The author shares her insights about the principles and knowledge of the writing system that children discover, develop, and learn to control. She categorizes these principles as functional principles, linguistic principles, and relational principles. (CT)

Discusses the usage of French in Gabon. As in other nations of francophone Africa, French is the language of upward social mobility in Gabon, and it offers access to the international community. However, one factor peculiar to Gabon is the virtual absence of a Gabonese national language, which promotes a greater dependency upon a mastery of the…

Tests 4- to 12-year-old children's use of the verb "lying" and their moral judgment of true and false assertions. Stories that produced either a false statement despite truthful intentions or a true statement despite deceptive intentions were used. (Author/CI)

Describes a comparative study of interrogative words in Spanish and English, which resulted in a series of hypotheses about the way Spanish speakers convey the interrogative how plus adjective or adverb. To test the hypotheses, surveys were conducted with native Spanish speakers. Surveys and results are discussed. (AMH)

Four teachers discuss benefits of humor and the disadvantages of sarcasm. Includes a humorous piece on teaching cheating in the classroom. (EL)

Discusses the conflict between academic discourse and students' right to their own language. Shows how the study of interlanguage looks at the learner's present language use and provides a conceptual framework for seeing student writing as a stage in a developmental process, for seeing individual differences, and for seeing common patterns. (EL)

Current colloquial use of the simple past and present perfect shows a tendency of the former to encroach on the semantic field of the latter so that the two may be used in free variation in many contexts. The contexts in which this is not possible are defined, and implications for teaching English as a second language are discussed. (MSE)

Describes the development and validation of a simple scale for quantifying English use among Mexican Americans and analyzes its applicability to the study of health behavior and attitudes. Asserts that this scale may prove most useful for studying clinical phenomena which are more dependent on communication and less dependent on income and…

Outlines a method for introducing poetry to two-year college students, many of whom have negative feelings about poetry after years of schooling that required them to read bad poems and that presented explication as a puzzling, frustrating activity. (FL)

Describes a cloze test designed to measure writing flexibility, then examines its effectiveness in distinguishing experienced college-level writers from the inexperienced ones. Concludes that the measure is effective and that responsiveness to style features is a significant component of experienced writing. (FL)

Describes two writing assignments that elicit investigations of language and generate topics for which students are knowledgeable authorities. The first requires students to write an extended definition of a familiar slang term, while the second assignment requires them to write a final report after participating on a language usage panel. (HTH)

Examines four common student misconceptions in grammar and punctuation, suggests the reasons for these misconceptions, and argues that teachers need to help students develop a thorough understanding of the English language system. (MM)

Focuses on several myths and fallacies prevalent in the field of French grammar. The importance of keeping up-to-date with language and grammatical usage is stressed, since the rules of language do change. Thus, the validity of the linguistic content of French grammar books must be questioned, so that any outmoded or invalid concepts can be…

Describes an exercise to develop students' vocabulary using the more complex language on popular television programs. (HTH)

Describes the work experience of an English teacher as a writer/editor in a large manufacturing company and her realization that good writing depends on purpose and audience. (CRH)