published byDepartment of Language Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga

andéditions SOLEIL publishing inc.

In this issue...

Anthony Mollica • Mihaela Pirvulescu

3 A Conversation with... Stephen D. KrashenStephen D. Krashen

6 Stephen D. Krashen’s “Monitor Theory” and Its Five Hypothesesof Second-Language Acquisition

Frank Nuessel

9 La Grammaire Universelle et l’acquisition d’une langueseconde : une réflexion critique

Rostyslav Bilous

15 Recreational Linguistics:Crossword Puzzles and Second-Language Teaching

Anthony Mollica

Vol. 10 No. 3 ISSN 1195-7131 Fall 2008

Edited by

Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 20082

Editorial Board

Paolo Balboni, Università di Venezia “Ca’ Foscari”Monica Barni, Università per Stranieri di Siena

Parth Bhatt, University of TorontoOlenka Bilash, University of AlbertaPierre Calvé, University of Ottawa

Helen Christiansen, University of ReginaMarcel Danesi, University of Toronto

Roberto Dolci, Università per Starnieri di PerugiaCharles Elkabas, University of Toronto Mississauga

Serafina Lina Filice, Università della Calabria

Founded in 1993 by Anthony Mollica, Mosaic. The Journalfor Language Teachers is a journal published four times ayear (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by éditions Soleilpublishing inc. Manuscripts and editorial communicationsshould be sent to:Professor Anthony MollicaEditor, Mosaic, P.O. Box 847, Welland, Ontario L3B 5Y5.Tel/Fax: [905] 788-2674, E-mail: mosaic@soleilpublishing.com

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“The language graduate who never reads a professional journal and participates only minimally, if at all, inprofessional meetings, will stagnate. There is an onus on the profession in all areas to upgrade and keepabreast of current developments in the field.”

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Peter Heffernan, University of LethbridgeStephen Krashen, University of Southern California

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Roseann Runte, Carleton UniversitySandra J. Savignon, University of PennsylvaniaMaureen Smith, University of Western Ontario

Rebecca Valette, Boston College

15Mosaic

Anthony Mollica

Recreational Linguistics:Crossword Puzzles

and Second-Language TeachingAlthough the crossword puzzle has a very short history, there is no

doubt that it is the most popular and widespread of all word games.A quick glance at textbooks and workbooks easily attests that it is

the word game favoured by language teachers.

When Arthur Wynn publishedthe first crossword puzzle in

the puzzle page of Sunday’s NewYork World on December 21, 1913,he probably did not realize theinstant success the puzzle was toenjoy. He created the biggestpuzzle craze that America had everseen.

According to Arnot (1981),today 99% of the world’s dailynewspapers and 677 Sundaynewspapers in the United Statescarry one, and the number ofregular solvers is counted in themillions. There is no question thatthe number of both newspapersand solvers has increased sinceArnot made this assertion morethan a quarter of a century ago.

Crossword puzzles do notappear only in newspapers but alsoin hundreds – perhaps in thou-sands – of magazines dedicated tothis puzzle alone.

Roger Millington (1977), oneof the first authors to write aboutthe history of the crosswordpuzzles gives an anecdotaldescription of the reactions ofArthur Wynne’s first puzzle.

Engaged couples announced theirgood news by composing appro-priate crosswords and stickingthem in the local paper. The Rev.George McElveen, a Baptist pastorof Pittsburgh, was the first of manypreachers to use the crosswordpuzzle to attract bigger con-gregations. He announced that a

large blackboard would be placedin front of his pulpit. On it was anoriginal puzzle and the audiencewas required to solve it before hewould begin his sermon. Thesolved puzzle, needless to say,proved to be the text for hissermon. In Atlantic City, cross-words were distributed in churchto stir interest in a currentmissionary campaign in Chinaand Persia. Churchgoers wererequested, however, not to solvethe puzzles during the service (p.20).

In December 1924, unaware thecraze was shortly to achieve similarmagnitudes in Britain, The Timestook pity on America. In an articleheaded “An Enslaved America”, itnoted that “All America hassuccumbed to the crosswordpuzzle.” Guessing inaccurately, itcontinued:

The crossword puzzle is by nomeans a new thing; in all likeli-hood it was known as long as theCivil War.

The Times felt that the cross-word was

a menace because it is makingdevastating inroads on workinghours of every rank of society.

How devastating? Well, ac-cording to their New Yorkcorrespondent, five million hoursdaily of American people’s time –most of them nominally workinghours – were used in unprofitabletrifling (p. 21).

acquisition,” Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition, 15:2, 147-163.

Selinker, L. 1972. “Interlanguage,”International Review of AppliedLinguistics, 10:201-231.

Seuren, P. A. M. 2004. Chomsky’sMinimalism. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress Inc.

