Suggests criteria and strategies for an efficient use of textbook grammar presentations to give students a useful and native-like language. Shows how text deficiencies can be remedied through rearrangement and deletion of grammatical points and emphasizes the need for reentering useful, high frequency items in new contexts throughout the course.…

Describes several techniques for implementing commercial radio to improve listening comprehension skills in the foreign language student. Canadian radio, accessible to much of the northern United States, brings news, weather, and sports, in French, to the student of French and provides major components for sharpening comprehension skills. (PJM)

Considers possibilities for practicing grammatical structures (wh- questions, past tense) in a realistic context, e.g., examining witnesses in court. For the beginning level a section on "Ordering a Hotel Room" is added, and for the advanced level one on "Applying for a Job." (IFS/WGA)

Outlines a model for teaching French whose goal is to approximate actual language behavior as opposed to the artificial models usually provided in textbooks. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This article focuses on two elements of the dialogue: the "real-life" quality of the language (where to find "real-life" language, how to check its authenticity, how to record it) and the element of unpredictability (how to create "real-life" dialogues with unexpected responses which necessitate well-developed listening skills). (CFM)

Describes several curriculum resources that focus on eliminating sex stereotypes through nonsexist teaching strategies, activities, and material selection for middle and high school language arts, reading, and English classrooms. (RS)

Reviews the evolution of semicolon use in English, examining the frequency of semicolons, colons, and dashes in grammar, language, and linguistic books from the mid-16th century to the present. Concludes that after flourishing in the 17th and 18th centuries, the semicolon may have become a marginal component of the English punctuation system. (42…

Argues that formal English is a prestige dialect containing select constructions so unnatural as to be outside the domain of normal language acquisition. Among these are nominative pronouns used as conjoined subjects. Prestige usage is unavailable for consistent use. While formal education may have some effect on normal usage, that effect is…

This article describes the pitfalls of using key words to support students when problem solving, and provides an alternative way (quantitative analysis) to support students' sense-making. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The authors offer research studies and other documented evidence that teaching grammar without a meaningful context does not improve student writing, largely because that approach does not address the root causes of errors. Several resources that support this position and offer more productive strategies are summarized, including the authors'…

This paper questions the assumption that corpora are authentic, with particular reference to their application in language pedagogy. The author argues that, because of the form the corpus takes, authentic source texts forfeit a crucial criterion for authenticity, namely context, in the transition from source to electronic data. Other authentic…

Using a narrative inquiry methodology, this 10-year study examined the situated nature of two teachers' development. Research questions examined how the teachers situated their own learning, how they developed discourse communities for teaching and learning, and how they used tools in their work. Findings suggest that the following elements of…

Honoring students' home dialect is a complex task when preparing them to take state writing tests that require the use of Standard English. Working with students who had failed the test and were in danger of not receiving a diploma, Michelle Crotteau created a supportive learning environment in which students could develop linguistic and…

A comparison is made of American and Japanese humor in a class of English as a second language. American humor is categorized into four types: anecdotal, wordplay, wise sayings and contrived. (AG)

Discusses various uses of testing in language teaching as well as testing that occurs in normal language use. (RM)