Arguing that practice without theory is destructive, this books deals with the theory, philosophy, and application of a variety of subjects within the area of composition. The nine chapters of the first section of the book constitute a state-of-the-art essay and discuss such topics as J. Emig's 1971 study of the composing process and the more…

The classroom practice of promoting glib recitation, on cue, of the surface structures of a foreign language is criticized. This practice has been based on the belief that it equates with, or leads to, communicative performance but the author claims that the attempt to simplify language learning into a sequence of skills beginning with listening…

Intended for use in adult basic education programs, for students whose academic performance is at a basic instructional level, this manual contains 20 readings, each followed by language activities. Both readings and activities emphasize various employment issues. The central focus is on readings thought to be effective in motivating and engaging…

Papers on child language development include: "Sentence Frame Effects on Children's Category Judgments" (Alison K. Adams); "Color Similarity in Children's Classifications and Extension of Object Labels" (Dare Baldwin); "Situational Properties of Early Verb Meaning" (Pol Cuvelier); "Similarity, Specificity, and…

Practical procedures for individualizing instruction for foreign language and English as a second language students are suggested. It is suggested that concrete, high-interest activities can provide meaningful language practice for small groups, as can traditional exercises redesigned for individual or small-group work. The concrete activities…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with the following topics: oral language characteristics of college freshmen; the language development of a modern day "wild child"; children's understanding of relational terms; the relationship of…

The Center for Applied Linguistics, in Cooperation with Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, undertook to cover experimentally, for a period of 18 months, foreign language Journal material on applied linguistics published in Central and Eastern Europe and to select for abstracting, and in some cases, translation, articles of particular…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 49 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relation of cognitive ability and receptive language ability in primary school children; (2) verbal cognition; (3) contextual methods of teaching…

A technique to help English as a second language students master the basic elements of expository prose is considered in terms of course objectives and the types of assignments used to accomplish them. A characteristic of many highly verbal students entering a college program is their propensity to "talk on paper" in an informal, ungrammatical,…

The use of computer assisted instruction (CAI) at Indiana University to provide basic grammar review to beginning writing students, and the results of an evaluation of the PLATO system as a learning resource are described. At the time of the evaluation, the CAI curriculum in use was the Language Arts Routing System (LARS). The evaluation involved…

Designed to assist teachers in small schools with the improvement of curriculum and instruction and to help smaller districts that do not have curriculum personnel to comply with Washington's Student Learning Objectives (SLO) Law, this guide contains language arts curriculum materials for grades 7-8. Learning objectives are correlated to the Goals…

Recent evaluations of the influence of linguistics on language teaching indicate that there is a growing gulf between the two fields. Linguistics failed to provide a sound theoretical foundation for language teaching; it did not alter the content of language teaching, nor did it successfully modify the attitudes of teachers. The parameters of the…

From a consideration of variability in language-learner and language-user data, the concept of proficiency is considered in relation to models of second and foreign language learning. Proficiency is defined in relation to four separate dimensions: grammatical well-formedness, speech-act rules, functional elaboration, and code diversity. This…

Unit eight of a language arts curriculum for Spanish-speaking students in grade three presents learning and assessment activities focusing on communities in the nation and addressing the elements, wants and needs, change occurrences, and the results of change. The guide lists focus, objective, and materials for each activity in English and…

Three methodological "hypotheses" elaborated by the "Centre interuniversitaire de recherche pour le recyclage des maitres d'italien" are presented here. These hypotheses came from three teams of teachers working from different perspectives on sets of lessons for beginners of all ages. Each team's operative assumptions, type of text, guiding…