Ways in which to use "picture talk" (proverbs, similes, idioms, and witcracks) in language arts activities for elementary school students are described, including: writing and illustrating expressions; changing expressions; and interpreting expressions. (CB)

A source-based approach to teaching vocabulary means starting with basic concepts that have been in human languages since their beginnings and then working with lexical and metaphorical extensions of these basic words. The purpose is not so much to teach children history, as it is to find groups of words. When words are taught in related groups,…

To make a spelling program more effective, use the children's spelling tests to analyse their errors and indicate spelling patterns. (JH)

Describes a technique for getting students acquainted which involves having them coin words based on each other's first names. (DD)

Indicates in poetic form the author's doubts about electronic devices that emphasize spelling drills; notes her preference for instruction based on patterns of language. (GT)

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…

Presents five basic decoding patterns which can be applied in a linguistic approach to teaching reading or spelling. (JM)

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)

Defining regularity in the English language is not a straightforward matter because of the complex relations between sound and spelling. Predictable patterns are those spellings that can be readily predicted from pronunciation. Rare and unpredictable spellings are found only in a small set of words--probably 10% or less of the vocabulary in…

Children learn to speak their mother tongue by immersion in it; they can learn to read their language in the same manner. (JH)

Describes a remediation program designed to promote students' self-confidence, in addition to promoting fluent reading and enhancing comprehension. Notes that the program uses real books with meaningful language patterns, presented so that each student experiences success. (MM)

This paper describes two studies to determine the effectiveness of a technique for teaching graphemic bases in linguistic patterns and for teaching the combining of these graphemic bases with beginning sounds. Designed to complement the Hawaii English Program, the teaching procedure used both group instruction and peer interaction-it was brief,…

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)