There is a need for empirical investigation of the optimal length for drill sentences at various states of second language learning. This paper reports the results of a study that explores the effects of sentence length and grammatical structure on the ability of foreign students to repeat English sentences. It was hypothesized that sentences of…

Suggests ways to increase the amount and quality of student participation in classroom communication. These techniques include changing the classroom environment, developing specific questioning and drill techniques, minimizing explanation and information-giving, using peer correction but not overcorrection, using gestures and props, being…

With the increasing number of Spanish-English bilingual children in the U.S., both SLPs and researchers must understand speech and language developments in these children--and SLPs also need reliable assessment and intervention approaches for serving bilingual children with language disorders. This comprehensive text is one of the few to offer…

Issues in this volume include the following feature articles: "Grammar: Rules and Reasons Working Together" (Diane Larsen-Freeman); "TESOL Sets Sail for Vancouver" (Nancy Storer); "The Reading Lab: An Invitation to Read" (Jean Zukowski/Faust); "Quebec: A Unique North American ESL Teaching Experience"…

These 2 volumes include papers and abstracts of papers presented at the August 2002 "The Way We Think" conference in Denmark. Papers and abstracts of papers in the two volumes include: "Blending and Conceptual Disintegration" (Anders Hougaard); "Levels of Blending, Disintegration, and Language Evolution" (Carl Bache); "Conceptual Integration,…

Supplementary to "NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress," this report describes two aspects of writing for which change has been measured since 1984: writing fluency as determined by holistic scoring; and mastery of the conventions of written English as determined by mechanics scoring. The introduction discusses the layout and means of…

This paper analyses the influence of age on the acquisition of English as a third language by focusing on the development of general proficiency in English by school children. Participants were 60 secondary school students who had studied English for 6 years but started learning it at different ages. All participants completed a battery of tests…

Achievement approaching mastery in the use of at least one modern foreign language on the part of a large portion of tomorrow's citizens is an objective which is new in American education. Language programs in the high school are therefore undergoing basic modifications in order to establish learning conditions that can develop communication…

A technique using verbal analysis of photographs for the controlled syntactic manipulation of material suggested by the picture is described. This activity develops thinking skills, language skills, and cultural awareness. (PMJ)

A survey with employers and teacher-coordinators of cooperative education programs showed that young employees' most common deficiencies are in communication skills, both written and oral. Poor handwriting was the leading complaint, followed by misspelling, ignorance of grammar and rhetoric, poor customer relations, and lack of comprehension and…

Argues that adult learners develop strategies to suit their own learning styles. Points out that the goal of communicative language programs is communicative competence, that is, second-language learners are expected to acquire pragmatic, functional language by using it in meaningful and unrehearsed ways. (nine references) (Author/CK)

Investigated the acquisition of narrow-range rules governing the dative alternation by adult learners of English as a Second Language, native English speakers, and Japanese and Chinese speakers. Suggests that the Japanese and Chinese learners' acquisition of the dative alternation in English is governed by the properties of an equivalent structure…

Presents the results of three experiments investigating the time course of grammaticality judgement. The high correlations among the experiments suggest that the incremental tasks assigned were tapping into the same decision-making process as is found online. The article discusses the findings' implications for the error types that do and do not…

This article reviews ways that computers can support writing by students with learning disabilities. It discusses research on word processing, software for transcription and sentence generation, spelling checkers, speech synthesizers, word prediction programs, grammar and style checkers, prompting programs, outlining and semantic mapping software,…

Examines children's uses of nominal determiners ("local markings") and utterance structure ("global markings") to introduce new referents through the use of narratives elicited from preschoolers, elementary school students and adults in English, French, German and Mandarin Chinese. Findings reveal that local markings emerge first, and local and…