Shows that intermediate learners of German whose first language is English experience more semantic difficulties when reading an English text and more syntactic difficulties when reading a German version of the same text. A stronger emphasis on syntactic features, such as word category, agreement relationships, tensing, and word placement in the…

This paper presents and comments on an experiment on teaching grammar that was started at Gettysburg College (PA). Using a proficiency-based approach, this course uses films as texts that provide a cultural, visual, and linguistic context in which the class functions. (six references) (JL)

A study investigated whether direct instruction in story constituents and their interrelationships could enhance children's organization in story writing. It was hypothesized that the special instruction could provide children with an internalized prototype story structure that could serve as a heuristic or planning device for organizing…

Combining concepts of cognitive theory with those of rhetoric and linguistics can help writing teachers understand the kinds of activities that will enable basic writers to produce syntactic constructions appropriate for the content they have generated. A review of research studies of sentence combining, syntactic constructions, grammatical…

When teaching English as a second language to speakers of Punjabi, it is useful for the teacher to have some knowledge of the students' native language. This paper analyzes the differences in word order between English and Punjabi. The five basic sentence patterns in English are contrasted with the equivalent sentence patterns in Punjabi.…

This study presents an intensive comparative analysis of selected basic sentence patterns and transformations in Spanish and English manifested in the responses of Spanish-speaking disadvantaged children selected to receive instruction in the following groups: (1) Oral-Aural Spanish with special science materials in Spanish; (2) Oral-Aural English…

Applied linguistics is set forth as a teaching method for basic Spanish skills. General questions of method are considered in the first part, with attention focused on linguistic and non-linguistic teaching procedures. A linguistic teaching method and psychological aspects of language learning are also discussed. In the much lengthier second part,…

This learning module is designed to provide the prospective teacher of English as second language with a contrastive overview of the syntactic structures of Spanish and English and to enable him to: (a) state the English language patterns that are difficult for a Puerto Rican Spanish-speaker, (b) explain the specific causes for indications of…

Thirteen subjects (aged 5:6 to 6:6) with language disorders were given elicited imitation and spontaneous language tasks, and their performance was compared among and within subjects. The two procedures produced significantly correlated results for some children but not for others. Analysis of specific syntactic forms also produced variable…

Ninety students in grades six to eight listened to or read written passages and then identified and corrected grammar and syntax errors. Students listening and receiving auditory feedback located more errors than those reading. Learning-disabled students and students matched on reading level identified fewer errors than did students matched on…

Defines formulaic phrases by showing their stereotypical nature. A taxonomy of phrases is proposed for classificatory purposes, and some techniques are suggested for teaching these structures. The techniques are based on analogy and analysis, where students imitate a sentence by keeping certain structures unchanged and changing the rest. (PJM)

The linguistic complexity of grammatical structures depends on their usage. Such complexity must be purposefully controlled by the teacher of English as a second language. Examples of shortcomings in the presentation of various structures in current textbooks illustrate this point. (PMJ)

Examined the speech of Sudanese non-native speakers of English while they lectured to non-native English speaking students from in content-subject classes. The study was carried out to see whether lecturers simplified their language syntactically by proficiency level. Findings reveal that the lecturers used five different syntactic variables…

Research suggests electronic mail can be a powerful motivator for authentic second language (L2) interaction, but little is known about the efficacy of this medium in the development of target language proficiency. This study examines Email exchanges between university learners of Japanese as a foreign language and native Japanese university…

Three high-school students with deafness and additional disabilities used microcomputer software featuring graphics and cartoons to improve their creative writing. Though use of correct syntactic structures did not improve, output of written language did increase. Descriptions of the software used and case studies of the three students are…