This mixed-methods study uses concept maps to investigate the effects of an English pedagogical grammar course on the beliefs of teachers-in-training (n = 40) enrolled over a 2-year period at a private university in the U.S. Midwest. The course takes a functional approach to grammar based on systemic-functional linguistics and is typically the…

Seventy-seven new academics--59 at a large, public university in the UK and 18 at a medium-sized, private comprehensive university in the USA--were asked to read an extract of an article on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and mark the text according to categories of difficulty or dislike. Analysis of the data revealed six main…

Continuing series on new methods of teaching languages at the larger universities. (DS)

Each speaker-hearer commands a language system that he uses unconsciously as he speaks and writes. Discovery of the rules underlying that system shows the futility of some accepted teaching practices and suggests other approaches. (Author)

With particular focus on the need to provide a practical, systematic introduction to the concept of sentence combining and to the signals used to control the various combining operations, this paper provides detailed specifications for including sentence combining as part of a comprehensive plan for teaching the composing process. The…

Syntax, or, loosely, sentence structure, is a major linguistic variable influencing the comprehensibility of every written sentence. This paper attempts to set forth the relationship between elements of syntax and reading comprehension as the classroom teacher might see them, and to propose a strategy, the Complete Linguistic Elements Paradigm…

Compositions written by 66 second grade boys and girls in one control and two experimental groups were analyzed to study the effect of 21 instructional sessions in sentence expansion and to determine which of the instructional methods employed was most beneficial to a particular sex group. Lesson plans for the control group were parallel to two…

In this study, fourth-grade materials based on a linguistic approach to grammar known as sector analysis were devised, field-tested, and evaluated. Two socioeconomically similar fourth grades--experimental and control groups--were pre- and post-tested to find possible changes in the complexity of their sentence structure after the experimental…

The traditional method of teaching writing to students in universities by correcting their errors supposes a generally well-developed sense of written language structure and formal English language discourse. The new population seeking higher education does not always possess such a background. An alternative instructional method is to use the…

Remedies are suggested for difficulties encountered in Latin to English translations by pupils in the fourth and fifth forms of English Grammar schools. Reading skills proficiency is seen as a prerequisite for effective translation, and stave analysis is suggested as a method of solving the problem of gross error in pupils' translations of complex…

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES THE SELECTION OF A PEDAGOGICAL NORM FOR FRENCH INTERROGATIVE STRUCTURES. SINCE THIS AREA OF FRENCH GRAMMAR IS PARTICULARLY POLYMORPHOUS, OBJECTIVE CRITERIA ARE SET UP TO MAKE THE SELECTION--FREQUENCY, COMPLEXITY, AND EXTENSIVITY. BECAUSE "EST-CE QUE" CAN BE APPLIED WITHOUT EXCEPTION TO ALL TYPES OF KERNEL SENTENCES, IT WAS…

In an epilogue to the 1967 research report, "Transformational Sentence-Combining" (See ED 018 405.), John Mellon considers the significance of the sentence-combining experience and answers the charges of critics--Wayne O'Neil, James Moffett, and Francis Christensen--regarding his original research findings. Mellon points out, for example, that…

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…