New content standards integrate content and language in ways prior standards have never done. That's why it's so critically important that teachers attend to both content and language development when introducing new subject matter, especially for English learners. Here's your opportunity to get started tomorrow and every day thereafter: Alison…

The classroom practices discussed in "Effective Second Language Writing" reflect various trends and methodologies; however, the underlying theme in this volume of the Classroom Practice Series is the need for clear and meaningful communication between ESL writers and their readers. While approaches differ, two core beliefs are constant: ESL…

Text typologies, such as that of Jean-Michel Adam, that distinguish between narrative, descriptive, explanatory, injunctive, argumentative, and poetic texts offer promising possibilities for instruction of French as a second or foreign language. A number of diverse texts illustrate the potential for study of communicative, lexical, and syntactic…

Suggests activities for teaching proverbs, an important part of the cultural education of second language learners. Activities include identifying proverbs in common discourse, creating skits and cartoons or pictures based on them, creating puzzles, inventing original proverbs, and analyzing their practical value. (MSE)

The dialectical approach to teaching literary analysis, using William Perry's model of cognitive development, engages students intellectually and actively in literary issues, takes a holistic approach to education, and confronts students with an alternative to their well-entrenched philosophy that an education is to be gotten and stored away. (MSE)

Discusses an approach to teaching French language and civilization by examining the creation of news events from otherwise insignificant news items. Recent headlines and news articles serve as illustrations. (MSE)

A broader view of grammar looks at text rather than the sentence as the framework for communication from thematic, semantic, and pragmatic points of view. (MSE)

A series of French language classroom exercises to be used over four class sessions applies principles of semiotics to literary textual analysis. The session themes include decoding and interpreting, reconstructing meaning, sociocultural connotations in the text, and sense of time and space. (MSE)

Contrasts classroom questioning with questioning functions used in normal discourse and suggests ways in which teachers can promote more normal questioning exchanges in the second language classroom. (Author/MSE)

Children's literature, with its complex structures and discourse strategies, helps beginning language students develop reading strategies and begin understanding discourse strategies in native speech. Tsao's notion of discourse analysis is used to introduce topic deletion in a sample of literary texts. (Contains 25 references.) (LB)

The introduction to discourse analysis is intended specifically to inform second language teachers about aspects of discourse analysis that can be helpful in instruction. It presents the principles seen as relevant to the language teaching context and illustrates them with real spoken and written language data. The first chapter gives a historical…

Ideas for using brief literary extracts to study personal interactions in a foreign language are offered. A sample sketch is presented, and class exercises designed to teach skills while examining the text creatively are outlined. (MSE)

Suggests a variety of class activities analyzing the language used in French-language advertisements. (MSE)

Discusses the subtle changes of meaning evoked by different sentence positions of "hace"-clauses. Analyzes the semantics of "hace" + TIME sentences which are the equivalent of English "ago." A presentation suitable for the beginning learner, using "since" + TIME as the English translation of the "hace"-clause followed by "que" is suggested.…

A discussion of instruction in French telex correspondence suggests class activities for understanding telex use; analyzing the language forms used; producing and responding to messages; and choosing among telex, telephone, and letter correspondence. (MSE)