Examines language development in preschool children, focusing on teacher-child interactions that can help facilitate language development. Suggests that teachers, parents, and other adults need to respond to children's conversation, elaborate on children's language, and ask children questions. Argues that the best way to facilitate language…

Reports findings from a large-scale investigation into the implementation of Hong Kong's communicative English-language curriculum at the secondary level. Focuses on the roles of teachers and learners and the impact of these roles on patterns of interaction and the nature of language used in the classroom. (DSK)

Presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal study of French teaching and learning in two secondary schools in southern England. Focuses on a subgroup of teachers involved in the project, examining their classroom practices and beliefs about effective teaching (Author/VWL)

The present work investigated the development of an explicit understanding of pretend play actions. Study 1 revealed a long decalage between earlier implicit understanding of pretence as an intentional activity and a later more explicit understanding. Study 2 was a training study. It tested for two factors--systematic pretence experience and…

The language used to construct knowledge, beliefs, and worldviews in school science is distinct from the social language that students use in their everyday ordinary life. This difference is a major source of reading difficulty for many students, especially struggling readers and English-language learners. This article identifies some of the…

The social reform and opening-up in Chinese society in the last three decades have resulted in overall changes in almost every aspect of social life of its people. As an important indicator in these changes, English has become an important tool in education for students to move ahead to a higher level of schooling, and better jobs in the…

To inform discussions of revising the curriculum of junior secondary schools in Western Samoa, a series of structured observations of classrooms was conducted. Data from 145 classes, covering Business/Commercial Studies, English Home Economics, Manual Arts, Mathematics, Samoan Studies, Science and Social Science, were analyzed. With the exception…

Traditional methods of both first and second language teaching have commonly relied on simplification, restricting the range of language forms and functions to be learned and then practicing those forms to achieve mastery. These methods, however, fail to consider seriously the questions of how language develops in natural contexts, what language…

A class "on" metaphor can be usefully distinguished from a class "in" metaphor. A class on metaphor concentrates on metaphor theory and function. To teach in metaphor would be to coach students in pragmatics, to guide them in the study of how key metaphors are used and help to structure discrete universes of discourse. For…

This article stresses the idea that teaching communicative competence and the ability to deal with a variety of language situations should be the goal of foreign language teaching, with grammar instruction in a secondary position. Teaching by means of "dialogues with options" is discussed and sample dialogues for Italian instruction are given.…

Although much has been written about the potential applications for computers in the classroom, instructional computing has not so far affected classrooms and teaching practice in the manner or to the degree in which it was foretold. An analysis of the discourse surrounding educational computing reveals conceptions of teaching and prescriptions…

A discussion of the functional approach to second language teaching looks at its theoretical foundations and their relationship to communicative language instruction. It locates the origins of the functional approach in early twentieth-century British linguistics and the three key concepts of context of situation, language function, and meaning…

A classroom-oriented therapeutic program was devised for four pragmatically impaired preschoolers who showed little spontaneous language use within the classroom. Intervention strategies focused on facilitating interactions during free play and were based on four principles for practitioners: be child-oriented; engineer the environment; use…

An English instructor at the University of Central Arkansas observed three problems students encounter with the often formidable writings of John Milton and developed strategies for alleviating those problems. The first problem was the difficulty posed by the vocabulary and syntax of "Paradise Lost." The instructor discussed with the…

A stylistics-based approach to teaching poetry in the English as a foreign language classroom is examined. Since students may not have the linguistic skills to appreciate a poem, an analytical framework is proposed that includes the elements of repetition, confusion, and surprise. Reference is made to two poems, "In a Season of Unemployment"…