Summary: This program explores the process approach to writing instruction, asserting that the act of writing is more than simply the completion of a product; it is a complex, creative, and unpredictable progression of ideas and strategies. With commentary from veteran writing instructors—including Dr. Lois Matz Rosen, author of Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When is a noun not a noun? And is improper agreement really like wearing plaid with stripes? Part one of this program summarizes the parts of speech and then looks at the ways in which one part of speech can be used syntactically as another. In part two, tiny animated dancers and other helpers provide examples of errors in subject/verb agreement and article/noun agreement. Idiom is also addressed.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Part one of this program completes the study of the building blocks of grammar with a thorough explanation of adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections-wow! Then, part two covers the basic rules of syntax, featuring subjects and predicates; appositive and verb phrases; direct and indirect objects; linking verbs; predicate nominatives, nouns of direct address, and appositives;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Filled with solid information and good advice, this program defines the rules for using the semicolon, the colon, and the dash, offering clear-cut caveats against misuse and overuse along the way. Litmus tests such as the "furthermore" test and the "and here it is" test make it easy to tell when to utilize these punctuation marks, while Thai food, spaghetti sauce, and even oatmeal with paprika...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program inquires into the correct handling of the much-abused and frequently misused comma. Section one deals with the separation of items in a list. Section two shows how to set off introductory elements such as interjections, prepositional and participial phrases, and independent, dependent, and subordinate clauses. Section three demonstrates the use of interrupters, including nouns of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the process approach to writing instruction, asserting that the act of writing is more than simply the completion of a product; it is a complex, creative, and unpredictable progression of ideas and strategies. With commentary from veteran writing instructors—including Dr. Lois Matz Rosen, author of Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mastering punctuation requires both understanding and finesse. In this program, Mama Napoli, a crossing guard, and other savvy English authorities open a dialogue on punctuation and then skip to the end-of the sentence, that is. The use of the period in commands, in declarative sentences, and with abbreviations; the question mark in interrogative sentences and to show disbelief or sarcasm; and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When should the red pen be wielded to the hilt, and when should writers and readers simply agree to disagree? Part one of this program deals with three unequivocal errors-sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences-and three major enemies of clarity-tense shifts, vague pronoun references, and faulty parallels. Contraction/possessive pronoun confusion is also sorted out. In part two,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Artists have been using portfolios of their work for years, to show prospective employers what they can do. Shouldn't all job seekers cash in on that idea? This program focuses on the steps involved in compiling a career portfolio, from gathering the individual components to tailoring them for use with different job categories. Work samples and other elements, such as a statement of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Can a noun have a number? What do demonstrative pronouns demonstrate? And is an article really an adjective? After a concise explanation of grammar and SEAE-Standard Edited American English-this program explains the ins and outs of common, proper, compound, and demonstrative nouns; personal, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns; and adjectives, including the tiny article. Singular and plural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, top verb experts including the yodeling Midori sisters and a circus sideshow barker demonstrate the past, present, and future forms of the simple, perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive tenses. Conditional statements, conjugation, helping verbs, and the verbals-gerunds, infinitives, and past and present participles-are considered as well. Dangling participles and other...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Ranging from the everyday to the esoteric, this program rounds out the study of punctuation by investigating the many functions of hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and ellipses. Topics presented include the following: using hyphens to create compound nouns and adjectives, spell out numbers, and break lines of text; using apostrophes to form contractions, possessives, and plurals; using slashes to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using a talking gingerbread man and an infomercial for punctuation marks, this program demystifies the art of working with quotation marks, parentheses, and brackets. Both the basics and the finer points are covered, including when to use double quotation marks and when to use singles, the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, and how quotation marks, parentheses, and brackets interact...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Was there a "big bang" in human language and cognitive development, or did speech and abstract thought evolve slowly-perhaps across 200,000 years or so? Surveying prehistoric burial sites and other archaeological finds, including what might be the world's oldest work of art, this program attempts to locate the junction of creativity and communication at which human intelligence was born....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program travels the globe as it surveys a large portion of the world's languages-25 percent of which are spoken by a mere 0.1 percent of the Earth's population. Moving from Africa to Oceania and up to Asia and then west to Europe and across the ocean to the Americas, the program assesses how many languages are spoken in each region, the characteristics they share, and misconceptions about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: It is predicted that within a century more than half of the world's languages will become extinct, but as languages are lost, new ones emerge naturally or are constructed. In this program, Noam Chomsky; Esperantist Thomas Eccard; endangered languages researcher Peter Ladefoged, who has since passed away; and others provide insights into the language life cycle. Topics include constructed...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Melvyn Bragg begins the story of English in Holland, finding ancestral echoes in the Frisian dialect. What follows is a chapter on survival as the English language weathers Viking and Norman invasions, vying with and eventually absorbing rival tongues. Lively settings such as village pubs and markets bring home the lasting influence of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Old French. The connection...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using multilingual Hong Kong as a case in point, this program makes the hot-button phenomenon known as language-mixing easily accessible to any viewer through interviews with dozens of Hong Kong residents. Their explanations of why and when they mix Cantonese and English reveal much about cultural identity in cosmopolitan populations and the effects of globalization. Scholarly analysis is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, John McWhorter, author of The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language; Lyle Campbell, of the University of Utah; Brian Joseph, of The Ohio State University; and population geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza examine factors that contributed to the diversification and spread of languages, including early migration, the introduction of agriculture, and genes. Language...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: What precisely is language, and how did humans acquire it? In an effort to answer those essential questions, this program journeys back to prehistoric times in search of language's origin. But this is not a passive discussion, as Noam Chomsky; Brown University's Philip Lieberman; Johanna Nichols, of U.C. Berkeley; Stanford University's Merritt Ruhlen; professor of anthropology Richard Klein;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Writing is a relative latecomer to the history of language. This program tracks its emergence in Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica and its spread down through the millennia via conquest-usually violent, sometimes benign-and colonization. The creation of creoles and pidgins resulting from the interaction of specific populations is also addressed, and speculation is made about the first things...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The world is a mosaic of visions, and each vision is encapsulated by a language. Yet every two weeks, one of the world's approximately 6,500 languages dies out. What is the significance of this loss to those who speak the language as well as for the rest of humankind? Why do some languages become global while others disappear? And how are language and identity connected? In this program,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: English is a language spoken by two billion people, perhaps even more. This classic PBS program examines the prevalence of English in the world today and presents a historical overview of its rise. Focusing on the expansion of the British Empire and the emergence of English-language mass media, the program explains how widespread English usage survived Britain's post-WWII decolonization,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Irish experience reflects two language traditions, English and Gaelic. This classic PBS program shows how English was first established in Ireland in the 17th century and how, in cases of violent cultural conflict, language can function as a weapon. Exploring the west of Ireland today, the program identifies traces of Irish Celtic culture, despite the historical decline of the Gaelic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007