Language and argument are epistemic tools that learners can use to help them generate and validate knowledge for themselves, as emphasized in NGSS and previous NRC reports. Not all learning environments elicit or support the use of these epistemic tools equally, thus affecting how students grow in competence in relation to their use. The present…

In the past decades, society in general has become strongly diverse. This change also affects schools. As a result, learning groups cannot be seen as homogeneous and taught in this way. One of the challenges is students' linguistic skills. Dealing with different linguistic competencies should not only be a focus of formal education in schools but…

Our personality develops gradually, and this process is influenced by various factors, with language being one of the most important. We need to communicate with other people, to speak as much, as we need occupation, and this need determines the development of our personalities. Language is deeply embedded in our conscious and subconscious.…

Despite the common intuition that labeling may be the best way to teach a new word to a child, systematic testing is needed of the prediction that children learn words better from labeling utterances than from directive utterances. Two experiments compared toddlers' label learning in the context of hearing words used in directive versus labeling…

This document describes an educational experiment designed to test the proposition that language learning can best be carried on through a program of maximum exposure in the least possible time. An experimental class of 19 average students participated in an eight-week intensive course consisting of four half-hour laboratory sessions; there were…

This report contains experiment results obtained from a comparative study of two groups of seventh grade students learning German in Sweden. The main objectives of the investigation, which lasted one school year, are: (1) to investigate possible achievement differences in German between similar groups of students when one group is instructed…

An experiment measuring the effectiveness of two procedures for presenting pattern drills was devised in order to show that pattern drills are most useful as a learning device if deliberately related to situational or meaningful content. Criteria for the selection of subjects are presented here, as are sample test items and a table of results.…

This newsletter provides a summary of the documentation available on the activities connected with the Unterrichtsmethode English (UME) Project, an investigation of methods for teaching English as a second language, conducted from 1965 to 1970. The documents listed and described cover general reports; details of the material-method system;…

Beginning with a brief review of the growth of the audiolingual method of foreign language instruction in the United States of America, this paper examines implications and lessons drawn from an educational experiment in language instruction known as the Pennsylvania Report. The text of a memorandum to school administrators in Pennsylvania by the…

This paper considers language development among children and discusses the influence of the learning environment in the acquisition of language use as distinct from language structure. The results of the five studies reported here suggest that the child is aided by what he is encouraged to say, not simply by what he hears, and that adults seem to…

This experiment continues the GUME experiments investigating methods for teaching English to Swedish school pupils. The aims of this particular study are twofold: (1) to analyze and classify the errors made by Swedish pupils in an oral English test in an effort to establish error patterns; and (2) to describe how the twelve most frequent errors in…

This paper presents a discussion of the theory of bilingual education, including ideas developed by several linguistic researchers. Various aspects of bilingual education are discussed including objectives, definition, raison d'etre, dominance and balance, learning, types, and barriers. Second language learning is considered along with reasons for…

This study presents the procedures and results of an experiment conducted in Sweden to assess the relative effectiveness of two methods of teaching the grammatical structures of English as a foreign language to adults. The main objective of the study is to find indications as to which of the two theories (the audiolingual habit theory or the…

An operational definition of the standard for learner achievement at Level 2, with respect to the skills of reading and writing, was proposed for Spanish as one aspect of a research project. The method described, serving as the basis for articulation of level achievement, deals with general procedures, proposed operational definition of reading…