A technique for Latin instruction has been developed which uses the Programmed Learning for Automated Teaching (PLATO) computer system. The program, which conjugates Latin verbs and declines nouns and adjectives, represents an improvement over traditional computer teachers. While older systems only told the student when he made an error, the PLATO…

Presents a methodology for dealing with grammatical mistakes made by African students for whom French is a second language and also the medium of instruction. (Text is in French.) (AM)

This study identified and described the ways in which negative evidence was made available and accessible to learners during two widely practiced classroom activities. One was a teacher-led discussion that emphasized communication of subject matter content. The other was a teacher-led sentence construction exercise that focused on application of…

Describes pilot project on effectiveness of proofreading exercises in English as a second language classes in reducing common student errors in use of tenses, concord, and spelling. Results show some improvement, but not as much as was hoped. (BK)

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)

Discusses the ineffectiveness of one-phase marking, i.e. direct correction of errors by the teacher, and the effectiveness of two-phase marking in which the teacher makes the student aware of an error but does not indicate what the error is. (CFM)

The effectiveness and efficiency of two error correction procedures on word reading were compared. Three students with below average reading skills and one student with average reading skills were provided with weekly instruction on sets of 20 unknown words. Students' errors during instruction were followed by either word supply error correction…

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…

Eleven language teachers were videotaped teaching the same lesson to determine how they treated students' errors. Analysis showed types of errors treated and treatments used were similar; grammar errors seemed less important than incorrect meaning. Suggested alternative treatments are based on the importance to learning of contrasts, redundancy…

Discusses the theoretical foundations of both basic approaches to contrastive analysis, the predictive, "a priori" version, and the explanatory, "a posteriori" version. Analyzes problems in both approaches, and states that explanatory investigations must be divorced from "classical" contrastive analysis and used with a more realistic methodology…

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)

Two hypotheses explaining the cause of errors in second language production are reviewed and compared. Classroom techniques related to each are described. The viewpoint of each theory on which errors should be corrected, when, by whom, and how is summarized. (PMJ)

This article describes activities that promote students' understanding of equation solving through analyzing and correcting student work. (Contains 5 figures.)

The position here is that error analysis is inadequate, particularly from the language-teaching point of view. Non-errors must be considered in specifying the learner's current command of the language, its limits, and his learning tasks. A cyclic procedure of elicitation and analysis, to secure evidence of errors and non-errors, is outlined.…