Sixty-eight undergraduate translation students received direct instruction in the features of news headlines and news stories. A week later, they took a test that required them to identify the syntactic and lexical features of a sample of news headlines and news stories, supply deleted word, and substitute punctuation marks, infinitives, and block…

This study examined and compared different written corrective feedback techniques used by English as a second language (ESL) teachers in three different educational contexts and levels (primary, secondary, and college) in Quebec, Canada. In particular, it examined whether there were any differences in the types of errors made, the kind and degree…

Developing literacy in two languages can be challenging for young bilingual children. This longitudinal study investigates the effects of bilingualism in the spelling strategies of English-Portuguese speaking children. A total of 88 six- to-seven-year-old bilinguals and monolinguals were followed during one academic year and data gathered on a…

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…

Discusses some general principles for planning corrective instruction and exercises in English as a second language, and follows with examples from the areas of phonemics, phonology, lexicon, idioms, morphology, and syntax. (IFS/WGA)

Types of hierarchies of pronunciation difficulty are discussed, and a hierarchy based on contrastive analysis plus informal observation is proposed. This hierarchy is less one of initial difficulty than of error persistence. One feature of this hierarchy is that, because of lesser learner awareness and very limited functional load, errors…

Four essays present (1) a method for teaching the use of the quantitative adverbs to French students who are salespersons; (2) use of a cartoon as the starting point for practicing grammatical patterns; (3) ideas for teaching students to write letters or cards in French; and (4) humourous errors in French usage. (AM)

For years, French language instructors in Alberta have wondered about the possibility of coordinating in a better way their students' transition from last year of secondary education to first year at the university level. At the end of a university year, errors were found in the French compositions of 34 randomly chosen students (out of 68), which…

This study examined the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors made by 24 intermediate ESL students, and determined the effect of direct teacher correction upon these students' writing proficiency. Students were identified as having high or low communicative proficiency and were randomly assigned to one of two error correction…

The paper reports some of the results of a preliminary survey of the language proficiency of matriculation students of French in Britain and Australia. The technique used (especially the use of Chief Examiners' reports) is justified and the deficiencies that exist in current matriculation examinations are noted. In particular, the examinations are…

The forty papers that make up the second part of the proceedings of the twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Languages cover a wide range of topics relating to foreign language teaching and linguistic theory: the interdisciplinary approach to second language instruction, individualized instruction, foreign…

The manual concentrates on features of English and Indochinese which are dissimilar and, therefore, potential problem areas. These areas were identified through: (1) a contrastive analysis of English and Indochinese (Lao, Cambodian, Vietnamese) phonology, morphology, and syntax; (2) an analysis of Indochinese students' errors; and (3) noting the…

Thirty-five articles on teaching English as a second language are presented under the following headings: (1) "Trends and Practices," (2) "The Matter of Errors," (3) "Second Language Acquisition," (4) "Speaking and Understanding," (5) "Reading and Writing," (6) "Vocabulary," (7) "Testing," and (8) "The Matter of Culture." Authors include Clifford…