This paper presents a comparative study of English and Vietnamese syntax. Four basic patterns are said to make up the majority of English sentences: statements (both affirmative and negative), questions (both affirmative and negative), requests, and commands. The composition of each English pattern is discussed with examples, and compared directly…

The thesis that classroom instruction in the grammatical forms of a language is undesirable, currently held by a number of applied linguists, is rejected. However, although it has been found that inducement of grammatical consciousness is not necessarily a pedagogical liability, its worth depends to a large extent upon the kinds of facts to be…

An analysis of "de" sentences in Chinese in order to capture their syntactic and semantic features and, as a result, to state rules for generating them. The study is organized under eight headings and provides 147 examples in Chinese and English. (AMH)

Proposes a method, based on dependency theory, for teaching reading in the foreign language classroom. Examples are provided for English, German, French, and Norwegian. (AM)

The possibility of learning grammatical sequence patterns independently of any association between particular words is demonstrated through the use of substitution drills. (Author/FWB)

Describes a sequence for teaching the Russian passive construction to exemplify how a learning sequence based on a contrastive analysis and on error analysis can lessen student errors. These errors are caused either by interference from the first language or over-generalization in the second language. (PMJ)

Describes the theory of "dependential grammar" and how it can be used in language teaching, specifically in the area of syntax. (AM)

Discusses the nature and causes of a common problem encountered by elementary English-as-a-Second-Language learners in Hong Kong--the placement of the intensifying adverb "very" in sentences involving a degree expression. Suggests an algorithmic approach to error correction to help students overcome the problem. (Author/VWL)

The validity of 2 implicational universals regarding constituent order in questions is tested in the English speech of 14 native speakers of Japanese, Turkish, and Korean. The interlanguage evidence is found to be generally supportive of the 2 universals. (31 references). (Author/VWL)

Presents a case study of a six-year-old Finnish girl who learned a foreign language by watching English language cartoons on video, without formal teaching or contact with native speakers. Topics addressed include television versus video; sentence structure; rate of speech; repetition; and learning by viewing versus naturalistic language learning.…

Topical structure analysis of English-as-a-Second-Language essay tests identified two topical structure variables, proportions of sequential and parallel topics in the essays, that differentiated the highest-rated essays from the lower-rated essays. (46 references) (Author/CB)

Examines knowledge of semantics-syntax correspondences in second-language acquisition (SLA) within the Principles and Parameters framework. A parameter of semantic structure is used to investigate change of state locatives and "psychological" verbs. Results indicate that for some learners, first-language influence persists until advanced stages of…

Investigated whether the methodologies of explicit and implicit language instruction account for differences in the identification of grammatically well-formed sentences for college students of Spanish. Results showed that students receiving implicit instruction scored significantly higher in a grammaticality judgment test than those receiving…

The author provides information on how science teachers can write science literacy objectives that help English language learners (ELLs) develop the scientific literacy needed for academic success in the science classroom. The article offers suggestions on how teachers can determine the vocabulary, language functions, and sentence structures that…

This paper reports on an investigation about the relation between a student's conscious awareness of the structure of a sentence and the degree of his/her intonation accuracy as well as his/her reading comprehension. The research was done based on the hypothesis that: "if the students are made conscious of the infrastructure of lengthy…