If English teachers are going to clean up language and strive toward literacy, they need to stop using phrases that are meaningless, such as "prior knowledge,""dyslexia,""learning disabilities," and "at-risk." The persistent misuse of language moves the United States closer to becoming a remedial nation.…

The process and issues of labeling language program models is discussed insofar as it may affect the objectives, content, and method of instruction. The first section describes the origins, stated objectives, and implementation of a Neuchatel (Switzerland) school program integrating heritage language and culture into the school curriculum, noting…

This study investigated the relationship between ideology and speech patterns in Modern Israeli Hebrew. Eighty native speakers of university age were provided with descriptions of events in which some desired object or information was the goal, then asked what they would say to attain the goal and to construct examples of stylized uses of speech…

Role-playing is proposed as an ideal technique to teach language because it prepares learners for the unpredictable nature of real-life communication, teaches appropriate language use, and boosts self-confidence. Theories that have paved the way for the current communicative approach to language teaching are reviewed, role-playing is defined, and…

Emphasizing a sociocultural view, this book encourages language teachers to broaden their views of the English language arts curriculum, and thereby increase students' opportunities to examine a broader array of language elements (semantics, regional and social variations, discourse conventions). The first section of the book describes what…

This study examined the complimenting behavior of men and women in the United States by collecting a corpus of 90 compliment behaviors from television programs, ethnographic observation, and the author. It also explored the relationship between sociolinguistic research and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in general and…

Traditional methods of both first and second language teaching have commonly relied on simplification, restricting the range of language forms and functions to be learned and then practicing those forms to achieve mastery. These methods, however, fail to consider seriously the questions of how language develops in natural contexts, what language…

Examination of newer technology education materials reveals two recurring themes: one relates to curriculum content, familiarizing students with technology, and another to a technique of classroom instruction, i.e., problem solving. A problem-solving framework for technical education has the following components: (1) define the problem; (2)…

A class "on" metaphor can be usefully distinguished from a class "in" metaphor. A class on metaphor concentrates on metaphor theory and function. To teach in metaphor would be to coach students in pragmatics, to guide them in the study of how key metaphors are used and help to structure discrete universes of discourse. For…

A description of what occurs in the social context of the supervisory conference, based on the concept of conversational inference, a process by which participants assess each others' intentions and make appropriate responses, is presented in this paper. Using the illustration of a supervisor's request for teacher action that occurs in a…

Originally developed as part of a project for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on spelling and the writing process is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes an overview of the project; a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture…

One of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical research applications, this report consists of 14 papers. Topics covered in the papers are (1) skilled actions, (2) the control of fundamental frequency declination, (3) selective effects of masking on speech…

The use of prepositions, past tense verb forms, and subject-verb agreement in the English of a Korean college student of English for foreign students is analyzed in the context of Krashen's Monitor Model theory of language acquisition. The student was interviewed, asked to give a free writing sample, asked to read his own writing, and asked to…

To determine the effects of race and dialect in communication effectiveness, a study integrated research in referential communication with work on standard and black English, creating three hypotheses: that decoding within-race or within-dialect would be more effective than decoding across race or dialect, that decoding within any dialect would be…

A problem solving process has been created for analyzing descriptive data obtained from the language transactions between parents and children during a shared reading event. Use of other instruments and observations of videotaped interactions led to a classification of reading event components and to a coding system containing items in the…