This paper presents background information on the development of the folk oral tradition of black American literature. It then examines seven types of black literature that are basically oral: black folk tales, black folk sermons, black ballads, black American spirituals, black nonreligious or secular songs, black American blues, and Afro-American…

Discusses ways in which talk during writing and group discussion can help children's writing, including (1) helping teachers learn to listen, (2) teaching children to elaborate and clarify, (3) giving children experience with an audience and reasons for writing, (4) helping children gather ideas and assistance, and (5) teaching children to be…

Spanish-speaking children of Mexican descent living in California were tested on the acquisition of 18 Spanish consonants. The 120 subjects (aged 3 to 5:7 years) were equally divided into eight age groups, and the median ages (50%) and upper age limits (90%) of customary production of each consonant were determined. (Author/JDD)

Describes the study of learning strategies employed by successful (defined in terms of oral communicative abilities) Chinese learners of English. These strategies are compared to those of less successful learners and those of other population types from other studies. The test of oral communicative abilities is described. A strategies…

Describes processes of facilitation involved in exolingual conversation (interactions between persons who are dynamically adjusting their respective linguistic performances) between foreign language learners and native speakers, concluding that such behavior is dynamic and creative, and incapable of being described and defined within predetermined…

Describes an anthropological and ethnographic study of writing and the shaping of consciousness in a junior high school, focusing on narrative and performative modes of literacy. Shows how Black and Puerto Rican students struggle with their writing in search of a voice that can express their lived experience in a partially hostile world. (RDN)

This paper consists of four sections, each dealing with the assessment of a single language skill: Writing, Speaking, Reading and Listening. While culture includes those "everyday aspects of life within a society" which are present but not necessarily overtly expressed, Culture embraces "those aspects and artifacts of society that represent what…

This paper examines obstacles faced by Japanese students learning English, noting that many such students are highly competent in reading, writing, and listening, but not in speaking. It suggests that students are worried about making oral mistakes, which cannot be erased once uttered, and that oral activities completed in English class are often…

The work of Harold E. Palmer, the individual responsible for consolidating the ideas of the nineteenth-century reform movement into what became known as the Direct Method of second language teaching, is examined. The ideas began with Palmer's conviction that language should be taught by an aural-oral methodology, and he developed teaching…

This collection of articles on language teaching and language acquisition theories includes: "Enseignement des langues et theories de l'acquisition. Introduction au colloque" ("Language Teaching and Theories of Acquisition. Introduction to the Colloquium") (Rene Richterich); "Apprendre une langue dans l'interaction verbale" ("Language Learning in…

A study conducted in grades 4 and 5 in French Canadian schools in Atlantic Canada and Ontario investigated differences between students' vernacular and standard spoken French, with regard to learning how to eliminate interference in students' learning of standard usage. The discussion focuses on mistakes caused by borrowings from English,…

This study investigated similarities and differences in Egyptian Arabic and American English refusals, using a modified discourse completion test (DCT) consisting of three requests, three invitations, three offers, and three suggestions. Each situation included one refusal to a person of higher status, one to a person of equal status, and one to a…

This document discusses a test devised for a university level English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) course that tests students' conversational ability. The test has been used successfully in a Japanese university English communication class over three years. Learning not only to speak but to listen and respond appropriately to others is also an…

The purpose of this research is to examine the detailed components of Japanese students' English speaking ability in terms of communicative competence by using an oral proficiency test based on Bachman's Communicative Language Ability model (included in an appendix). Eighty college students were tested on four tasks--speech making, visual material…

This study provides some evidence of significant differences between the Redundancy and Bottom-to-Top Models in sequencing four-semester elementary and intermediate Spanish courses using the ACT Spanish Test Form 1 as the dependent variable. T-test results of independent samples (unequal variances model) were 0.056. Results also indicated that…