Much difficulty in teaching composition stems from the erroneous assumption that thought precedes writing. (JH)

An analysis of exercises concerning indirect, direct and free discourse appearing in tests of the "premier cycle," from both pedagogical and linguistic points of view. The thesis is that a method giving primacy to manipulative exercises based on prefabricated sentences militates against discourse and communication. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Presents a set of descriptive models for teaching paragraph development in English as a second language (ESL) writing classes based on the "given/new contract," a theory of information distribution developed text linguists. Discusses applications of the models to ESL composition classes, particularly scientific and technical writing classes. (SED)

Discusses assignments in discourse analysis and students' recurring methodological errors. (PD)

Previous research on small-group collaboration identifies several behaviors that significantly predict student learning. These reports focus on student behavior to understand why, for example, large numbers of students are unsuccessful in obtaining explanations or applying help received, leaving unexplored the role that teachers play in …

Revised version of a paper presented at the Seminar on English Teaching in Iran, Tehran, April 1971. (DD)

Discusses story grammar and story schema. Demonstrates how two schema-based strategies--semantic webbing and the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity--can aid in improving comprehension. (FL)

Presents a formula for essay writing that forces the student to adopt a point of view from which to analyze and evaluate an author's argument. The format also addresses the problem of organization and mechanics. (HTH)

Describes the functions, specific uses, syntactic structure, and typographical characteristics of titles, discussing examples from newspapers, books, films, and scientific journals. Analysis of the semantic relationship between title and text is followed by the description of various instructional techniques for the production of titles and the…

Compares sentence grammar with text linguistics, giving a survey of the treatment of indirect discourse in school grammars, and finding them inadequate. Recommends rules derived from text linguistics in spite of their greater complexity, because they do not hold the student to mechanical recasting of sentences. (IFS/WGA)

Describes four procedures commonly used to describe the content and structure of text: T-unit analysis, propositional representation, story grammars, and primary trait scoring. Discusses results of research regarding the procedures and their implications for instruction. (TJ)

Argues for a reconceptualization of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research in order to enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the field. Claims that methodologies, theories, and foci within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual orientations to language, the former…

Describes disposition designed to provide students with some of the substance of proof as an element of the practical rationality invested in engaging students in proving. Discusses how video episodes enhance chances of eliciting the practical rationality of mathematics teaching and how these records and artifacts function in the context of a…

Focuses on communication in teaching statistics. Describes a classroom in which students developed statistical understanding of exploratory data analysis. (KHR)

A structured discourse strategy, employing child echoic imitations and adult expansion, was used to teach five autistic preschool children two-term semantic relations. The strategy increased the children's initial spontaneous imitations of two-term relations. Following the imitation increase, spontaneous productions of the two-term relations…