Virginia Standards of Learning for Kindergarten through fifth grade are listed in this paper with student activities related to observation of live theatre performances of "Pear Blossom's Magic: A Cinderella Story" written by George Wead. This play toured in Virginia in 1999-2000 and was performed by the high school theater touring…

English learners are the fastest growing student population in the United States. Many of these students are placed in classrooms with teachers who lack the preparation to help diverse children excel. This book helps bridge the gap between students' needs and K-12 teachers' preparation, offering an overview of English learners and…

A study examined the impact of ancestral language oral proficiency and literacy skills on ethnic identity for 66 Armenian-American boys and girls aged 8-15 years. Children were active in an Armenian community in America. Armenian language and literacy skills were assessed and ethnic affinity was measured by relative use of first person pronouns…

Designed to help students learn to read by teaching them how to "listen to language," this resource book presents over 90 interactive activities, reproducible manipulatives, picture cards, and word lists to help children connect oral language to written text. It also includes a complete program review with important facts about phonemic…

This digest provides an overview of the methodological foundations underlying the lexical approach to language teaching and the pedagogical implications suggested by them. The lexical approach has received interest in recent years as an alternative to grammar-based approaches. It concentrates on developing learners' proficiency with lexis, or…

The Arabic language used in Egypt is traditionally divided into two major types: classical and colloquial. The idea is that classical or literary Arabic is to be found mostly in formal writing and speaking, whereas colloquial Arabic is used mainly in daily conversation. When it comes to actual usage, however, this distinction is not always clearly…

An analysis is presented of an electronic mail conversation that took place in a Finnish scholarly electronic mailing list. The data is analyzed within the framework of systemic-functional oriented discourse and the theory of register, which attempts to explain the ways language use varies according to the type of situation. The electronic media…

Oral communication and reading correlate well with each other. Objectives, established by the teacher, must be clearly stated and should be challenging, but achievable for students. They need to stress knowledge, skills, and attitudinal objectives with a balance among these three categories. Objectives to be stressed are that students need to:…

This report includes a Maryland statewide analysis, by competency, of student learning outcomes, assessment activities at community colleges, as well as public four-year colleges and universities. The workgroup decide that these reports would focus on each of the five competencies related to general education and essential skills that are…

Analysis of the literature of second language learning as applied to language laboratory use suggests that the emphasis be placed on listening comprehension prior to and independent of productive oral use of the target language, both to establish comprehension and to sustain student motivation. (MSE)

Eleven foreign students from different countries produced a series of radio programs on diverse topics to be broadcast on a local French radio station. Through the experience, the students learned much about the culture in which they were studying, and expressed their own culture and individuality. (MSE)

Examines kindergarten children's use of talk during writing to draw inferences regarding how children use speech to make sense of written language. (HOD)

Provides several types of prereading activities that combine into one strategy stressing vocabulary, oral language development, and prediction. (FL)

Discusses the changes in foreign language instructional strategies regarding error avoidance and correction that have emerged from the emphasis on communicative competence. Considering this trend away from audiolingualism and consistent oral accuracy, urges teachers to reevaluate procedures for conducting class activities and correcting students'…

In a three-year cumulative study, more than 1,000 children were observed either in randomly arranged preschool classrooms or in classrooms deliberately arranged to promote learning. Creativity, oral language use, and development of science and number concepts were significantly higher for children in the specially planned classrooms. (Author/SJL)