What Is 'Continuity' in English Teaching? Working Party Paper No. 2; Response; Plenary Session; Report; Record of Group Discussion; and Supporting Papers.

Children's language abilities develop in a predetermined order, one stage necessarily preceding the next. The rate of this development remains relatively the same for physiologically normal human beings. Through research it is becoming possible to identify critical periods in linguistic development. Teachers could utilize and exploit these growth rhythms by presenting language concepts that the student would be susceptible to at a particular time. Research results support not a preplanned program of instruction, but a flexible teaching strategy in which the teacher uses his knowledge of the developmental sequences to urge students along in the directions in which growth has been indicated. The main role of the teacher would be to provide occasions for pupils to use their developing language in ways which are appropriate to their level of maturity. Literature curricula should also correspond to levels of student language maturity in terms of dominant themes. The study group's responses, prompted by Whitehead's paper, are included. (LL)