Intended for teachers at all levels, but especially the junior high and high school levels, this book offers a rationale and practical ideas for teaching grammar not in isolation but in the context of writing. Chapters in the book are: (1) Grammar and the Teaching of Grammar: An Introduction; (2) Teaching Grammar: Reasons for, Evidence Against;…

The article examines two topics important to educators working with learning disabled college writers: error patterns of college learning disabled, normal, and basic writers across different tasks and instructional approaches successful in improvng the written language skills of college learning disabled writers, such as sentence combining and…

Defines basic writing as a kind of writing students produce as they learn. Examines techniques for error analysis, arguing for one technique in particular--the study of students' oral reconstructions of texts. (RL)

Based on the assumption that major sentence errors are caused by a deficit in syntactic fluency that can be aided by sentence combining instruction, student writing errors are analyzed in this paper and explanations are provided showing how these errors could have been prevented or reduced through instruction in sentence combining. Some types of…

Inexpensive spelling computers can give children entertaining practice, but students still need teachers who look for patterns in a child's spelling errors and teach accordingly. (Author)

Many teachers of basic writing are preoccupied with error. Before marking any errors in a student's composition, the teacher should read it carefully, try to understand the student's intention in writing it, and respond in those terms. Priorities for analysis should be consistent with the teacher's priorities for teaching and be set in terms of…

Areas of contradiction and controversy over error analysis are discussed, and an interference error analysis project is described, giving a detailed definition of interference error. Several practical approaches to teaching out interference errors are outlined. (MSE)

Describes an experiment designed to determine which language errors interfere to the greatest degree with comprehension by native speakers of the language. For this purpose, an instructor prepared a list of most serious Spanish language errors which was submitted to native speakers for evaluation in terms of comprehension and acceptability. (MES)

Describes the problems Hindi students have with the indefinite article "a/an". They use one or the other dependent upon whether or not the following noun or adjective begins with an orthographic vowel, rather than a phonological one (producing "an European"). Suggestions for improvement using the students' native language are given. (PJM)

A revised approach to teaching French orthography should aim at error prevention and emphasize differences between teaching spelling in the native language and in French. An analysis of spelling errors in the third, fourth, and fifth years of French yields some suggestions for evaluation and error prevention. (IFS/WGA)

Describes the system a writing teacher developed to keep track of student errors. (ARH)

Considers the correction of two kinds of error in the English-as-a-second-language classroom: errors of accuracy and errors of fluency. Describes the functions of feedback in conversation and suggests ways to develop feedback fluency in the classroom so that learners may develop this aspect of language use. (SED)

Suggests that error analysis can be manageable for teachers and instructive for basic writers. Explains five critical principles of error analysis in basic writing: understand students' intentions; set consistent priorities; analyze for clarification of intentions; encourage students to set their own goals; and help students objectify their…

Intended for teachers involved in language arts instruction in kindergarten through grade six, this spelling program guide was developed to aid in improving spelling and the use of dictionaries. Following a statement of the goals of the spelling program, the sections cover the following program aspects: (1) textbooks and dictionaries; (2)…

Generalizations regarding languages should be presented to students to aid them in mastering the surface forms they encounter. Hoffmen's analysis of modals postulates a root meaning and an epistemic meaning for modals and predicts that the root interpretation is generally excluded by the progressive and perfect tenses. This system may form the…