Based on the discrepancies found in many Malaysian English language textbooks, a detailed analysis on the way modal auxiliary verb forms and their semantic functions were introduced and presented in texts and exercises in five Malaysian textbooks was done. For that to be achieved, a qualitative page-by-page content analysis was applied. From the…

Describes the natural language processing techniques used in two computer-assisted language instruction programs: VERBCON and PARSER. Contends that only by incorporating natural language processing techniques can these programs offer a substantial number of exercises and at the same time provide students with informative feedback. (Author)

Suggests the substitution of nonsense words for various parts of speech as a way of enabling children to understand the structural way parts of speech operate. (TO)

Reports that, as Francis Christensen maintains, final free modifiers do occur more frequently in essay sentences by professional writers than in those by college students, but that students' prose is deficient in initial and medial modifiers also. (RD)

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SELECED ASPECTS OF THE LINGUISTICS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH IS PRESENTED IN THIS MONOGRAPH. FOLLOWING A DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS, THE PEDAGOGICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE INADEQUACIES OF TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR ARE EXAMINED. THE CONSIDERATION OF STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH CENTERS ON PHONOLOGY…

BECAUSE OF LIMITATIONS DURING THE ACTUAL STUDY, THIS PROJECT WAS DELIMITED TO THE STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING MATERIALS ADAPTED FROM STRUCTURAL AND GENERATIVE GRAMMARS UPON THE ABILITY OF SEVENTH-GRADE STUDENTS TO WRITE MORE MATURE COMPOSITIONS. FORTY-THREE STUDENTS WERE GIVEN EXPERIMENTAL LINGUISTICALLY-ORIENTED MATERIALS DESIGNED TO…

The value of a transformational model of syntax can be illustrated by comparing the taxonomic grammatical description of a complex sentence to a transformation-oriented description of the same sentence. The taxonomic approach, an immediate constituent analysis, requires 10 steps to break the sample sentence into its grammatical components; the…

Recognition that students at Midwestern State University, Texas, lacked a basic level of linguistic skills prompted an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar, in which nonsense words were used to introduce concepts of English usage. Working in small groups, students arranged the nonsense words to form sentences which "sound[ed] like…

Version of a paper read at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English, NOvember 1969, in Washington, D.C. (DS)

This paper discusses error analysis, which is based upon the premise that all language, even "incorrect" language, is governed by rules, and the application of such analysis to the comma splice and the fused sentence. Many students formulate erroneous theories of punctuation based on spoken-language experience or on misleading definitions; in…

Paragraphs, as well as sentences, can be spoken of as having a deep and a surface structure. The amount of deep structure of the paragraph that is mapped onto the surface paragraph is related to the mode of discourse in which the paragraph is found: the deep structure in scientific paragraphs is relatively uncomplicated with few assumptions made;…

THE ENGLISH CURRICULUM CAN BE MADE MORE EFFECTIVE BY CONSIDERING THE SIGNIFICANT PART PLAYED BY THE COMPONENT OF GRAMMAR. THE NATIVE SPEAKER OF ENGLISH POSSESSES AN INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES OF GRAMMAR AND YET CANNOT EXPLAIN WHAT HIS INTUITION KNOWS. THEREFORE, A PRECISE, ECONOMICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LANGUAGE MECHANISM AND HOW IT FUNCTIONS…

A study of the relative effectiveness of three approaches to teaching selected aspects of English grammar to 299 10th-grade students of average ability (17 class-size groups) was made in Lane County, Oregon. Five groups were taught using structural linguistics concepts; six groups employed traditional methods, materials, and approaches; and six…

Discusses what grammar is, what language is, recent studies in language research, and relates these to classroom teaching. (MB)