This paper suggests that teachers concentrate on the ideational and structural properties of text rather than on information acquired from readability formulas when selecting and using texts. Emphasis is given to the importance of context in the analysis of text, and a framework is suggested for examining the text considering the functions texts…

This paper offers a rationale for the use of conversational approaches to teach language to deaf students, encourages teachers to reexamine how they teach and how they structure their classrooms and curriculums, and describes activities that teachers can use to encourage conversation in their classrooms. (Author/JDD)

A principal cause of the seeming "foreignness" in the compositions of English as a second language (ESL) university students is discussed, and an approach to correcting the problem is suggested. It is asserted that the English language compositions of ESL students reflect native language rhetorical norms which are culturally based. Discourse bloc…

Explains a three-step method of presenting the logical relationships indicated by connecting words (e.g., similarly, however, and therefore) so that developmental students can use them by building upon their understanding of coordinate and subordinate sentences within the paragraph structure. (DMM)

Native speakers, when listening to lectures, sift through the information to choose what to listen to, make hypotheses about future discourse, synthesize preceding discourse, and add their own background knowledge. Nonnative speakers, in their native languages, follow the same procedures. When dealing with a foreign language, however, they are not…

This article describes a discourse-based language intervention strategy in which children with pervasive developmental disorders are taught to make use of prior linguistic context to participate verbally in structured, interactive dialogues. The paper also describes the use of behavioral methodologies, especially milieu therapies, and the need for…

The language and conversational skills of young children with delayed language development can be fostered by using specific strategies in small-group story reading, including praising children's talk, expanding children's words, asking open-ended questions, and pausing for children to initiate. Teachers are encouraged to train parents to use the…