In the framework of Transactional Analysis, there are three ego states, the Parent, Child, and Adult. Students' enthusiasm for learning is directly related to the health of their Child ego state. Since the Adult ego state exemplifies the rational part, schools can be seen as organized to further the functioning of this state. An examination of…

A corpus of Black English (BEV) data is re-examined with exclusive attention to the "is" form of the copula. This analysis differs from previous examinations in that more constraints have been introduced, and the Cedergren/Sankoff computer program for multivariant analysis has been employed. The analytic techniques that are used allow for a finer…

This discussion of student output concentrates on reasons for learner's errors, types of errors, and some techniques for correcting them. An error is defined as an unintentional deviation from an expected pattern, which could be a linguistic form, a phonological or a grammatical rule, or an incorrect form or expression in a particular situation.…

Part of the reward for expository college English papers is, of course, letter grades, but careful writing offers two greater rewards: knowledge and liberation. Teachers can best motivate students to write by seeing to it that the writing they assign teaches and challenges, and by assigning topics that are important to students but ones that they…

This report discussed the conceptual and technical problems which constrain information systems (acquiring, classifying, storing, searching, retrieving) and shows how these are affected by certain characteristics of educational administration's knowledge base. The following constraints are identified: (1) the eclectic and multi-disciplinary…

Speeches and compositions often become mere word lists, obscuring the message's true meaning with too many words. This paper shows that the words "use,""of," and "it" can be eliminated from writing and speech, making communications shorter, more understandable, and more efficient. Examples are provided. (RL)

Conceding that there has been some insufficient sensitivity to the existence of women in the semantic choices of traditional English Grammar, this paper contends that the new feminist grammars confuse language with sexual politics. Issues discussed in the paper include the generic masculine occupation words; the prefix titling system (covering…

This pamphlet is the ninth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet describes a project that was undertaken to discover…

A training program for technical writers, in which a specialized information focus is used to ask questions about a text in the process of writing and revising, is the subject of this paper. The unique aspects of technical writing are defined according to the process whereby readers extract information from text. Reader expectations are classified…

Previous research has demonstrated that 11 linguistic indices discriminate between truthful and deceptive language behavior. On the basis of subjective judgment, the original researchers arranged these indices in clusters (dimensions) of deceptive language behavior: uncertainty, vagueness, negative affect, and reticence. The present study sought…

This collection of essays focuses on linguistic investigations of English, both spoken and written. The 12 chapters deal with Charles Dickens' linguistic criticism; eighteenth century prescriptivism; the relevance of language study to the study of Shakespeare; obstacles to the study of Old and Middle English; the contributions of R. G. Latham to…

Of the multitude of dialects which exemplify the Spanish language, Puerto Rican Spanish has suffered the most severe rejection by language purists and pseudolinguists. The need to take a clear and open look at Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico is preeminent. It is the purpose of this module to clarify some major points of controversy regarding Puerto…

This study investigated the relationships between teacher facilitative or directive verbal behavior in nursery school classrooms and seven aspects of child language change. Twenty-eight nursery teachers and 95 children from these classrooms were selected for this study. The teacher verbal behavior was measured by the Withall Social Climate Index,…

This paper reports on a study designed to investigate the kinds of responses people produce during wrong-number telephone calls and to discover the rules that appear to govern the choices of the responses and their relationships. Fifty-seven calls were placed at different times during the day over a period of several weeks. The sentences used to…

The author of this paper argues that, in the study of current usage, we need to supplement data from corpus studies by using methods that elicit use, reports of use, and evaluations of use on items which interest them. Ten methods for experimental elicitation of such data are described, related to one another, and illustrated with examples of data…