Introductory remarks discuss the commitments which the Modern Language Association (MLA) has made toward improving the teaching of English and indicate the Association's willingness to bring the junior college teacher and four-year college teacher into a continuing, mutually instructive dialogue which will produce improved college English teaching…

Students will respond better to grammar instruction if the traditional heavy handbooks are replaced with light-weight paperbacks, each full of practical suggestions and clear examples. Several inexpensive paperbacks are available for instruction in grammar and usage, spelling, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing. Unlike the conventional…

This compilation of resource materials for the teaching of written composition in grades K-6 is based on the assemptions that the desire to write frequently results from the enjoyment and stimulation derived from reading what another has written; that children's literature offers the pupil contact with master writers; and that this contact may be…

Concepts advanced by grammarians, linguistic historians, dialectologists, psycholinguists, lexicographers, semanticists, and phonologists, together with new approaches to reading, spelling, and literature, can help the teacher make the English program more stimulating for children. For instance, discoveries made by psycholinguists have attested to…

The interest and delight which students find in film should be preserved from a teacher's excessive zeal to analyze and explain. As the beauty of poetry is frequently diminished through exhaustive analyses of similes, rhyme schemes, and other technical devices, the value of film to high school students can be weakened through too great an emphasis…

The development of literary judgment and taste should be one of the goals of any literature program. To accomplish this goal, the teacher should minimize his own estimate of a piece of writing and encourage the student to evaluate the writing himself. The teacher can direct the student from vague, easily-formed generalizations about his likes and…

Based on the assumption that English should be central to the school curriculum, this book indicates that the main purpose of the English teacher is not to instruct, but to provide a relaxed, friendly atmosphere in which children can use and improve their language skills. The discussion covers current teaching practices in reading, literature,…

A method of studying the responses of adolescents to literature was devised and utilized in analyzing the reactions of 52 ninth- and 10th-grade students to four short stories. Each story was divided into six sections and the students' verbal responses were recorded after reading each section. The resulting data indicated that, of the seven…

This collection of seven significant articles on higher thought processes stresses the important relationship of these processes to the teaching of language skills. The articles are: (1) "Language and the Habit of Credulity" by Russell G. Stauffer. (2) "Research on the Processes of Thinking with Some Applications to Reading " by David H. Russell,…

The techniques used to collect data on the dominant speech patterns and verbal expressions of elementary school children are described as a means of systematizing oral language instruction. Specific recurring errors discovered in children's communication are discussed: the failure to focus on a major point, to support ideas, and to clarify…

After a brief discussion of the problems and defects of junior college remedial or compensatory English programs, the need for adequately trained teachers for these programs is considered. The major areas essential to the training of such teachers are identified as (1) training in English, including oral language and linguistic studies and a broad…

This catalog describes products--instructional programs and printed materials--developed with total or partial funding from the National Institute of Education that deal with reading and the language arts. A one-page summary describes each product and provides information on implementation requirements, services available, descriptors, target…

These guidelines have been designed to support and upgrade English as a field of study and to suggest certain standards, approaches, and materials that will strengthen junior and senior high school English departments. The guidelines deal with several areas that have relevance for English instruction: philosophy; curriculum and instruction…

The purpose of this project was to initiate a classroom journal-writing program that would provide children with an opportunity to express themselves freely, and that would offer useful information for improving relationships within the classroom. Both students and teacher kept daily journals for a year. Four simple rules governed the procedure,…

The chapters of this publication discuss the following topics related to English programs for gifted high school students: philosophical principles underlying such programs, the study of literature, specific examples of subject matter content in literature, the relationships among various phases of language study, specific examples of subject…