Transformational grammar offers the most adequate system by which to meet the goal of grammar instruction, which is to increase the student's understanding of the nature of language. This grammar attempts to explain the mental processes underlying the production and understanding of sentences, to describe linguistic competence, to construct…

These two units of the Minnesota Project English curriculum employ transformational grammar in an attempt to make eighth-grade students aware of fundamental facts about their language. Concepts taught in the first unit are (1) that an infinite number of English sentences exists, (2) that a few basic transformations are the basis for a large number…

The approaches of traditional grammar, descriptive linguistics, and generative grammar are largely complementary rather than exclusive. Traditional grammar defines eight parts of speech according to meaning or function and concerns itself almost wholely with the written language. Descriptive linguistics postulates that English has a set of unique…

This paper brings together modern linguistic theory (particularly transformational-Generative analysis), psycholinguistic research, and educational objectives underlying the teaching of language in order to develop a methodology compatible with the philosophy of "the New English." Based on the premise that at its best, the New English is…

DRAMATIC INTERACTION, THE PRIMARY VEHICLE FOR DEVELOPING THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE, IS AN OFTEN UNEXPLOITED METHOD OF ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS. STUDENTS CAN LEARN ABOUT LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND COMPOSITION IN A COHERENT FASHION BY WRITING PLAYS, SHORT STORIES, AND POEMS, OR BY ACTING, INTERPRETING, AND CREATING DRAMA. THE…

The meanings of the words grammar and linguistics have undergone a multitude of changes in the last years, but teachers should continue to teach linguistics and formal grammar in the schools. (JH)

THE OREGON CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER, WITH THE COOPERATION OF STAFF MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON AND TEACHERS FORM SEVEN SCHOOL SYSTEMS IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON, HAS WRITTEN AND TESTED AN EXPERIMENTAL CURRICULUM IN ENGLISH FOR GRADES 7-12 FOR APPROXIMATELY THE UPPER 70 PERCENT OF STUDENTS. THE CURRICULUM CONSISTS OF EXPERIMENTAL TEXTBOOKS IN…

This unit is intended to give ninth-grade students a brief survey of the changes in the study of language from the time of the Greeks to the present. Organized to proceed from the teacher's introduction of a subject to class examination and discussion of an excerpt from a grammarian's work, the unit focuses on the belief that a grammarian's…

Six papers presented at the 1966 Workshop of the English Association of Greater Milwaukee suggest that the "new rhetoric" has been shaped by fresh professional interest in ancient rhetoric, in the creative process, in the grammar of English, and in the scholarship of such men as I.A. Richards and Kenneth Burke. The papers are concerned with (1)…

This Minnesota Curriculum Center report recounts the development of teaching materials on the nature and uses of language for grades 7-12 and presents the first of five seventh-grade units. A description of the origins, purposes, and personnel of the Center is followed by brief discussions of (1) the Center's underlying assumption that a study of…

Fourteen articles by anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and linguists, bearing on the way foreign languages will be taught in the immediate future, constitute the major portion of this book. The contents include chapters on: (1) sociocultural context of language and literature, (2) Hispanic literature, (3) the use of contrastive…

The language program and the six thematic literature units outlined in this oral-aural-visual guide for grade 9 were developed by the Indianapolis Public Schools under Title III, Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The literature units--"Excitement at Your Elbow,""Worlds of the Weird and the Wayout,""Close-Ups,""War and the Individual,""A…

These reports deal with language as a whole: its nature, its history, its relationship to culture, its acquisition, the immediate uses to which it can be put, and the development in students of an appreciation for the ability to use a foreign language. The book is divided into three main sections: Acquisition, Application, and Appreciation. For…