A discussion of approaches for teaching foreign language vocabulary is based on the distinction between "declarative knowledge" of the meanings of words and the procedures used for achieving this declarative knowledge. These procedures form part of individuals' knowledge of how to negotiate meaning. It is proposed that a communicative view of the…

Like the language of any group in American society that struggles for an identity, the language or dialects used by women in higher education, must be studied, researched, and represented within the curriculum, notably within the literary curriculum. A group's behavior, and often its self-esteem, is expressed within the constraints of the group's…

The language journal can be an effective aid for teaching students to be aware of and sensitive to language. Students write down any observations that interest them about the language they hear or read in everyday life, together with their speculations on the causes of such language. The journal is devoted specifically to language because an…

In order to compare how healthy and troubled corporations communicate with their shareholders, a study examined the narrative of the 1982 annual report of 50 of America's best-run corporations (as compiled by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman for their book, "In Search of Excellence"). The focus was on the letter to the stockholders--the…

Fallacies are defined as incorrect patterns of reasoning, and can be classified into two chief classes--formal fallacies, which involve violation of a rule, and informal fallacies, such as hasty generalizations or arguing from ignorance. Inspired by George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" and his book "1984,"…

This study assessed the role of frequency of input in the acquisition of the present perfect by Scottish and American children. Two questions were addressed: Do adults speaking Scottish English use the present perfect more frequently in speech to children than those speaking American English? If there is a difference in the frequency of input, how…

The status and future of bureaucratic language is explored and four specific issues are addressed: (1) the characteristics of bureaucratic writing; (2) how it developed and what keeps it from changing; (3) where pressures for change come from; and (4) what can be done to foster greater literacy in bureaucratic writing among both writers and users…

Spanish-English bilingual and monolingual English children aged 3-5 years were recorded in interaction with their mothers. Bilingual children were recorded twice each month, once in Spanish and once in English, and were also observed in a home situation. An analysis of the recorded language was done using selected morphological and syntactic…

A survey of 99 female and 78 male college students regarding their attitudes toward titles of address for men (Mr.) and women (Miss, Mrs., and Ms.) had the students rate 10 concepts on 15 bipolar semantic differential scales. Nine of the concepts were neutral to the study's objectives, and the tenth was the concept of differential address for men…

This book is a compilation of the papers presented at a conference on Hmong Research held at the University of Minnesota. The Hmong are a tribal people of Laos who have come to the United States as a result of Communist victories in their country. All of the papers related to the Hmong as they are seen in the West and the problems they face as…

The current focus on high level planning and abstract goals runs the risk of misrepresenting the contributions that cognitive psychology could make to the study of writing if it neglects important linguistic features that distinguish the writing of natural language from other problem solving tasks. An alternative perspective on writing emphasizes…

In spite of being very similar, the metaphorical models of anger in English and Spanish exhibit some differences too. These have been analyzed along a number of parameters: existence of the mapping in the language, degree of conceptual elaboration, degree of linguistic conventionalization and degree of linguistic exploitation. A number of examples…

Attempts to develop a critical thinking model which will teach students to cope effectively with advertising. (RB)

English teachers should give most attention to counteracting the tendency for public language to become an unreliable instrument of communication. (JH)