Describes how using American Sign Language can facilitate the development of skills in spoken English for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Discusses factors influencing how well a child with deafness will develop spoken language and the need to teach the two languages separately. (CR)

Challenges the belief in contemporary English language teaching that students should be exposed to authentic or natural language focused on achieving practical purposes, and draws some lessons from the classroom from the way young children play with language. (15 references) (Author/CK)

Summarizes the central assumptions of the communicative language teaching model and the potential difficulties that regular classroom teachers may face in implementing it. Seven criteria for use in organizing communicative classrooms are presented, and applications of these criteria to decisions about organizing classroom interaction and the…