Describes the Modern Language Association (MLA) teacher education project. Hopes that the departments participating in the project would develop different exemplary programs appropriate to their departmental and institutional missions, faculty commitments, student needs, and state and local requirements concerning the preparation of secondary…

Discusses the many contributions of Rewey Belle Inglis, a secondary English teacher, university English educator, and textbook publisher, as well as first woman president of the National Council of Teachers of English (1929). Discusses her professional credentials, her place in history, her writings (about teaching grammar and literature, teacher…

Many English handbooks and "grammars" fail to offer sound advice to writers about matters of exactness in diction and precision in sentence structure. A gap between linguists and English teachers, the literary bias of most graduate departments of English, and a national obsession with the all-powerful capabilities of common sense, have…

Encourages English Department participation in preparing students to teach English in secondary schools, especially by screening English education students. (DD)

Asserts that William Wordsworth's poetry influenced teacher training for British educators and promoted the development of the English Department. Notes several legislative measures that played a role in English curricula. Concludes that current pedagogic studies make academic practice assumptions based on historic precedence dating back to…

Adequate grading of student compositions in large classes makes inordinate demands on the English teacher's time. To convince administrators to reduce teaching loads, teachers need familiarity with research supporting the instructional advantages of smaller classes and closer attention, and with opposing research. (An extensive annotated research…

Follows up on a Williamson and Fitz-Gibbon article (1990) focusing on the impact of a performance indicator project, COMBSE (Confidential Measurement Based Self-Evaluation), on secondary school English departments. This article describes COMBSE's metamorphosis into another system, ALIS (A Level Information System), that has transcended the…

Addresses three concerns regarding beginning secondary English teachers: the shock of entering the real world of public schools; specific ways that postsecondary English departments can ease that transition; and weaknesses the new teachers often bring with them. (RS)

Proposes, in general terms, three interrelated actions to begin to address the problems facing higher education English departments: (1) an enhanced public relations campaign for higher education; (2) greater collaboration with secondary schools and community colleges; and (3) an elevation of self-image and healing of the internecine stresses…

Conclusions based on the replies of 22 schools in Kentucky as to course requirements in the training of secondary teachers of English are presented. The conclusions are: (1) 17 of the 22 schools require 36 or more semester hours for a major; (2) a 6-hour requirement in Freshman English is almost universal; (3) a requirement in Introduction to…

This paper asserts that an English department that wishes to involve other departments in helping to improve students' writing skills must proceed through four distinct phases: (1) preparation of a rationale for involving other departments in the teaching of writing; (2) administration of a writing-attitude inventory to colleagues in other…

Addressing the issue of testing and evaluation in English at the university level, this paper focuses on the development and use of the English Placement Test developed by the California State University system. The discussion of this testing program is placed within a framework of four testing principles: testing is an essential part of learning…

Argues for the inclusion of noncanonical literature in the English curriculum, especially literature by women and minorities. Provides principles to guide the teaching of noncanonical literature. (SRT)

Presents a skeptical perspective on the English teaching profession and the educational system in general. Argues that the alleged educational crisis is in fact an encompassing social crisis, necessitating teachers to teach from a social and political perspective. (MM)

This study investigated the effect of a set of predictors of success in both the undergraduate English program and in all other subjects. Academic data for the graduates of an Arab university's English department during three years were analyzed. The predictor variables examined were: (1) total scores on the secondary school certificate…