Fifty-seven performance objectives are prescribed for this quinmester of Spanish instruction. Students are to develop basic conversational skills through various exercises, including character description, paragraph and sentence manipulation, vocabulary development, and classroom conversation. Composition exercises focus on writing descriptions,…

SELECTED ASPECTS OF COMPOSITIONS, WRITTEN BY INTERMEDIATE GRADE CHILDREN (FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH GRADES), WERE STUDIED TO REVEAL GROWTH GRADIENTS OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE BY THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS (1) SEX, (2) CHRONOLOGICAL AGE, (3) GRADE LEVEL, (4) GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION, AND (5) RESIDENCE AREA. THE SUBJECTS WERE 14,400 CHILDREN IN FOUR…

The occurrence of misleading cognates in the English compositions of students whose first language is Spanish can lead to a significant failure of communication between non-Spanish-speaking teachers and their students. Such a failure can produce attitudinal changes in both teacher and student that are potentially destructive to the learning…

Three expressive writing tasks from the 1974 national assessment of writing are summarized and discussed in this report. Results indicated that for a majority of students, first-draft expressive writing is unstructured and lacking in coherence. The tendency to integrate feelings and to organize them in coherent expressions develops between the…

This article discusses error correction in the writing and speaking of foreign language learners. If it is decided that student errors should be corrected, should all errors be corrected or only particular ones? How should errors be corrected, when, and by whom? (CFM)

Presents a unit of activities based on a reading of Albert Camus'""L'Etranger." The activities, which can be adapted to various levels and abilities in an intermediate French class, incorporate reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Sample materials and a bibliography are appended. (AM)

Discusses ways in which talk during writing and group discussion can help children's writing, including (1) helping teachers learn to listen, (2) teaching children to elaborate and clarify, (3) giving children experience with an audience and reasons for writing, (4) helping children gather ideas and assistance, and (5) teaching children to be…

The ACHIEVE Program, an academic support system for learning-disabled college students at Southern Illinois University, uses video technology to present information in a way that is more concrete, segmented, and inferential than traditional modes of instruction. ACHIEVE is used to improve academic skills in reading, writing, and social skills.…

The influence of disability labels, writing behavior of the person labeled, evaluator's expertise, and the interaction between these variables on the scores assigned to children's writing was examined. Disability labels did not affect the score, but the quality of writing and the examiner's expertise had a significant influence. (JAZ)

Presents elementary school children's poetry about a variety of scientific topics. Indicates that children make no false dichotomy between science and poetry. (JK)

Provides practical examples of how Native students of all ages can be helped to become more fluent in the English language and more skillful in writing through the classroom technique of daily dialogue journals. Expresses concerns of teachers about having students write daily entries. Includes sample journal entries. (NEC)

Describes a short course designed to help employees overcome common writing problems. Suggests that many writing problems result from deficiencies in freshman composition courses, and recommends five changes. (ARH)

Suggests a variety of activities and projects which integrate functional literacy instruction into the curriculum. (MM)

Writing courses at Temple University (Pennsylvania) were adapted from the Writer's Workbench program to provide a computer-assisted instruction model for students to obtain a wide range analysis of their writing abilities and skills. (Author/CB)

Presents a set of teaching activities which deal with the pet overpopulation problem while improving students' persuasive writing skills. Includes activities that focus on how people can solve problems by working together. The activities range from songs to a computer simulation. (TW)