This study compared the use of an animated pedagogical agent (agent) with an electronic arrow and voice narration (arrow and voice) in a multimedia learning environment where 74 college level English as a Second Language (ESL) students learned English relative clauses. No significant differences in learning or performance were found between the…

A system for classifying English predicates into four families that account for all forms, moods, voices, and tenses is examined as an approach to teach grammar to students of English as a second language (ESL). It is suggested that by focusing on one family at a time, then building by combining these families, students can learn more readily to…

An interest in conditions of practice and feedback led to a study which examined the effect on writing by elementary school students of (1) two types of practice, both similar to "free focused writing"; (2) practice at a frequency greater than once a week; and (3) a procedure by which students measured their own performance and provided themselves…

This study examines the effects of different kinds of verbal instructions given by teachers on the performance of young children, investigating whether task performance is significantly affected by small changes in verbal content or in the sequence of components of an instruction. Kindergarten children (48 boys and 52 girls) were randomly assigned…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. The basic principles of literary cohesion (the way a text hangs together) are discussed and exercises are suggested to help students increase their sensitivity to…

The seven major articles in this journal issue are devoted to literature and to literary analysis. The articles deal with the following topics: (1) collapse and regeneration in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," (2) freedom and identity in "Invisible Man," (3) the character of St. John Rivers in "Jane Eyre," (4) integrating poetry study and…

Answers to questions asked of college freshman composition students indicated that one-third lacked confidence in their ability to write because of their ignorance of the rules of grammar and inability to use correct grammar. This may be a result of the textbook presentation of grammar as a straightforward set of rules to be mastered without…

Secondary school students can be taught the skills of precise and complex composition by providing analysis of sentence types. While in the process of learning the formation of complex sentences, students should be given the opportunity to read more complex sentences as well. Christensen's study of modifier types (whether initial, medial, or…

This paper suggests methods for teaching the Russian verbs that govern what are loosely termed "objects" in oblique cases. The case government of such verbs is not necessarily an individual irregularity. Definite patterns emerge, both morphological and semantic, to facilitate grouping these verbs into classes. Russian verbs requiring genitive…

An attempt to fill the gap between the purely theoretical and the purely practical, this book provides the classroom teacher with a set of principles for using linguistics in devising and evaluating teaching techniques. Briefly, the chapters (1) present some special learning principles that distinguish language learning from other types of…

A discussion of a semantic approach to teaching these particles. The meaning of -zhe can be best characterized as "incompleteness.' Another characteristic of -zhe in a simple sentence is to change an action verb into a stative one. -Ne in conjunction with -zhe mitigates the incompleteness represented by -zhe. (Author/AMH)

Describes a teaching method that uses the student's growing need to use the language as motivation. (CRH)

Introduces and demonstrates the various ways that writers keep track of the main theme of the exposition and how they change signals to and from subtopics to maintain continuity in texts. Concludes with notes on teaching this material. (PD)

Explains how education majors try to learn to recognize thought unit sentences (ThUS's) and to gauge their difficulty. Shows examples of simple writing and discusses the task of writing ThUS's to match style and level of author. Gives a rationale for doing a readability analysis in this way. (FL)

Three activities used with first-year French students are described: (1) drawing pictures by following directions which demonstrates knowledge of subjects and prepositions, (2) reading a poem in French and rewriting it in French prose, and (3) learning numbers through role-plays involving money. (PMJ)