This study investigates Italian and French students' grammatical problems while reading in German as an L3 or L4. For the study, we developed a reading test which consists of invented encyclopaedia articles on imaginary animals. These articles enabled us to test various grammatical structures for their receptive difficulty. This paper discusses…

Seventy-seven new academics--59 at a large, public university in the UK and 18 at a medium-sized, private comprehensive university in the USA--were asked to read an extract of an article on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and mark the text according to categories of difficulty or dislike. Analysis of the data revealed six main…

This empirical study presented the description of two teaching methods called "deductive" and "inductive" approaches. The first involved providing a group of participants with rules and then examples directly and separately, but the second approach involves providing another group of participants with examples or content…

The role of explicit information (EI) as an independent variable in instructed SLA is largely underresearched. Using the framework of processing instruction, however, a series of offline studies has found no effect for EI (e.g., Benati, 2004; Sanz & Morgan-Short, 2004; VanPatten & Oikkenon, 1996). Fernandez (2008) presented two online experiments…

This practical resource provides 40 research-based, classroom tested, and developmentally appropriate minilessons for kindergarten through grade 3--presented in the context of authentic writing experiences. Teachers can use these lessons to teach students how to: (1) Generate and organize ideas before writing, and then turn their prewriting ideas…

Direct quotation can be a source of meaning in storybook texts for beginning readers. The author of this article sketches the linguistic complexity of direct quotation and offers instructional strategies. Three aspects of direct quotation are examined: the cluster of print features and syntactic characteristics that direct quotation involves, the…

On the ground that reading fluency entails appropriate phrasing or prosody as well as facile word recognition, we investigated the effectiveness of text-based and word-based repeated readings procedures for promoting fluency of reading aloud and comprehension in second-grade children. Repeated readings of text printed with spaces between phrases…

We often speak about developing students' cultural and intercultural awareness as part of the language learning process. However, these elements are often dealt with superficially and the methods used are somewhat unclear to many practitioners and to learners themselves. As a result, we very often hear that learners do not learn a language at the…

Students in higher learning institutions need to write lots of reports based on the projects done. Since they are at the tertiary level of education, they are required to use English in their reports. This is to ensure that they are able to function well in English later at the workplace. Writing requires students to apply rules regarding sentence…

Ways to overcome difficulties in mastering the subjunctive in Spanish are described, using a travel analogy and a passport as memory aids. The passport reminds students of grammar rules, including trigger verbs and "que" clauses. (LB)

Assesses and contests the long tradition of attacks on the use of invented sentences in language teaching. Seeks to separate arguments against them that rely on parody and ridicule, from more reasoned assertions. (Author/VWL)

Presents a structural definition of the basic sentence unit, and suggests some guidelines for teaching this material. This concept of "X-word Grammar" has proven to be very helpful to students encountering difficulty with the concept of a sentence. (SL)

Discusses and illustrates three rule sets suitable for presenting generative grammar to beginners; and appendix to the author's article with the same title in the February 1970 (No. 13) issue, pp. 39-53; see TE 200 767. (Editor/SW)