Describes linguistic model known as British Contextualism in the Federal Republic of Germany as a basis for the practical language component in second language teacher training programs. Concept goes beyond orthodox structuralism by adding a level of context. (Author/BK)

Examines issues raised by corpus linguistics concerning the description of language. The article argues that it is necessary to start from correct descriptions of linguistic units and the contexts in which they occur. Corpus linguistics has joined with language teaching by sharing a recognition of the importance of a larger, schematic view of…

Focuses on several myths and fallacies prevalent in the field of French grammar. The importance of keeping up-to-date with language and grammatical usage is stressed, since the rules of language do change. Thus, the validity of the linguistic content of French grammar books must be questioned, so that any outmoded or invalid concepts can be…

Identifies issues specific to syntactic parsing for intelligent computer-assisted language instruction (ICALI), including applications, types of input errors, characteristics of natural language, and output. Presents a general overview and assessment of grammar formalisms and parsing strategies in relation to ICALI. (Author/LS)

Critiques Pienemann and Johnston (1987), an influential model of the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL) morphology. The article demonstrates that their proposals are incompatible with syntactic analyses of word formation and emphasizes that second language researchers must ensure that models of second language acquisition are…

Uses structural linguistics to offer an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. Outlines the associative relation proposed by Saussure and investigates how it works in science education. Examines the problems peculiar to science education in Japan and argues that science education should be identified…

Discusses the implications for language teaching of Chomskyean and transformational theory. The notions of deep structure, linguistic theory building, and inutility of a corpus are far less interesting than the view of language as rule-governed behavior and language learning as hypothesis-testing. Rationalist v behaviorist theories are discussed.…

Describes an exploratory study which examines the differences and similarities in the way native and nonnative speakers of English process complete texts and also examines the possible uses of a macro-textual approach in the teaching of foreign language reading. (SL)

Surveys some of the principal theories and methodologies in second language instruction. (EKN)

Compares the empiricist approach of structural linguistics with the rationalist approach to language learning. In practice, a combination of ideas from both philosophies is usually applied to the instruction of second-language learners. Language learning occurs even in the absence of theory. (SLD)

This paper gives a contrastive analysis of noun phrases in English and Chinese. The syntactic features of the structures, the devices used to mark distinctions in number, case and gender, as well as the similarities and differences between English and Chinese relative clauses are discussed. Partly due to the documented differences between these…

In 1941, Angeline Williams, an Anishinaabe elder taught the Ojibwa (Chippewa) language to a class at the Linguistic Institute at the University of North Carolina. Ojibwa is an American Indian language which was spoken as a chain of dialects in numerous communities from Quebec across the Great Lakes and into the plains of Saskatchewan. This text…

This book addresses what kind of analysis of spoken language is appropriate to the assessment and fostering of fluency at the various stages of a student's development. It is easy to define fluency in general terms, but it is difficult to discern what linguistic and paralinguistic options are involved. This book begins by exploring perceptions of…

The methodology reported in this paper argues for a synthesis of various theories and methods. First, a synopsis is given of the pedagogical and linguistic approaches that should underlie a successful attempt to teach the contrast in two verb tenses in Portuguese. Secondly, a contrast unique to Portuguese is examined and a multistage approach for…

Discusses the situational-structural syllabus with emphasis on more clearly defining objectives in both scope and content. Four directions for these syllabi are suggested: (1) priority of semantic and functional notions; (2) subordination of grammatical features; (3) introduction of spoken language discourse; and (4) reduction of grammatical…