Suggests methods for helping children develop and maintain the art of conversation. (RB)

In an epilogue to the 1967 research report, "Transformational Sentence-Combining" (See ED 018 405.), John Mellon considers the significance of the sentence-combining experience and answers the charges of critics--Wayne O'Neil, James Moffett, and Francis Christensen--regarding his original research findings. Mellon points out, for example, that…

This paper reviews the history of contrastive analysis (CA) against the background of its objectives and its present problems and presents an outline of procedures which seem to be necessary to make the methods meet the objectives of applied CA. CA in the United States was closely connected with structuralism, which was an obvious cause for later…

This study explores the relationships between a child's discriminatory abilities in the areas of pitch, intensity, rhythm, timbre, and tonal memory and his capacity to comprehend and speak the Spanish language. The Spanish accent is analyzed on the basis of intonation, stress, sinalepha, and phone production. These factors were tested both in…

Communicative competence, the ability to use a language effectively in unrehearsed transactions with native speakers, must be the ultimate goal of language teaching. Drills and repetition of patterned phrases do not, in and of themselves, lead to real language use. We should begin giving students opportunities to use language in unrehearsed,…

This publication is a compilation of the papers presented at the 1974 Washington Language Testing Sumposium. The volume also includes much of the discussion that followed each paper. The participants were an international group of language testing specialists from academic institutions, research centers, and government agencies. The primary focus…

Research findings regarding speech errors made by second language learners and affective reactions to native speakers as a basis for error correction are considered. A research design is presented for investigating sensitivities to 15 types of grammatical errors typically made in speech by American learners of French. Findings of the research are…

This paper presents historical information about language teaching methods and focuses on "formal" and "functional" strategies of teaching and learning. Particular attention is directed toward the immersion type of education. A table that lists developments in language teaching theory from 1840-1977 is presented. A table that summarizes…

The purpose of this paper is to review research in the general area of linguistic abilities that might have relevance to the selection and training of translators and interpreters. An important issue to be addressed is what is the criterion of success, that is, how can success in translation and interpretation be measured? The procedures used in…

This guide describes well-established and practical pedagogical behaviors for a foreign language teacher in an ordinary situation, a classroom with 20-35 pupils who are beginning the study of a foreign language in school or college. The first chapter, "The Five Stages," discusses the stages through which an item (a word, construction, or idiom) in…