The greater part of this paper is dedicated to a non-technical discussion and criticism of the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism. Various aspects of the theory are examined, and its inability to deal with verbal behavior as a productive and creative activity is asserted. The author's point of view is that expressed by Noam Chomsky in his…

The administrator in a bilingual, bicultural community must act with caution, forebearance, and great understanding, paying intense heed to his community. The term "bilingualism" refers to facility in the use of two languages, ranging from a minimal knowledge of either language to a high level of proficiency in both. "Biculturalism" is a…

Functional literacy as an approach to literacy education is now widely accepted; the Experts on Research in Literacy, meeting at Unesco House in July, 1968, felt that, because of the relative novelty of functional literacy, research was needed as part of training programs, and on specific topics. The groups agreed that research, in most cases,…

The author objects to criticism of current programed language instruction (PLI) materials. In a "conventional FL (foreign language) class" of 120 class hours a year, the amount of time spent in active, immediately reinforced responding by any individual student would be less than 100 minutes. This is in contrast to the shortest PLI program (53…

This is a discussion of another phase of bilingualism--structural difficulties in the target language of the student which impede his second language acquisition. The paper focuses on errors in learning English which do not derive from transfers from another language, and which cannot be predicted from contrastive analysis. These are intralingual…

An approach to a contrastive analysis of phonologies for pedagogic purposes is illustrated through the discussion of selected problems of interference which arise in the teaching of Russian pronunciation to native speakers of American English. The need for a recognition of a hierarchy of errors and the importance of the phonetic level of analysis…

Differences between the language laboratory and the electronic classroom sway the author to favor the latter for use in public schools. Principal characteristics of each, laboratory equipment, instructional goals, building management, lesson planning, and cost factors are also discussed in the article. (RL)

Claiming that the actual learning of basic language skills takes place in the language laboratory, the author states four requisites for effective use of the laboratory: (1) a clear statement of specific objectives, (2) instructions for the student, (3) realistic objectives, and (4) student rewards. Testing, learning theory, applied linguistics,…

Designed for use both in the United States and abroad, this manual for teachers of English as a second language is concerned with "minimum essentials" and is written in lay language. In the first chapter, the author deals with the nature of language and language learning; some features of the English language; students, school and community; and…

The symposium, held in Wiesbaden, West Germany, November 11-17, 1973, examined the results of recent programs and research dealing with the teaching of modern languages to young children and formulated certain recommendations for submission to the Council for Cultural Cooperation of the Council of Europe. The following reports were presented: (1)…

The first section of this report presents six articles describing FLES techniques. Harriet Barnett discusses the use in FLES of individualized teaching techniques that are in popular use in other subject areas. Yvonne Le Manchec encourages early second language instruction through the use of educational situations in which the child will be…

This publication is the first in a series planned to acquaint classroom teachers with successful methods and materials being used in TESOL and bilingual contexts. M. Saville-Troike illustrates several types of conflict which may occur in elementary classrooms when teachers do not understand the nature of the linguistic and cultural diversity of…

This annotated bibliography is divided into fourteen sections: (1) reference books and dictionaries, (2) linguistics, (3) English grammar, (4) vocabulary, (5) language learning and teaching, (6) aids to learning, (7) testing, (8) spoken English, (9) reading, (10) writing, (11) general courses, (12) English for special purposes, (13) literature,…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the English Enrichment Program in providing special assistance to students who were experiencing difficulty with the English language. Twenty-eight students were used in the experimental group and a further twenty-six students not in the program constituted the control group. Most of the…

This is an interim report of a special program to assist newly-arrived immigrant children from the Punjab in India. It describes a homogeneous class enrolling twenty pupils, all of East Indian origin and between five and eight years of age. The teacher of the Punjabi-English class kept an extensive anecdotal record of the growth and development of…