Grammar can be viewed both as knowledge and as ability. When viewed as knowledge, the focus is on rules for sentence formation. When viewed as ability, the focus is on how grammar is used as a resource in the creation of spoken and written texts. Twelve principles are proposed as the basis for a pedagogy that focusses on acquiring learning to use…

Many students, especially nontraditional ones, are not ready for conventional instruction in composition because their problems with the medium overwhelm the content of their writing. There are two different needs for composition students: composing (content) and editing (correctness), which need to be taught in a two-step process. Composing can…

To meet the instructional needs of the hundreds of children who speak the Ladin and Surselvan Raeto-Romance dialects of Switzerland, spelling categories pertinent to the two dialects were established based on the spelling test concept of Rudolf Mueller. Following classic test analysis procedures, three diagnostic dictation tests (one in Ladin, two…

Procedures used in foreign language teaching are discussed from the point of view of developing communicative strategies in students. Literature on communicative competence is reviewed and the implications for foreign language instruction are discussed. It is shown that: (1) from the very beginning of language instruction, the classroom setting,…

The interlanguage hypothesis stresses that errors are a normal part of the language learning process. At the same time, in the view of many, the teacher has a responsibility to provide short cuts for the learner through appropriate corrective feedback. Conventionally, this has been taken to imply correction of expression by requiring repetition of…

Learning characteristics of students undertaking computer assisted instruction using the PLATO system were assessed for five Russian courses at the University of Illinois. Since the computer allows accurate measurement of the interaction of the student with the material being learned, four measures of student performance were assessed--error rate,…

In 1976, small special sections of English A (basic composition) were initiated within the English Department of the University of California at Davis to teach university-level writing skills to students in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), seventy-five per cent of whom speak English as a second language. This paper describes the design…