James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor Emeritus of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics and former director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics in the same academic unit at Xi'an Jiaotong…

Reviews the theories of the founder of "general semantics," Alfred Korzybski, who believed that social conflict would be reduced by the study of how the structure of language affects our perceptions of the world and by the development of new language habits to overcome the limitations of verbal symbols. (Editor/SJL)

The speech, given to commemorate the tercentenary of the visit of Jan Komensky (Johann Amos Comenius--the latinised form of his name) to England, outlines the educational reforms suggested by him and chronicles his life. Komeny, born in 1652 in southeast Moravia, was personally affected throughout his life by war and disease and traveled about…