In contrast to language-teaching systems which stress conversation, this system for teaching Arabic starts by presenting the written language. One reason for doing so is that knowing how to write Arabic characters helps students to remember the unfamiliar sounds of this language. A computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program was felt to be more…

Traces the history of the description of French Creoles, and discusses various issues in Creole description, including the notions of "mixed languages" and substratum, the relationship between Creole and French, language standardization, and the teaching of Creoles. (AM)

Explores the consequences of not developing competence in oral forms of the second language, which is the intermediate step in the recommended sequence of bilingual literacy development. (JK)

The four issues of this journal, written entirely in Spanish, are intended for reading teachers. The first issue focuses on the role of school in the development of readers and writers and contains articles discussing the results of an investigation into the validity of the idea of "level" when measuring students' comprehension of…

Dissertation on which this article is based is to be published, in a condensed form, as C.I.E. Research Monograph No. 7 by Oxford University Press (India). (VM)

The communicative method of language instruction is compared with other, generalized methods currently used, in terms of content, the variety of forms taught to express the same thought, oral and written language, emphasis on form versus message content, the nonverbal element, and the teaching of language context. (MSE)

In a 10-week time-series investigation of a class of 12 students, this study looked at whether Suggestopedia affects more sophisticated language skills than recall. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were included to address the criticism that Suggestopedia affects memory skills alone. Findings suggest that Suggestopedia can positively…

Reports on the writing performance of Saint Lucian schoolchildren with particular reference to possible dialect interference in written speech. The study focuses on characteristic errors in the writing as well as the causes and significance of these errors and explores the available remedies. (21 references) (Author/CK)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the formal teaching of grammatical rules would affect the writing quality of sixth graders. Comparison was made between students of two University Lab Schools located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study was limited to the observation of written expression, because of limited…

A comparative test of communication effectiveness between written and graphic communication. (CH)

This paper stresses the unified nature of the Languages for Special Purposes (LSP) operation, and argues for increased research at every phase. It deals specifically with the following topics: (1) a procedural ESP model in which the ESP activity is conceived of as a whole, and the various stages in the planning and mounting of an ESP program are…

To determine why some children find textbooks to be much more difficult to understand than teachers' presentations, four reading selections for middle grade readers were analyzed, as were tape recorded lessons prepared by ten teachers on the basis of the same selections. Excerpts from one of the written passages and excerpts and analysis of one…

A STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP OF READING METHOD AND COMPOSITION AND TO DISCOVER A WAY TO EVALUATE FIRST- GRADE COMPOSITION. PARTICIPANTS WERE 779 LOW INCOME, FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN FROM SIX CITIES. THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS IN SOCIAL BACKGROUND, MATURATION, INTELLIGENCE,…

This paper first addresses the issue of the contradictory nature of informed opinion and advice in the foreign language field today. It goes on to consider such controversial topics as the introduction of the written symbol, teaching the language versus teaching about it, teaching culture, the usefulness of FLES, and individualization. The…