Noting that, contrary to the first conference, disagreements began to surface among the conference participants of the second conference, this proceedings contains papers presented at the second conference on the teaching of grammar (except for a preconference workshop and one paper). Papers in the proceedings are: "Keynote: Finding Reasons…

The insight and understanding gained from various discourse models can allow teachers of reading and writing to focus on the many ways reading and writing instruction can be integrated. For example, syntactically oriented writing exercises such as sentence combining and Francis Christensen's generative rhetoric of a sentence can assist students in…

R-QUAF (Rapid Question and Answer Formation) is a device which enables the English as a second language (ESL) class to systematically review previously studied sentence patterns in a brisk and lively way. The technique revolves around a wall chart with cue words for questions running down the left-hand side (to elicit the various structures to be…

Student projects that involve writing generative grammars in the computer language, "LOGO," are described in this paper, which presents a grammar-running control structure that allows students to modify and improve the grammar interpreter itself while learning how a simple kind of computer parser works. Included are procedures for…

The difference model of reading disability was used to generate three research hypotheses for testing the relationship between language development (syntactic maturity) and reading achievement at the secondary school level. This model assumes that reading difficulties are attributable to differences or mismatches between the reader's response…

The effects of sentence combining instruction on student writing skills (punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and syntactic maturity) and reading achievement were studied in eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-old children. The experimental group, which received instruction in sentence combining, consisted of 20 students from each age group.…

This study investigated the possibility of training or improving intrasentence organizational skills (i.e., those that enable the reader to encode and process verbal information in higher-order units) and explored the effects that training had on reading comprehension. The subjects were 31 third graders, 16 experimental students and 15 control…

In answer to the need for more effective punctuation instruction, a project, based on the theory that an essential relationship exists between intonation and punctuation, was designed for and executed with two 9th-grade student groups--one experimental, the other control. The experimental group received punctuation instruction through the use of…

To determine the effects of oral sentence-structure exercises upon student writing, a 1-year experiment was conducted with two randomly matched fourth-grade classes of approximately equal size, one control class and one experimental class. The experimental group regularly completed exercises designed to teach students to produce sentences…

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effects on achievement and attitude of a method of teaching using multi-media self-instructional learning activity packages, with the conventional method of teaching by lecture and discussion. The subjects were 126 community college students enrolled in remedial English classes. Two instructors…

Teachers share learning activities and experiences that involve the writing of letters of famous people, the value of American literature in Nigeria, and the manipulation of expository prose through writing exercises. (HOD)

Proposes the "warm-up" exercise, providing sentence patterns and basic vocabulary, for the purpose of stimulating oral communication in the adult foreign language classroom. (AM)

Ideally the ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher should have access to elaborate audiovisual equipment. When this is not possible due to stringent budgeting, extremely effective lessons can be based on a simple picture or picture series. The same pictures can be reused to teach a variety of structures. (CFM)

Analysis of a writing lesson delivered to 22 children in their first year of school shows that instruction in grammar occurs without the use of a metalanguage for the concepts under instruction. Teacher control of knowledge through contingent question and answer is analyzed. (SLD)