Urges education to help students learn through conceptual thinking. States that the first step must be to teach the subtleties of words--without a command of the language, important discriminations can be confused. Asserts that if students are to think well conceptually, surface language must dissolve, and alternative ways to communicate must be…

Experiences in teaching a first-year reading course in the intensive English program at Kansai Gaidai Junior College (Japan) are discussed. In the period described, there were six classes of 16 students each. A proficiency-oriented approach incorporating a learner development component was adopted to facilitate the transition from traditional…