This volume offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, empirical and methodological view over the new scenarios and environments for language teaching and learning recently emerged (e.g. blended learning, e-learning, ubiquitous learning, social learning, autonomous learning or lifelong learning), and also over some of the new approaches to language…

One aspect of linguistic input that may vary in bilingual speech communities is the use of overregularization (e.g., "catched"). In an earlier study, typically developing bilingual Spanish/English-speaking children were noted to use overregularizations in an elicited production task, accept these forms in a grammaticality judgment task, and reject…

Some grammatical points often left unexplained about the meaning, use, and teaching of these verb forms are outlined and discussed, drawing on textbooks and usage literature. Comparisons are made between the several forms, and traditional grammatical approaches are compared and contrasted. (MSE)

Discusses a technique for teaching the usage of the present perfect tense to students of English as a second language. (CFM)

Discusses the semantic functions of the English future formations: "will/shall,""to be going to," and the present tense. Points out that these all have modal as well as temporal significance, making the traditional teaching of the English future imprecise and misleading. (IFS/WGA)

Discusses semantic differences in the use of "simple" and "continuous" forms of the verb in English. Also discussed are variations found in the various temporal levels: present, future, perfect, and past, as well as in combinations with the modals "may" and "must,""could" and "might," and…

Discusses the problems involved in teaching Italian students the English equivalents of the verb "dovere." (CFM)

Beginning students of English as a second language want to have a natural use of the language to get things done, express thoughts, and get information. Most English learners have to invent an interlanguage to express time, because most language courses focus only on the present tense at first. A cyclical approach to grammar instruction allows the…

A solution is proposed to the traditional, unexplained use of optional backshifting in teaching past tenses of English verbs. The solution is based on correct and explicit formulation of the past tense examples used, so that optional backshifting would be unnecessary and inappropriate. (MSE)

Six brief articles discuss these aspects of language instruction: contrasting the imperative "let" with other imperative forms; distinguishing between perfect and nonperfect tenses in English; the various functions a question can perform; use of humor to illustrate language quirks; learning appropriate uses of count versus noncount nouns; and…

Reports on observations on tense switching in Navajo students' English compositions. Notes several implications for composition teachers working with Southwestern Indian students. (HTH)

Discusses some possible phrase-structure patterns for the "for + noun/pronoun" structure, exemplified in "It is easy for you to say that." Only the simple active patterns involving the structure should be taught at the elementary and intermediate levels. Passive and other patterns should be delayed in teaching. (PJM)

Describes how, through the use of two diagrams, one can teach the English present-perfect to Iranian students. One diagram consists of a time-line divided into "past" and "non-past." The other uses an oval to indicate a time-span including the present. Both facilitate comprehension of present-perfect meaning. (PJM)

This article discusses some of the recurrent syntactic problems that the foreign learner of English faces when using the English verb-particle construction and attempts to show how a pedagogic dictionary could help the learner to cope with these problems. (Author/CFM)

Suggests several specific examples of ways in which one can teach from wall-pictures in ESL classes. The stages of teaching from these pictures are given as presentation, repetition, question and answer, and practice. (RM)