Discusses the importance of the nonverbal component in second language learning, and describes research on the role of kinesics in language. (AM)

Notes the positive effects of assigning students tasks that require them to find samples of language that exemplify some general theoretical principles. (RL)

Describes five types of language research projects that enable students to examine language for themselves. (DD)

Tells how children's spelling strategies offer a glimpse of their knowledge about words; describes a study indicating that children's knowledge about words develops sequentially and systematically over an extended period of time. Discusses implications of the study for spelling instruction. (GT)

Three trends in language/communication research and intervention are described along with suggestions for instructional applications with young and/or severely handicapped students: (1) simulation of natural language learning conditions, (2) attention to communication functions rather than form, and (3) training across activities. (CL)

Discusses four aspects of listening comprehension citing supportive research: (1) what is involved in listening comprehension, (2) whether it be taught, (3) how it is related to reading comprehension, and (4) what other factors affect listening comprehension. Provides recommendations for teaching. (HTH)

Discusses the teaching of derivatives of irregular Spanish verbs in order to reinforce irregular patterns and increase the students' active vocabularies. (NCR)

It is proposed that explicit explanations of grammar concepts in the first language can be useful in teaching the related structures in a second language. The example used is that of the subjunctive mood, taught first in English and then in Spanish. Specific procedures for presenting the concept in English are outlined, including a set of…

Studies in psychology, language, and foreign language suggest that it is the qualitative nature of the task students perform while learning that is important, because of the creativity factor. Some explanations of creativity are concerned with hemisphericity of the brain. Another explanation is that creativity results from divergent rather than…

This book discusses two major approaches to social science research: quantitative research, which involves converting observations to numbers and analyzing them statistically; and qualitative research, which looks at participants' opinions, behaviors, and experiences from their own points of view and in a more subjective way. In the book,…

Although listening comprehension has been identified as the first and most important foreign language skill, research has shown that little class time is devoted to developing more than very basic listening skills. Early practice in listening in a foreign language helps to develop both language skills and confidence in communicating in the target…

Distinguishes "aesthetic reading," in which readers are absorbed in the experience of making meaning from verbal signs, from "efferent reading" (reading for information); indicates how recent findings about language acquisition support this model of the reading process; and suggests implications for reading instruction, with emphasis on the…

Describes an informal study that yielded information about differences between good and poor sixth-grade spellers in their awareness that spelling involves prediction strategies and in their awareness of letter frequencies, pattern frequencies, and positional constraints on spelling. Outlines a few implications for spelling instruction. (GT)

Examines the nature and structure of idioms and idiomatic language and offers suggestions for teaching them. Topics addressed include the relationship between idioms and erroneous language, idioms' appropriateness in context, proverbs, and metaphors. Some exercises are included. (Author/MSE)

Argues for an alternative to the conventional linear model of language acquisition in the learning of second-language grammar, proposing a more organic approach. The two approaches are contrasted, drawing on research in second-language learning and discourse analysis that supports the organic view. Some pedagogical implications of this approach…