Language consists of symbols written, spoken, or thought about things, places, or feelings seen or unseen. Any block, interference, or impasse to the acquirement of symbolic language can result in a learning disability. Oral language must precede the graphic. The purpose of this handbook is to suggest practical approaches and techniques which will…

This student centered curriculum guide stresses learning activities. The first section offers a brief course description of the seventh grade, eighth grade, and ninth grade language arts programs. The second section describes in detail the skills objectives and activities for: written communication, oral communication, grammar, spelling,…

This book provides a sequence of 10 skill-building games and follow-up activities (beginning with "Getting Acquainted" and ending with "Arriving at a Consensus") designed to give students necessary practice in proper discussion techniques. Fifteen remedial exercises to treat such weaknesses as extreme aggressiveness or a habit of straying from the…

Information related to the implementation of the Miami Linguistic Reading Program for Spanish-speaking and American Indian children in 6 New Mexico school systems is presented. School systems utilizing and reporting on the program are: (1) the West Las Vegas School System; (2) Anton Chico Elementary School in Santa Rosa; (3) Pojoaque Valley…

To identify speech skills necessary to effectively teach the oral dimension of language, 137 secondary school teachers of English in Alabama were asked to complete a questionnaire on (1) their undergraduate education, (2) their knowledge of speech, and (3) those speech activities perceived useful in facilitating instruction in oral English. The…

This study tested which, if any, of three listening training methods would make a significant difference in the listening ability of high school students. From 17 public and parochial schools in the greater Kansas City, Missouri, area, 615 students were selected and pre- and post-tested with alternate forms of a "cloze" listening test devised by…

The primary goal for teachers of English composition is to help students achieve a competent oral and written style compatible with their own environment, age, sex, and socioeconomic background. To help students express their thoughts and perceptions clearly and logically, teachers should (1) exhibit a positive attitude toward writing; (2) provide…

Because an English teacher's work involves communication at the highest level with the past, present, and future, he must be more sensitive than other men to changes in the communicative process. The communication approaches of the classical period, dialogue and argumentation, gave way to a more "manuscript culture" in the Middle Ages, and, by…

As a step toward developing more controlled studies into children's language, this study attempted to develop standard stimuli to elicit eight basic sentence patterns from kindergarten children. Four stimuli were developed for each pattern. Each stimulus consisted of a stick-figure picture, a description of the picture, and a question or direction…

Designed to help local public educational agencies serve Spanish speaking adults, this adult basic education curriculum and teaching guide for English as a second language provides vocabulary, sentence pattern drills, question and answer practice, and other specific suggestions. Included are sessions for getting acquainted, followed by units on…

This state curriculum guide is intended to provide Alaskan secondary school language art teachers with a sequential instructional program designed to meet the need of students in all aspects of language arts in grades 9-12. After an introductory statement on the use of the guide and a discussion of the needs and characteristics of youth, the guide…

Fifth-grade and college students in two experiments listened to tape-recorded sentences and completed tests of immediate recall. The first experiment investigated the effect of a listener's expectations upon his understanding of a sentence. Sometimes the "most probable" answer was not congruent with the "correct" answer, suggesting that the…

An attempt to test students objectively in a five-part, French, speaking proficiency test is described and discussed. Concrete nouns, abstract words, pronunciation, syntax, and fluency are tested with a combination of tape and picture stimuli. Reliability, validity, and practical questions are raised; and previous aural-oral testing procedures are…

Black Studies means an indepth investigation of the Black Experience. Without oral history methods, this will be prostituted to mean a superficial view of opinions set forth by white society. All the broad areas of Black scholarship must begin to relate to the problems of capturing the life of the race on tape and retaining it for posterity. Oral…

Summarizing recent research on evaluative reactions toward Mexican American speech varieties, the paper obtained contrasting evaluative reactions for standard English versus standard Spanish, for standard English versus highly accented English, and for varying degrees of accented English. Anglo and Mexican American adolescents from a Chicago high…