Research Findings: Early childhood teachers' talk is a key ingredient in children's early language and literacy development, but there has been little systematic synthesis of observational studies that examine relationships between teacher talk and child oral language. In this systematic review of 54 studies, we investigate and synthesize the…

A conversation with the author's 7-year-old son who is just beginning to learn French serves to illustrate the concept of communicative competence and its implications for second-language teaching and testing. Communicative competence is defined as the ability to engage in spontaneous, interpersonal transactions, in contrast to linguistic…

An attempt at summarizing current trends and ideas in first and second language teaching methodology. (Text is in French.) (AM)

A systematic language-learning program in the language arts is proposed which contains three proponents for teaching children how to read: language evaluation, oral language, and written language. (CS)

This book contains a collection of papers presented at the SEAMEO RELC International Seminar, held April 18-20, 2005. The sixteen papers contained in this volume deal with various aspects of the field of learning and teaching oral communications skills. These include the theoretical background, practical applications and the assessment of oral…

This bibliography cites bibliographies of works dealing with language learning and teaching, and with English as a foreign or second language. Entries include both American and European publications, most published since 1970. (CLK)

The language learner is activated by exposure to primary linguistic data in the target language, categorizes that data and deduces from it a system of rules or hypotheses. When the language acquisition process is successful, as is virtually always the case in first language acquisition, the learner's rule system corresponds to that of the speech…

This document reviews the major trends of thought concerning first and second language acquisition, in an attempt to trace a sequential history to second language teaching methodology today. The contributions of the behaviorist and nativist schools of thought are examined in particular, and two major issues are focused upon: (1) the origins of…

Discusses the identity of language problems among elementary school students and suggests ways to help solve them. (GB)

The English-as-a-second-language teacher's role is explored, with five specific areas of responsibility elaborated: (1) providing comprehensible input; (2) preparing learners to cope with nonclassroom language; (3) providing references and resource materials; (4) providing focused instruction in particular areas of language; and (5) providing…

A survey investigated how language management strategies used by bilingual families could create family communication problems. The study was inspired by experience with bilingual families in which rigid adherence to a language policy appeared to impede communication. Respondents were 83 members of a special interest group on bilingualism within a…

This volume contains six essays on both theory and practical learning techniques for second language learning. In "Towards a Synthesization of Teaching Methodologies for TESOL," James W. Ney discusses synthesizing the audio-lingual approach and the cognitive-code theory of language learning. In "Should We Teach Children…

This volume contains fifteen essays focussing on the themes of (a) bilingual schooling and (b) the role and prospects of the Spanish language in the United States. Eleven of the essays are written in English, and the rest are in Spanish. The essays are: (1) "Rationale of Bilingual Education in the United States," (2) "Organization of the Bilingual…

Essays on varieties of English in the United States include: "Research Trends in the Study of American English" (Edgar W. Schneider); "Piney Woods Southern" (Lee Pederson); "Foundations of American English" (William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.); "The Comparability of Linguistic Atlas Records: The Case of LANCS an…

This is the seventeenth in a series of catalogues of documents in the ERIC system that are of interest to teachers and researchers in foreign languages and linguistics. The documents cited in the present list appeared in the monthly ERIC abstract journal "Resources in Education" from January through June, 1976. The list is compiled from all of the…