A survey of textbooks and official Ministry of Education programs of study for the Province of Ontario, Canada, revealed three stages in the history of teaching English language in intermediate and secondary schools. Prior to the mid-1960s language study was fundamentally the study of formal grammar and standard usage. From the mid-1960s until the…

This paper presents three units of study and discusses ways that teachers can incorporate Kenneth Burke's ideas on symbolic action into the basic communication course. The three units discussed in the paper address: meaning in language and symbolic reality; persuasion; and rhetorical criticism. Each unit includes a brief introduction to the topic,…

This paper expands on schematic theory through a review of recent work in the field of semiotics. Content and formal schemata are shown to be grounded respectively in perceptual (abductive) and indexical (inductive) strategies of inference. A third kind of schemata is based on deductive generalization and referred to as abstract schemata. All…

This document describes the development of the language skills subprogram of the Hawaii English Program--Secondary. After considering various theories of instructional strategies in language, the team developed a pair of complementary subprograms: a part-to-whole skills lab for building up students' stocks of language options and a whole-to-part…

The third book in this English textbook series aims to determine minimum essentials in language and grammar, to provide methods for making correct form habitual, and to arrange the material so that it may be used in connection with the language work of the pupils outside the language recitation. Exercises, drills, games, and tests are employed.…

Students learn, understand, and retain knowledge best when they discover it themselves. In the area of semantics, the study of how meaning is conveyed through language, explicit knowledge may appear to be obvious once it becomes conscious, but unless people are explicitly aware of their implicit knowledge and assumptions, they may be at their…

Noting that identifying and inferring cause and effect relationships is critical to the receptive language use of both listeners and readers, this paper describes the various constructions used to express cause and effect and discusses the problems in comprehending them. Various sections of the paper discuss (1) the form of cause and effect…

DESPITE EFFORTS TO SUBSTITUTE "DIALECT" FOR "USAGE" IN THE GRAMMARIAN'S VOCABULARY, THERE IS STILL A PLACE FOR THE LATTER TERM, FOR WITHIN ANY DIALECT THERE ARE MANY CHOICES OF FORM, WORD, AND CONSTRUCTION. THE TEACHING OF USAGE CAN BE FOUNDED ON TWO SIMPLE PRINCIPLES--(1) THE EXTENT OF SOCIAL PENALTY FOR USING THE ITEM AND (2) THE FREQUENCY OF…

The use of rhetoric as a focus in teaching writing, working for understanding, not obedience to rules is discussed and illustrated. Rhetoric is defined as the art of making choices among available means of expression. The major implication of the definition is said to be that rhetoric, as the art of selection, is primarily concerned with…

Recognition that students at Midwestern State University, Texas, lacked a basic level of linguistic skills prompted an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar, in which nonsense words were used to introduce concepts of English usage. Working in small groups, students arranged the nonsense words to form sentences which "sound[ed] like…

"Sight Unseen" by Mary Ann Beggs and "Language and Values" by Victoria J. Heland are provided to suggest techniques for exploring language through the five senses and through making ethical choices. (DD)

Discusses current language needs analyses, and considers the relationship between this type of analysis and language programs and materials. (AM)

The tasks of the translation teacher--the elicitation of correct translations and the prevention of incorrect translations--are discussed. (Author/HP)

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that students who can verbalize the rules governing such structures as the "ser/estar" dichotomy will be superior in the correct use of the structures. Ss were 50 English-speaking students of first-semester college Spanish. The hypothesis was confirmed. (RM)

An elaboration of the official instruction on teaching French to native speakers in elementary school. The topics covered are: Methodological development of exercises; the linguistic ability and milieu of the students; operative criteria; and the question of a logical progression or spontaneous use of grammar exercises. (Text is in French.) (AMH)