The problem of teaching the use of the verbs "ser" and "estar" in Spanish can be only partially addressed by current linguistic explanations. In the absence of rules that will enable the student to predict correct sentences using the verbs, the most effective teaching technique is to use a situational-functional approach providing students with…

Current practices and materials for teaching English as a second language (ESL) contain oversimplifications about English based on the assumption of a uniform language type and standard of usage, presented to foreign learners for pedagogical clarity. ESL teachers may be aware of the language's diversity but are not prepared to provide…

A study explored children's notions of what stories and reports are, how they can be organized, and when to use them, as revealed in the stories and reports they wrote or recalled and in their responses to questions about each. Sixty-seven high achieving children in grades three, six, and nine read and wrote similar kinds of stories and reports.…

Commemorating the end of George Orwell's year, 1984, the majority of articles in this journal issue are devoted to some aspect of language. The first article alerts teachers to the need for a critical examination of Orwell's underlying assumptions about language change in "Politics and the English Language." The next five articles deal…

The United States has become increasingly multilingual in recent decades, and while English is the most commonly spoken language, almost 11 percent of Americans prefer to speak another language at home. Bilingualism is promoted by governmental units at the federal, state, and local levels through a variety of programs, particularly in education…

Urges student involvement in classroom activities, rather than formal classroom teaching, in learning English as a second language. (LG)

This paper undertakes the study of the occurrence of non-corresponding demonstrative forms in Spanish, Basque and English in exactly the same linguistic context. It is proposed that the differences in the choice of the demonstratives result from the differences in the kind of information that must be coded in each of the languages. Thus, I will…

Discusses the results of research which revealed that students in third and fifth forms favored oral rather than written situations when studying language. (RB)

Investigated were the effects of five verbalizing methods (subject speaks, reads, writes, listens, or does not verbalize) on short-term retention of the ability to use discovered generalizations. No significant differences were found among the effects of the verbalizing methods for a retention test. (JP)

This paper examines the formal and functional properties of code-switching among Mexican-American children. Two formal types of code-switching, code-mixing and code-changing, are identified, and developmental patterns in their use are discussed. Two major functional types of code-switching are also differentiated. The first, situational…

This paper: (1) examines the internal word structure of Cantonese in terms of root, stem and affix; (2) discusses general problems of word analysis in Chinese with reference to Cantonese and Mandarin; (3) examines the issue of distorted translations from Mandarin into English resulting from faulty word analysis; and (4) looks briefly at the…

In both speaking and writing, the goal is communication with the intended audience. Rejecting the view that rhetoric is based on an established set of conventions, this article examines the writings of Charles Dickens as models of rhetorical expression. Passages from Dicken's novels illustrate how the writer violated grammatical rules and broke…