Perspectives in Linguistics.

Within this decade, the ever increasing number of inservice workshops and institutes for utilizing linguistics instruction in elementary school classrooms reflects the current concern and interest of languagearts teachers in acquiring the knowledge and skills requisite to the inclusion of linguistics in their instructional programs. Robert Denby’s survey of NCTE/ERIC Reports in a recent issue of Elementary English indicates that “the writing of a growing number of linguists, the curriculum development work at Project English centers, and the efforts of individual teachers and school districts have produced numerous model units, textual resources, and reports of classroom experimentation.”1 Current language-arts textbooks promulgated by the major publishing companies include, among the authors, linguists, who in conjunction with experienced classroom teachers, are furnishing linguistically-oriented contexts and materials for teaching reading, spelling, and language. This interest in linguistic instruction at elementary grade levels poses two problems: (1) The textual materials are being offered to teachers who have not been