Because idioms are omnipresent in the authentic language students are exposed to, to successfully comprehend and produce natural language, learners of a second or foreign language need to possess a good knowledge of idioms and competence in idiom use. This paper examines the approaches to teaching and learning idioms. A discussion of the…

This analysis of 17,602 frequently used words found that 616 orthographic rimes occurred in rime families as building blocks of almost all the 43,041 word syllables. Of these, 436 were both regular and consistent in pronunciation, and only 86 had less than a 90 percent level of consistency. Results suggest the usefulness of rime units for teaching…

Teachers should know language structure when dealing with the diagnosis of pupils' language difficulties. Simple solutions, such as proofreading his/her work, underlining, and transcribing paragraph dictation may be suggested for students once the teacher grasps the sound/symbol/syllable structure of English. (CL)

Presents a set of rules for learning grammatical gender in French. (AM)

Presents an approach for helping students to explore the auditory level of meaning of a poem in a step-by-step manner. (TJ)

Describes a program for introducing nonstandard speakers to standard English syntactic patterns that involves three steps: (1) introducing the new pattern, (2) providing practice, and (3) manipulating the new pattern. (JL)

Presents a perspective on the system of language levels and logical operations that effective language users employ. Offers a rational for teaching this language system. Suggests activities for "moving language around" to help students develop concepts about language structures. (RL)

A preliminary set of principles of judging the pedagogical utility of proposed grammar rules is offered. The goal is the inclusion in teaching materials of only those rules which are linguistically accurate, pedagogically sound, and relevant to specified instructional objectives. (Author)

Explains the rationale for the use of Spanish music in Spanish language classes, and describes students' reactions, how the music is used to help the listening/writing experience, and how recorded commercials in Spanish aid in learning language patterns. (GLR)

Discusses the use of stereotyped speech patterns as teaching material or as the basis of communicative exercises. Gives examples of the use of these gambits in drills and exercises in German. (EKN)

The diverse population of a community college requires strategies that heighten motivation and reduce frustration of students trying to master complex foreign language grammatical structures. A "package approach" is described for teaching all object pronouns as extra material for students to enjoy. (Contains five references.) (Author/LB)

The Concept Attainment Model is a teaching strategy based on analysis of the nature of concepts and how they are acquired. Using this theory, three strategies for second language instruction have been developed: the reception, selection, and unorganized materials strategies. In the reception strategy, the most structured, students must be guided…

Describes the use of teaching approaches of English for special purposes (particularly recognition and rhetorical devices) for teaching reading and writing to native speakers. (HOD)

The proverbial language of Spanish provides a resource for teaching and testing various aspects of phonetics, syntax, vocabulary, and cultural features of the language. Incorporation of these features into the Spanish curriculum can enrich the classroom experience. Specific suggestions for their use are provided. (Author/MSE)

Describes an informal study that yielded information about differences between good and poor sixth-grade spellers in their awareness that spelling involves prediction strategies and in their awareness of letter frequencies, pattern frequencies, and positional constraints on spelling. Outlines a few implications for spelling instruction. (GT)