Ten objective measures of writing proficiency were used to evaluate advanced ESL students' compositions. Only those objective measures taking the absence of errors into account discriminated among holistic evaluations of the compositions by experienced ESL teachers. (PMJ)

Suggests that for improving syntactic fluency and the overall quality of compositions, exercises should be based on generative rhetoric. These exercises in which students supply the content of the sentence from a list of suggested structures are superior to sentence-combining exercises that provide the student with all the information. (PMJ)

Examines the patterns of word formation as found in written English and written Chinese, contrasting the role of compounding, derivation, inflection, and word length as they relate to noun formation. Implications are drawn for the translator. (AM)

Discusses a paragraph-centered approach to the teaching of reading in a foreign language. (CFM)

Proposes a pedagogy of French grammar which takes into account the varieties found in spoken French as distinct from those found in written French. (AM)

Reviews 15 publications on teaching French (1972-1975). Encluded are books on: spoken vs. written French, linguistic grammar and teaching grammar, minimum French grammar, error linguistics, text collections for Secondary Grade 2, a stylistic exercise book, a collection for dictation, and literature. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Presents a bibliographic survey of works describing the variations in contemporary French seen in regional, social, and stylistic associations. Also takes a critical look at the necessity for this variation from a sociolinguistic viewpoint and examines the potential limits of these varieties in the language. (216 references) (Author/CK)

Compared spelling procedures of normal and reading-disabled French-speaking children matched for reading achievement. Found that, at the lowest reading level, word frequency effects were absent and phonological context effects on rule application were seen only in normal readers. As reading ability improved, word frequency and phonological context…

Presents a contrastive statement of the potential that intonation has for differentiating identically worded syntactic patterns in English and German. Focuses on tonality, rehearses some well-known examples of tonality contrasts and introduces some less well-known ones as well, both of which provide examples of syntactic distinctions concealed in…

Investigates three important issues in kanji learning strategies; namely, strategy use, effectiveness of strategy and orthographic background. A questionnaire on kanji learning strategy use and perceived effectiveness was administered to beginner level, undergraduate students of Japanese from alphabetic and character backgrounds in Australia.…

Investigates the relationship between redundancy and transposition in scientific texts. Highlights different traditional and discoursal theories of redundancy. Analyzed 20 self-contained scientific texts; results show that most of the sample texts follow similar organization. (Author/VWL)

Describes a study that investigates the relationship between secondary students' written responses and the mathematical and cognitive processing used when solving a complex problem. Contains 40 references. (DDR)

Examined the distribution of two Hebrew nominal structures in spoken and written texts of two genres produced by 90 native-speaking participants. Written texts were found to be denser than spoken texts lexically and syntactically as measured by a number of novel N-N compounds and denominal adjectives per clause; in older age groups this difference…

Reports on the use of journals by prospective English for Speakers of Other Languages teachers who were asked to conduct student-teacher conferences in writing. Presents a case for making individual conferencing and subsequent reflection through journal writing an integral part of second language (L2) writing teacher education. Also discusses…

Examines the logographic stage assumption in reading models by studying how German-speaking first graders read and spell words and matched pseudowords. The findings indicate that logographic strategies are of limited importance when writing systems are phonologically transparent (as with German) and when instructional approaches do not withhold…