Argues that the prohibition against the comma splice has no logical basis whatsoever, and offers numerous examples. Maintains that English teachers should relax prohibitions against comma splices, accept that usage is flexible, and allow students a freedom which more confident writers take for granted. (SR)

Discusses situations in which mother-tongue education may not be desirable. Separate sections discuss language in education systems, multilingual settings, mother-tongue education in the "Cosmopolis," determining the mother tongue, definition of a language, social and ethnic divisiveness of mother-tongue education. The final section…

Notes that one way to expose students to the problems associated with profanity is to tie the exploration and discussion of the issue to the persuasive writing assignment that is common in many undergraduate business communication courses. Presents a discussion of such an assignment. (SG)

Considers the ways in which two late 19th-century American Indian intellectuals, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins and Charles Alexander Eastman, use the discourses about Indian-ness that circulated during that time period in order to both respond to that discourse and to reimagine what it could mean to be Indian. Argues that this "use" is a critical…

Highlights modes of evidence in large corpus research that may be significant for Sociolinguistics. Suggests that corpus data can help Sociolinguistics engage with issues and variations in usage that are less abstract then phonetics, phonology, and grammar but more proximate to the socially vital issues of the 20th century. (Author/VWL)

Explores the intersection of poet William Stafford, the poet in each child, and poetry. Discusses influences of Stafford on the author during her academic training and subsequent academic career. Notes Stafford left behind a vision of the world, a way of thinking about the process of writing, and a respect for the writer that is each child as…

Suggests the best way to help high school students write poetry is to bring them to memories that would stimulate the expression of everything more intensely. Describes four workshops that appeal to the senses: scent writing, taste writing, music writing, and sight writing. (RS)

Asks seven successful poets to share their knowledge and experience of writing poetry by answering seven questions that provide classroom teachers with approaches for facilitating students' poetry writing. Addresses topic selection, writing processes, language usage, choosing a form, whether forms should be taught, revision, and whether hard work…

Considers the socio-stylistic distinction of the French variable morpho-syntactic particle "ne." The interspeaker axes of variation in "ne" are summarized, and intraspeaker data deriving from a corpus of spoken French are considered. Examines intraspeaker variation in "ne" by focusing on the use of the variable by a single speaker in both speech…

The problematics of language and communication, as pertaining to educational theory and practice, is closely connected with the understanding of human subjectivity. The discussion in this paper focuses on a specific philosophy of language as developed by Gilles Deleuze. In order to address some possible implications of such philosophy for moral…

Librarians seldom give enough thought to the needs of potential Web-site visitors. Few librarians, for example, stop to consider how they can make their sites easy to use or more attractive. As a result, many sites have awful color schemes, hard-to-find navigation buttons, inappropriate font sizes, and confusing layouts. No wonder they don't…

Over the past two decades, professionals in the fields of education and rehabilitation of people with disabilities have adopted person-first language, that is, language that subordinates the disability to the individual. This shift in language reflects the importance society places on sensitive issues and on changing stereotypes and reducing bias…

In learning the meaning of a new term, children need to fix its reference, learn its conventional meaning, and discover the meanings with which it contrasts. To do this, children must attend to adult speakers--the experts--and to their patterns of use. In the domain of color, children need to identify color terms as such, fix the reference of each…

This study examined the use of verbalisms by 62 children aged 7-14 who were totally blind from birth and 64 sighted children. It found that a child's degree of sight and gender did not affect the frequency with which verbalisms were used; only age had a significant positive effect. The study shows that language is a flexible structure that is used…

As a primary science writer, the author finds writing the books for children far more satisfying than writing those for teachers. In the pupil books, one can speak directly to the child. Teacher notes are always interpreted by somebody else, but pupil books are not mediated by the teacher in the same way. Writing them offers particular challenges:…