The rubrics are designed for productive use (speaking and writing) of English and Spanish in two-way bilingual immersion programs. The rubrics were developed by classroom teachers working in elementary school Spanish partial immersion programs, in consultation with a special education teacher, reading specialist, middle school partial immersion…

Instructional materials for use in advanced Arabic second language instruction are presented in two separately-bound parts. The first contains 28 lessons on a wide variety of subjects using a series of authentic texts, all in Arabic. These texts include personal and formal correspondence, short stories, essays, plays, poems, proverbs, and excerpts…

A study investigated the use of a mathematical model to predict individuals' total active Hebrew vocabulary from samples of their written and spoken language. The model is based on a generalized inverse Gaussian distribution. The subjects were Israeli junior high school students from both high and low socioeconomic groups. Hebrew language samples…

Designed to explore the ways language functions to help children gain access to meaning as they progress through the educational system, this journal issue views communication as a social, interactive process in which speakers and writers attempt to link into what listeners and readers know, want to know, or need to know. The 12 articles in the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 27 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) syntax in the writing of learning disabled and normal children; (2) tropes, invention, and the composing process; (3) speaking and writing relationships in…

A discussion of classroom techniques and activities useful in teaching English to monolingual Arab students begins with a review of cultural factors significant in the second language learning patterns of this population. These factors include historical and traditional influences, North American perceptions of Arabs, the teaching of English in…

A study focused on the problems of poor performance in classroom assignments and state-wide writing assessments of middle grade students in the practicum setting. The goals of the practicum plan were: (1) to improve teacher competency in the steps of the writing process; (2) to improve student attitudes about writing; and (3) to improve writing…

A study tested the hypothesis that spoken language has a strong direct influence on the encoding process, and that speakers of nonstandard dialects have a different set of problems with the written language and make identifiably different errors than do speakers of standard dialect. The subjects, 13 standard and 13 nonstandard dialect speakers…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) reasoning strategies used by gifted and average fifth grade children in written discourse; (2) the effect of mode of discourse on the syntactic complexity of…

The materials status report for Portuguese is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching the language to English speakers. The report consists of: (1) a brief narrative description of the language, the areas where it is spoken, its major dialects, its writing system,…

Noting that having fun with language engenders a love of language and an understanding of its power and vitality, and that students with this awareness of and respect for language will likely be more successful writers, this guide offers suggestions that will help teachers ease the rigors of writing for their students and create a "language…

The materials status report for Dari, the dialect of Persian (Farsi) spoken in Afghanistan, is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching various languages to English speakers. The report consists of: (1) a brief narrative description of Dari, the areas where it is…

The materials status report for Baluchi, the major regional language in Pakistan, is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching various languages to English speakers. The report consists of: (1) a brief narrative description of Baluchi, the areas where it is spoken,…

The materials status report for Lao is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching various languages to English speakers. The report consists of: (1) a brief narrative description of Lao, the areas where it is spoken, its major dialects, its writing system, points of…

The materials status report for Lingala, a lingua franca spoken in central Africa, is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching various languages to English speakers. The report consists of: (1) a brief narrative description of Lingala, the areas where it is spoken,…