This study examined whether a younger starting age is advantageous in a situation of minimal exposure to an instructed foreign language ([less than or equal] 4 hours classroom contact per week). Previous theoretical and empirical studies indicated there should be no advantage for an earlier start. Japanese college students who started studying…

Borrowing the concept of story grammar from reading comprehension literature, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of teaching "word problem (WP) story grammar" on arithmetic WP solving that emphasizes the algebraic expression of mathematical relations in conceptual models. Participants were five students in Grades 4 and 5 with or…

The instructional materials in French are designed for use by language trainers of Peace Corps volunteers serving in francophone Tunisia, to supplement situational language and grammar instruction. A brief introductory section offers strategies for teaching verb tenses. The diverse materials that follow include lists of situational questions in…

Broad and major concerns dealing with reading are set forth in this monograph to provoke discussion and examination by both researchers and practitioners. In Part 1, Kenneth S. Goodman presents a psycholinguistic view of language and reading (within a transformational-generative framework) as essentially a set of processes of recoding, decoding,…

Language, considered as a liberal art, is examined in the light of other philosophical viewpoints concerning the nature of language in relation to second language instruction in this paper. Critical of an earlier mechanistic audio-lingual learning theory, translation approaches to language learning, vocabulary list-oriented courses, graduate…

Papers from a conference on the teaching of grammar, particularly in second language instruction, include: "Grammar: Acquisition and Use" (Richard Johnstone); "Grammar and Communication" (Brian Page); "Linguistic Progression and Increasing Independence" (Bernardette Holmes); "La grammaire? C'est du bricolage!" ("Grammar? That's Hardware!") (Barry…

Noting that grammar is alive, changing, and controversial, this book offers a combination of guidelines and creative language use for people who have already been exposed to the rules of grammar to help them start building their own style of speaking and writing. The first part of the book "Recalling the Parts of Speech," provides a…

This paper seeks to determine the essential qualities of proper nouns and to determine the differences between proper and common nouns by reviewing research and writings on the subject. Both proper and common nouns are found to connote the attributes of objects as their content. Common nouns, however, are those that identify a certain substance on…

This handbook, first published 50 years ago, is designed to teach individuals how to write more effectively. It offers step-by-step techniques and exercises to write simply, clearly, and correctly. New features in this edition of the handbook include contemporary examples, and guidelines for computer assisted research and writing and for…

An analysis of subject placement in Italian argues that placement is not determined entirely by case, but also partly by interpretational considerations. The crucial step in the argument is that there are independent well-formedness conditions on discourse structures and that the apparent interpretational effects on preposed subjects of…

The dictionary of the Ojibwa or Chippewa language represents the speech of the Mille Lacs Band of Minnesota and contains over 7,000 Ojibwa terms. Each entry gives information on the word stem, grammatical classification, English gloss, form variations, and references to alternate forms. An introductory section describes the entry format and use,…

The value of markedness theory in constructing explanatory models of linguistic meaning is questioned, particularly the claim that a single relationship (marked vs. unmarked) accounts for all differences in asymmetrically paired terms. It is argued that because unmarked terms vary greatly in the distributions that identify them as unmarked,…

This includes a contrastive study of English and Chinese noun phrases, verbal phrases, and word order and discusses common mistakes made by English speakers learning Chinese. Mistakes often made by English speakers due to differences between the two languages are divided into three categories: the first is mistakes in word order where the English…

Two Swahili dictionaries and two bilingual dictionaries by the same author (one English-Swahili and one Swahili-English) are evaluated for their form and content, with illustrations offered from each. Aspects examined include: the compilation of headwords, including their meanings with relation to basic and extended meanings; treatment of…

This unit of study introduces high-ability junior high school students to the aspect of grammar which is usually missing from technically oriented studies of grammar, namely, the wonder and pleasure of grammar or grammar appreciation. It presents grammar as a powerful way for one's mind to make ideas out of language, and a way of inspecting one's…