Three major studies on English and native language use in the classrooms of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are reviewed for the insights they provide on effective teaching practices and special services for this population. The bilingual education profession misunderstands and misuses what the literature says about instruction for LEP…

To translate the recent research in writing and oral communication into useful suggestions for classroom practice, to focus on ways teachers can help their students grow as writers and speakers, and to stress activities that do not isolate the language arts into units and sever skills from content learning, the articles in this book were prepared…

This article discusses the incompatibility between the goal of communicative competence (defined more narrowly as minimal approximative communicative competence) and current practices of syllabus design, and suggests more relevant alternatives. Foreign language instruction is still dominated by the teaching of language structure for its own sake,…

Based on the premise that comprehension must be the true and final goal of all instruction in reading, this book is designed to provoke teachers' reflections about their own ideas, reading, language, and experiences as teachers of reading comprehension and to help them base their teaching decisions on a knowledge of theory and research about how…

Initiated in 1965, the Standard Speech Development Program of the Pittsburgh Public Schools was designed to give junior high school students control of standard English speech through oral pattern drills based on particular phonetic or grammatical structures of standard English. By the end of the 1967-68 school year, pattern drills were part of…

The paper attempts to illustrate the importance of an accurate sociocultural description of a number of unconscious verbal and gestural behaviors which help to distinguish a Frenchman from an American. An accurate description of many of the most elementary signs and gestures is needed to help to dispel the notion that there is a one-for-one…

This paper describes a teaching strategy involving authentic material in a semi-autonomous learning situation (European civil servants working in the Common Market Administrations in Brussels). A general description of the learners in terms of their backgrounds (ethnic, educational and social) and the conditions and surroundings of their learning…

Two basic issues underlie problems associated with the teaching of Bahasa Indonesia in the Indonesian primary schools. The first involves language standardization and deciding what form of the language will be taught. The criteria of understanding and communication are involved and such features as pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation,…

Classroom activities in language arts designed to make students aware of sex stereotyping are presented. Ninety-two learning games that encompass a wide array of language-arts skills are described. Topics covered in the various games and exercises are organized into four sections: (1) "Sexist Language: Watch What You Say!" introduces students to…

This paper reviews the application of notional syllabuses and structural curricula to intensive ESL programs. It is suggested that a communicative or functional or functional-notional syllabus must not be viewed in contrast to a structural or grammatical syllabus. Functional notions are necessary inclusions into the class and into texts, but…

Most instructional materials developed in the past 10-15 years do not provide for sufficient activities to allow the student to become involved in anything other than drill and memorization. Furthermore, in those situations where "communication activities" do occur, they are designed to teach the sentence as a structural, grammatical…

This volume presents the 1968 collection of working papers in the field of teaching English as a second language (TESL). It includes discussions of several practicalities in the field of English language teaching such as choosing literature and short stories for non-native speakers, criteria for selecting textbooks, educational problems involved…

Presents a study in which first grade students wrote about what they had learned or discovered at their math learning center. Suggests that students who learn actively by writing in a journal acquire ownership of the information, and that reflecting on information is more effective than transcribing and reciting. (JC)

This case study explores the student teaching experience of a Spanish language teacher candidate through her own eyes. It sheds light on how the participants' prior learning experience and beliefs inform her initial practice, how she develops her teaching skills, what contextual factors affect her learning-to-teach process, and the sources from…

Papers from the 1998 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium include: "Patterns of Gender Agreement in the Speech of Second Language Learners"; "'Nomas' in Mexican American Dialect"; "Parsing Spanish 'solo'"; "On Levels of Processing and Levels of Comprehension"; "The Role of Attention in Second/Foreign Language Classroom Research: Methodological Issues";…