One of the central and defining features of man is language; there can be no deep understanding of man without some understanding of language. Linguistics is the "orderly examination of language in terms appropriate to itself." The central task of linguistics is grammar, the study of the patterning that brings together sounds or symbols with…

Intended for students in regular and advanced composition classes, each of the four controlled composition exercises presented in this paper aims at teaching writing style through carefully constructed short passages that concentrate on an isolated problem in style such as parallel structure, relative clauses, pseudo-relative clauses, and…

Traditions and emerging trends in the teaching of linguistics and composition are examined in this collection of papers. Joseph Mersand predicts a future emphasis on the subject of English as a discipline, leading to a more adequate preparation and increased supervision of English teachers and a greater stress in the classroom on written…

This study reports a small-scale experiment that was set up to estimate the extent to which (i) the use of formulaic sequences (standardized phrases such as collocations and idiomatic expressions) can help learners come across as proficient L2 speakers and (ii) an instructional method that emphasizes "noticing" of L2 formulaic sequences can help…

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…

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…

Oriya, a language spoken by approximately 14 million Indians who live along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, is the subject of this introductory language text. The basic, grammatical framework of Oriya is developed in this volume. Presentation of the orthographic system is achieved through the Romanization of the Oriya alphabet. Short dialogues…

The purpose of this text is to teach the beginning student to use the Oriya writing system, used principally by some 14 million Indians who live along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The 16 lessons are designed to enable the student to progress at his own speed and to keep a constant check on his control of the material covered. It is suggested…