Acknowledging that to study the development of a language is to study the history and culture of people and that English has been influenced by many geographic, political, economic, social, and linguistic forces, this booklet provides a ready reference for elementary and middle school/junior high school teachers confronted with students' questions…

Argues that comparing standard English usage to systems of standardization students are familiar with from their technical training forces technical writing students to understand the need for consistent signaling in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other language conventions. Includes an example from early American literature written in…

Focuses on how the foreign language instructors' understanding of the historical development of forms and systematic language patterns enhances classroom presentations by transforming lists of irregularities and exceptions into coherent groups of related elements. Discusses examples of structures traditionally presented in lists or tables and…

Four issues of "TESL Reporter" are presented. Contents include the following articles: ''An Approach to the [I] [i] Contrast" by William D. Conway; "Native Language Environment Is Source of Confusion" by Alice Pack; "The Origin of Language: A Puzzle With Missing Pieces"; "Terminal Behavior and Language…

Papers from the 1998 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium include: "Patterns of Gender Agreement in the Speech of Second Language Learners"; "'Nomas' in Mexican American Dialect"; "Parsing Spanish 'solo'"; "On Levels of Processing and Levels of Comprehension"; "The Role of Attention in Second/Foreign Language Classroom Research: Methodological Issues";…