"THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE," ONE OF THE UNITS DEVELOPED BY THE PROJECT ENGLISH CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, WAS THE BASIS FOR LANGUAGE STUDY IN A JUNIOR-HIGH CLASSROOM. INITIALLY FOCUSING ON HELEN KELLER AND THE WAY IN WHICH SHE LEARNED LANGUAGE, THE STUDY FOLLOWED A PROCEDURE THROUGH WHICH THE STUDENTS DISCOVERED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORDS AND REFERENTS, THE CODE-LIKE NATURE OF LANGUAGE, THE UNITS COMPRISING THAT CODE (PHONEMES), AND THE RULES GOVERNING THE ORGANIZATION OF MORPHEMES INTO WORDS AND WORDS INTO SYNTACTIC UNITS. THE STUDY WAS THEN EXTENDED TO THE USES OF LANGUAGE BOTH AS A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND AS A SOCIAL INSTRUMENT. STUDENTS EXAMINED FIGURATIVE AND LITERAL EXPRESSION, LANGUAGE IN BRAINWASHING AND PROPAGANDA, AND LANGUAGE AS IT ISOLATES SPEAKERS OF DIALECTS FROM THE REST OF SOCIETY. (SEVERAL SAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS BASED ON GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE ARE INCLUDED.) THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN "ENGLISH JOURNAL," VOL. 56 (SEPTEMBER 1967), 858-62. (JS)