays on aspects of pragmatics in non-Western cultures includes these papers: "Social Rank and Tunebo Requests" (Paul Headland); "The Use of Reported Speech in Saramaccan Discourse" (Naomi Glock); "An Analysis of Illocutionary Verbs in Walmatjari" (Joyce Hudson); "Please Be Specific: A Functional…

This paper proposes a tentative notational or marking system which attempts to provide more information on the sociolinguistic constraints upon the use of linguistic features than has been the case in other systems. A review of other studies in language variation, particularly those of William Labov, suggests that much can be done toward…

To teach students how to write in a contemporary style, a secondary-school English teacher must be able to describe adequately the kind of writing he expects. Since many modern writers frequently ignore the guidelines proffered in traditional writing handbooks, the "new rhetoric"--a descriptive approach to composition that substitutes…

A china factory in Pennsylvania was the setting for a study of the characteristics of the factory, its workers, and the community. Specifically, the speech of 151 informants, representing 12 1/2% of the plant population, was analyzed for both careful and casual speech, in order to focus on lexical and grammatical forms which reflect regional and…

The Swedish address system is in a state of rapid change. Consequently, Swedes are now more than ever sensitive to the seeming lack of generally accepted rules of usage. This paper attempts to codify the rules for usage of the personal pronouns "du" and "ni." In so doing, it finds that "du" may be used to express…

Formality as a style may be defined as language which reflects or "keynotes" the degree of familiarity between participants in a discourse. Working from this assumption, this paper attempts to answer the question, "How is formality best described?" Results of a series of tests indicate that informants' labels (with the…

To determine whether language behavior represents an early conditioned verbal response or whether it changes with age and experience was the purpose of this study which attempted to define unique isolates of language on the basis of actual language produced by young children. Tape recorded data were collected for 12 years from 211 children in…

Previous studies have demonstrated that certain differences in speech behavior can be related to the social characteristics of speakers. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the effect of level of linguistic analysis on correlations observed between language variables and status variables. Three levels of analysis of a linguistic…

Becoming bilingual as defined in this book is a process by which an adult acquires an additional language in the environment in which it is spoken, surrounded by the culture in which it is used. The book seeks to present the learner with an integrated and systematic treatment of his task--linguistic, cultural, and practical--in learning a new…

Drawing a distinction between lexical and phonological variation reveals differences in sociolinguistic patterning. A comparison of dialects within the Durham, England speech community is discussed on these levels. Phonetic motivation, speech style, and social and situational factors are shown to interact in complex ways in connected speech…