Adopting a functional perspective that views grammar as a rich resource for making contextualized meanings in a culture- and language-specific way, the article reconsiders the role of explicit grammar instruction in developing communicative abilities of second language learners. It draws on two distinct but complementary research frameworks,…

Vygotsky's work on the acquisition of foreign language words has been criticized for lacking a formal view of language as a system and for taking little interest in questions such as the route and rate of language acquisition. We argue that word meanings really do not constitute a formal system, either in the way they develop, or in the way they…

Describes a two-course, team-taught series originally designed to introduce students to the nature of language and other symbolic systems. The course is a building block for language, literature, and other multidisciplinary programs. It also provides a coherent framework for the updated study of foreign languages. (SL)

While foreign language textbooks have improved in recent years, the standard grammatical base remains unchanged. Instead of the usual morphologically-based syllabus, a semantico-grammatical one is suggested in which the categories, relating meaning and form, make it possible to teach language structure in a coherent and communicatively relevant…