This paper is an attempt to claim that teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) can be an autonomous discipline and that it needs to be a single discipline instead of bits and pieces of related sciences put together. A workable theory of TEFL could have its basis on the general framework of communication. What is needed is an integrated…

This article outlines a model of the two basic components of a text, namely, the system of formal linguistic rules, and the realization of these rules into concrete discourse, by means of particular transformations. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

The "dictee" as a method of language testing is discussed. Commonly made mistakes are described, and ways to help the student perform well discussed. (RM)

Schooling is supposed to allow peripheral members of society to gain access to the mainstream. This is a myth for Latinos. American schools have promoted exclusion so that these students have developed strategies of survival and resistance. Civic inclusion means they would participate in the society fully while maintaining cultural traditions. (VM)

Reports three experiments which examined preschool, first-grade, and third-grade children's understanding of metaphorical language. Subjects acted out short stories which ended in metaphorical sentences by using toys. Predictability of the story endings and the complexity of the metaphorical sentences are found to affect metaphor comprehension.…

Reports the results of a study showing that one stylistic feature, the inclusion of connectives other than "and/then" is a good predictor of explanation in five- to ten-year-olds, but a straightforward lack of linguistic resources is not necessarily what limits older children's achievement of explanatory narrative. (HTH)

Discusses the three main approaches to defining language knowledge and use: (1) the structural approach, (2) the functional approach, and (3) the general proficiency approach. Asserts that each approach has specific consequences for language testing and that no one approach can claim to be the only way of representing that knowledge. (Author/SED)

Analysis of two studies (interpreted in terms of the distinction between language acquisition and language learning) showed that subjects tended to cluster the -s's on a few verbs rather than randomly, suggesting that the morpheme may be acquired not in isolation but attached to particular verbs. (SL)

Relates the central ideas of Wilhelm Vietor to their historical context, since he was the dominant figure of his time, in the history of applied linguistics. Author shows how Vietor's reforms of foreign language teaching found acceptance in subsequent language teaching, particularly in Germany. (SL)

The intermediate competence of adult second language learners is qualitatively different from native speaker competence. Learning strategies are constants in the diachronic modifications of learner competence. A study of the acquisition of interrogatives in French reveals limited strategies and the heterogeneity of linguistic models needed to…

The objective of the procedure outlined in this article is to introduce new items, bring the learner to the point of being able to integrate these items in his approximative competence and so extend his ability to the production of extended discourse. Lesson transcripts document the use of the procedure. (Author/CFM)

This paper presents a system for teaching basic reading to non-literate native speakers, and in three sections it covers the identification of psychological and linguistic foundations of the present literacy primers and for creative reading, concluding with a description of the system. (Author/RK)