Reviews the content of the courseware contained in "EXITO: Survival Spanish," noting that this course is divided into 10 chapters and contains material typically covered in a beginning Spanish course (e.g., vocabulary units including greetings, family members, time expressions, etc.). The primary strength of the EXITO program is that it is a…

Offers strategies for teaching grammar, literature, essay writing, democracy in letters to the editor, and oral presentations of the research paper. (PA)

Briefly reviews the way grammar has been taught over the last 30 years and explores a successful student-centered method of grammar instruction in second-language classes that can aid retention. (Author/JL)

Describes how the author used many versions of the Cinderella story as a springboard for a variety of activities in her sixth-grade class, including discussion of fairy tale elements, aspects of story structure, summarizing, and problem-solving activities. (SR)

Presents an activity designed to help students begin to see connections between traditional print and electronic communication environments. Aims also to introduce students to collaborative writing and sharpen narrative writing skills. Gives a step-by-step progression of the activity which begins with groups creating a character sketch. (PA)

Describes using news stories (including the O.J. Simpson trial) to teach grammar and usage in context. (RS)

Comparison of 14 verbally gifted 6-year olds with equal numbers of chronological-age and mental-age controls using a structural-developmental analysis found that the gifted children organized story plots in ways typical of children 2 years older, elaborated on basic plot structures more than control groups, and demonstrated advanced language…

Discusses the scarcity of research on the characterization of the second-language (L2) initial state, where "L2 initial state" refers to the starting point of nonnative grammatical knowledge. The article emphasizes that exploring the mechanisms of "development" of interlanguage requires an understanding of what a particular stage changed "from."…

Reports on an exploratory study that examined and compared foreign-language student and teacher beliefs regarding the benefit of a focus on form in language learning. Results showed that students are relatively favorable toward a focus on form; however, surprising discrepancies surfaced in teacher beliefs and in a comparison of student and teacher…

Focuses on the brain's response to one aspect of syntactic processing--the processing of sentences that violate constraints on constituent movement. Findings indicate that movement constraints can be applied during the earliest stages of sentence processing, perhaps in conjunction with the creation of phrase structure. (46 references) (Author/CK)

Reviews a computer software program, "Mastering German Grammar," for teaching and reinforcing a comprehensive range of grammar topics. It is noted that the program is a no-frills, user-friendly personal tutor with easy to locate and call up grammar topics. (CK)

Describes how modeling, guided practice in controlled materials, monitoring and corrective feedback, and independent practice were used to teach contractions to six low-performing second graders, including a child with learning disabilities. Planning and implementation of the lessons are described and a sample lesson plan is provided. (CR)

Explores an Optimality-Theoretic approach to account for observed cross-linguistic patterns of code switching that assumes that code switching strives for well-formedness. Optimization of well-formedness in code switching is shown to follow from (violable) ranked constraints. An argument is advanced that code-switching patterns emerge from…

Reviews the nature of apprenticeship in non-writing contexts. Describes, distinguishes, and illustrates the apprenticeship, traditional, and process approaches to writing instruction. Surveys evidence that apprenticeship provides the best model; highlights some practical applications of this model to writing instruction. Concludes that it…

Evaluates arguments advanced in favor of special nativism in second-language acquisition (SLA). The article considers the following claims: Universal Grammar (UG) is the null hypothesis; any theory of SLA needs a theory of grammar; and showing that interlanguage grammars are underdetermined by the available input implies that UG must be accessible…