Given the pervasiveness and strategic importance of indirectness as a verbal phenomenon, this article presents exercises for language teachers to use to teach pragmatic indirectness. The exercises illustrate some reasons people prefer indirectness to directness: for rapport, defense, power, and selling. (Contains six references.) (LB)

Language and vocabulary represent the very foundation of learning to read and write. Children who do not develop strong oral language skills and vocabulary in these early years will find it difficult to keep pace with their peers. Children use the natural medium of language for thinking. Those who acquire a substantial vocabulary are often able to…

The article discusses the links between storytelling skills and history, with particular focus on Black History Month, and also lists resources and describes storytelling activities. (CB)

If you ever have students who are reluctant to tell you when they don't understand something--or worse, tell you they understand when they really don't--then here's a book that gives you lots of ways to check for understanding. Learn why typical methods to check for understanding are usually ineffective. And explore formative assessment techniques…

This highly practical guide is grounded in the authors' experience setting up and running a successful professional development program to improve K-3 reading instruction. The book systematically describes how professional development works: how sessions are organized, what they contain, routines and procedures, and the roles of each participant.…

This textbook is intended for use in the third and fourth grades, is divided into approximately 150 planned lessons for each year's work. These lessons are grouped into chapters, each composed of a series of related units that center about a common theme, providing work for a period equivalent in general to a school month. The material on which…

This textbook covers two years' work intended for grades five and six. The book is divided into approximately 160 carefully planned lessons for each year's work. These lessons are grouped into chapters, each composed of a series of related units that center on a common theme, providing work for a period equivalent in general to a school month. The…

This textbook covers two years' work intended for grades seven and eight. The book is divided into approximately 150 carefully planned lessons for each year's work. These lessons are grouped into chapters, each composed of a series of related units that center on a common theme. The material on which conversation and written exercises are based…

People explore their world in many ways: they observe, they read, they ponder, they write, they listen. They also turn to others and intentionally engage them in their own attempts to understand. It is this turning-to-others that is the focus of this book, with reference to children. An act of inquiry is defined in the book as "a language act…

PPRUE(H), which stands for Present, Prepare, Rehearse, Use, Exhibit, and (H)omework, a student-centered oral skills learning device with an optional writing component, is described. It is designed to be used at intervals throughout the school year in foreign language classrooms with oral skills components. (LB)

English learners are the fastest growing student population in the United States. Many of these students are placed in classrooms with teachers who lack the preparation to help diverse children excel. This book helps bridge the gap between students' needs and K-12 teachers' preparation, offering an overview of English learners and…

The supplementary activities guide was written to coordinate with a kindergarten textbook in English as a Second Language (ESL) used in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District. It contains eight instructional units with worksheets, alternative activities, and blackline masters for convenient reproduction. Each unit consists of a series of…

It is proposed that many students are unable to distinguish between unguarded writing patterns and literate or expository ones, and it is becoming increasingly necessary in writing instruction to clarify and impose the distinction between these patterns. This problem is confounded by current trends toward exclusively spoken language in the…

This brochure is intended to be a useful tool for assessing students' development along a continuum of oral language growth as well as for providing information about the competencies that students are expected to learn in second-fifth grades. On the continuum in the brochure, descriptors list specific behaviors that detail students' development…

Presented is an analysis of creationist styles of presentation from the viewpoint of a student of folklore. Folklore themes, and formulaic utterances are discussed. The roles of language development and culture are stressed. (CW)