The Null Subject Parameter (NSP) has long been considered pertinent to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) studies, especially when the native language (NL) and target language (TL) have different NSP settings. The study aimed to investigate whether seventy English L2 learners in Puerto Rico who were native Spanish speakers transferred their L1…

Home literacy environment explains between 12 and 18.5% of the variance of children's language skills. Although most authors agree that children whose parents encourage them to read tend to develop better and earlier reading skills, some authors consider that the impact of family environment in reading skills is overvalued. Probably, other…

In the UK there is much concern about the educational progress of children from areas of significant social disadvantage entering primary school with impoverished language skills. These children are not routinely referred to speech and language therapy services and therefore education practitioners in schools deliver intervention to facilitate…

Direct quotation can be a source of meaning in storybook texts for beginning readers. The author of this article sketches the linguistic complexity of direct quotation and offers instructional strategies. Three aspects of direct quotation are examined: the cluster of print features and syntactic characteristics that direct quotation involves, the…

This article contains excerpts of a speech given in 1935 to the American Philosophical Association. Professor Lewis discusses the importance of learning different contexts of words without learning grammatical terminology such as nominative possessive, and dative cases. He also examines the origin of modern abstract words from past physical…

Six units of instructional materials in conversational Spanish are presented. The audiolingual course is designed to be completed in 90 to 120 hours and intended to be used with a set of correlated tape recordings which may be purchased from the School for International Training. Lessons contain a variety of structured exercises including (1)…

Report of a conference of the editorial board with German teachers, December 1971, Dusseldorf, West Germany. (WB)

Approaches to the testing of foreign language proficiency have tended to mirror prevailing philosophies in foreign language teaching, and for many years, no serious effort was made to devise oral proficiency measures. However, after World War II, structural linguistics applied to the classroom produced audiolingualism, which was a method heavily…

The advantages and weaknesses of conventional grammar and structural linguistics are the subjects of this pamphlet. Reasons given for the widespread attack on conventional grammar are that it has resulted in repetitive and time-consuming instruction, has not improved the students' language skills, has been confused with language usage, and does…

A system for classifying English predicates into four families that account for all forms, moods, voices, and tenses is examined as an approach to teach grammar to students of English as a second language (ESL). It is suggested that by focusing on one family at a time, then building by combining these families, students can learn more readily to…

The modern German grammar approach stresses good usage not in isolation but in hearing, speaking, reading, and writing. Consequently, practice precedes analysis for the primary-level native learner. The child learns by demonstration what a sentence is and is then taught five parts of speech according to function: noun, verb, adjective, pronoun,…

This introductory course is based on the Yerwa (Maiduguri) dialect of Kanuri, a well-known dialect of the language spoken in Nigeria and Niger. The course, designed to be taught by native speakers of Kanuri, consists of 20 lessons, each of which contains a major dialogue on some aspect or facet of a Peace Corps volunteer's life in the…

It is necessary to classify and order structural pattern drills to assure a systematic and efficient progression in the classroom from mechanical learning to the internalizing of competence. The linguist and the language teacher must reexamine language learning theories and make changes according to the new data. Language learning is partly habit…

This volume is part of the Czech Basic Course designed to train native English speakers to a level 3 proficiency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Czech in intensive language programs employing the audiolingual approach. It contains the pattern drills of the first 56 lessons. The drills to lessons 4-24 are in two parts. Part 1…

English language education in Colombia has been improved because the teachers have organized professional associations and have received assistance and support from the Colombian and United States governments to improve teaching methods, teacher preparation, and teaching materials. With the help of the University of California at Los Angeles, the…