After considering the implications of the back-to-the-basics movement, the author concludes that there is little value in going "back" to approaches such as those typical of traditional grammar instruction. Instead, he suggests that sentence combining offers a basic approach to the teaching of writing. An experiment which began with four classes…

This paper examines language variation in terms of overdetermination and underdetermination of structural information as related to grammatical rules and the structure of social behavior. (CLK)

Discusses the correction system for German-French translations used in German universities. The following are proposed: (1) Differentiation of, and a grading scale for, errors; (2) Distinguishing interstructural vs. intrastructural errors, (with suggestion for grading); (3) Localizing errors in grammar or vocabulary, with consequences for grading.…

An approach to teaching grammar to university students in a reading comprehension course in English as a foreign language is presented. It is argued that the material and the method of teaching should be determined by the special aim of the course. (Author/RM)

This article discusses the ordering of semantic units such as nouns and verbs in Chinese sentences, with references to problems encountered by students of Chinese. (CLK)

Authors studied the human being as an active language processor in different task environments. They examined the empirical trends in two different performance situations where the subject processed and used linguistic information. Theories about subject's processing abilities in those situations were entertained. (Author/RK)

Proposes an approach to contrastive linguistics which takes into account syntax and semantics, and discusses the role of such an approach in explaining surface structure differences between English and Chinese sentences of the type: "He is a good pianist" and "I have a bad knee." (AM)

The differences in the meanings of "shall" and "will" are presented, along with examples from various grammars, beginning with the sixteenth century and including contemporary ESL (English as a second language) textbooks. (HP)

This article clarifies the position taken in the Greenfield and Smith book (1976), including relation to speech act theory, and elucidates some general theoretical issues in early language development. (Author/NCR)

Investigates whether students at different ages write "beyond" their normal syntactic maturity. The authors also discuss whether students at different levels write at a level which is syntactically less mature than their own level and, if so, to what extent they adjust their syntax when told to write for a less mature audience. (Author/RK)

A study of the effect of lexical items within first sentences which affect reading expectations for the remainder of the passage, and of the effects of violation of reader expectation following first sentences, showed poorer performance by low achievers on the "violating" passage and a performance increase with familiar content regardless of a…

A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

Two experiments examined the roles of semantic and surface information in reading and recognizing sentences. Results indicate that reading and recognition are interactive processes, involving conceptually driven and data driven operations; the interaction may be either automatic or controlled. Semantic and surface information are conceptualized as…

Describes ongoing research into errors in spontaneous speech. (RM)

Response latencies were obtained in word matching and sentence completion tasks from disabled readers, age-matched normal readers, and reading-level matched normal readers. Results indicated that perceptual and semantic processing are interconnected and improvements in the speed and accuracy of one facilitates improvements in the other. (HOD)