This report describes the scope and aims of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa. An outgrowth of a series of ICSLP conferences (International Conference on Second Language Problems, jointly sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics, the British Council, and the Bureau pour l' Enseignement de la Langue et de la…

Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech is presented in this paper and shown to be an effective vehicle for helping students discover the power of language and of literature. The paper first discusses the potentially destructive way English teachers sometimes tell students about "hidden meanings" in long and complex works…

This study was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that science teaching, properly done, could have an effect on language usage among elementary school students. A population of 14 fourth-grade classrooms was randomly divided into experimental and control groups. All teachers attended workshops for 90 minutes every two weeks throughout the…

In order to achieve literacy, children must have mastered the decoding and encoding processes of the language of instruction. Usually this has been accomplished long before the child enters school. However, if the child's language is atypical for any reason, such as cultural or linguistic factors, then the acquisition of literacy requires a…

Designed as a research tool for teachers of writing, this annotated bibliography describes texts and readers which pertain to college level English courses (with indications of those suitable for use in high schools). Each entry has been placed in one or more of the following categories: grammar and basic usage, composition, advanced composition…

Politeness is discussed as an integral part of human conversational interaction. Awareness of politeness is important to understanding proper language usage. Several sentences may perform the same function but vary in tone from a command to an extremely polite request. Foreign language instruction should expose learners to politeness and the…

Three examples are given of cases where differences between Spanish and English syntax and intonation patterns are taught best through direct translation. Grammatical difficulties caused by "gustar" are overcome through the use of translation using "appeal" rather than "please". Similarly, problems for native speakers of English arising with…

Linguistics has developed as an isolated discipline, while language has historically been the central subject of education. Linguistics need to begin contributing to the general understanding of language by developing courses for the non-specialist. A course conducted by the author for non-majors is outlined. The title of the course was…

Describes a classroom activity that emphasizes syntactic fluency and the richness of linguistic resources available in written language, while downplaying the "dos and don'ts" of traditional punctuation instruction. (RL)

Proposes an approach to remedial language training for adult workers which takes into account the linguistic, psychological, sociological, political, and ideological aspects of adult workers' language needs. (AM)

This article describes a practical classroom approach to teaching the Spanish subjunctive to lower level classes using impersonal expressions. (NCR)

Compares discussion in teacherless small group with that in a class lesson. (AA)

A good collection of French proverbs and their English equivalents, classified according to subject. It is suggested that proverbs be used to promote the learning of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, ease of self-expression, and appreciation of French culture. (AMH)

Reaction of the target language speaker to the second language learner's errors may play an important role in developing awareness of norms of correctness. A model for corrective feedback has been developed. Its use helps isolate ambiguities, highlights features of corrective interaction effective in eliciting correct performance. (CHK)

This article proposes use of one aspect of transformational-generative grammar as a simple explanation of the use of English articles. In this method, nouns are analyzed to determine their definiteness and whether they are countable, as tests for using "a" and "the." (CHK)