White, L. 2003a. “On the Nature ofInterlanguage Representation: UniversalGrammar in the Second Language,” dansC. J. Doughty and M. H. Long, eds., TheHandbook of Second LanguageAcquisition. Oxford: BlackwellPublishing Ltd.

White, L. 2003b. Second LanguageAcquisition and Universal Grammar.Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Zakharova, V.A. 1958. “Usvoieniedoshkol’nikami padiezhnykh form.”Doklady Akademii PiedagogicheskikhNauk RSFSR 3:81-84. Abstract bySlobin, D.I. in Smith, F. & Miller, G.A.,eds., The Genesis of Language.Cambridge MA: Massachusetts Instituteof Technology Press, 1966.

Remerciements : Je tiens àprésenter mes remerciements auProf. Charles Elkabas de sesvalables commentaires.

Rostyslav Bilous est présentementcandidat au Doctorat en Linguistique

française del’Universitéde Toronto.Parmi sesintérêts derecherche : latypologie et lat r an s i t i v i t év e r b a l e ,rapport entrela transiti-vité

et le marquage d’objet différentiel,réalisations morphosyntaxiques destraits d’individuation sur l'objet direct,modalité et systèmes modaux, variationparamétrique, code linguistique :système vs. structure, économie vs.variation, problèmes de bilinguisme,techniques de traduction, acquisition etapprentissage L1/L2–Ln, attrition etperte de L1, méthodes d'enseignement/apprentissage d'une langue seconde.

Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 200816

Figure 1The first crossword puzzle by Arthur

Wynne which appeared in theNew York World.

What are crossword puzzles?

According to Augarde (1984, p.52), crossword puzzles

usually consist of chequereddiagrams (normally rectangular) inwhich the solver has to write wordsguessed from clues. The words areseparated by black squares or bythick bars between squares. [...]Crosswords are now usuallydesigned so that they look the samewhen they are turned upside down.But many early crosswords lackedthis kind of pattern or weredesigned symmetrically, so that theleft side as the mirror-image of theright side

The first puzzles created byArthur Wynne appeared in theshape of a diamond without any“black” squares and was called“word-cross”. My theory is thatWynne called the puzzle “word-cross” because he had positionedthe words in the form of a cross(which also resembles a diamond).It had the word “FUN” written init because it appeared in the “Fun”page of the newspaper. Through aprinter’s error, the puzzle wasbaptized as “cross-word.” (Figures1 and 2)

The word “cross-word” (firsthyphenated and later with thehyphen removed), was an instantsuccess! According to Millington,after the first “crossword puzzle”was published in the New YorkWorld, the newspaper wasswamped with requests and theword puzzle remained a regularfeature although several type-setting errors kept creeping in. Theproblem was eventually solved bytaking the proof sheet to theEditor’s office for him to solve. In1920, the World decided to hire ayoung Smith College graduatenamed Margaret Petherbridge asthe solver/proofreader of thecrossword puzzle.

As Millington (1974) narrates, acasual request at a dinner at DickSimon’s aunt was to bring him andhis new partner Lincoln Schusterof the newly founders “Simon and

Figure 1Answers to the first crossword puzzle by

Arthur Wynne.

Schuster, Publishers” a great dealof wealth. Simon’s aunt wonderedwhere she could purchase a bookof crossword puzzles for her niecewho, apparently, had becomeaddicted to solving the crosswordpuzzles in the New York World.

Both Simon and Schusterimmediately realized that such abook did not exist and enlisted theassistance of Margaret Pether-bridge and two other colleagues ofhers, Prosper Buranelli and F.Gregory Hartswick. They soon hada compilation of 50 puzzles butwere advised not to publish themunder their company name (theywere told that the publicationwould not augur well in thepublishing business) and so theypublished with the imprint of“The Plaza Publishing Company.”“Plaza” was the name of the streetof the publishing house.

The book, accompanied with a

Venus pencil and an eraser, sold at$1.35 per copy, a steep price for abook in those days, but no soonerwas The Cross Word Puzzle Bookpublished that Simon andSchuster’s telephone lines werejammed with requests. In less thanthree months, they sold 40,000copies and by the end of their firstyear of publication, they hadpublished three volumes of puzzleswith a total sales of over 400,000copies.

It did not take long for this newpuzzle to cross the Atlantic.

In France, it was eventuallyreferred as Mots croisés, in Spain asCrucigramas, in Portugal as Palavrascruzadas, in Germany as Kreuz-worträtsel, in Holland as Kruiss-woord, in Finland as Ristisana, inSweden as Krossord, in Romania asCuvinte Incruciate, in Yougoslavaiaas Krjz-Lica. In Italy, it becameknown as Parole incrociate, a term

2-3 What bargain hunters enjoy.4-5 A written acknowledgement.6-7 Such and nothing more.10-11 A bird.14-15 Opposed to less.18-19 What this puzzle is.22-23 An animal of prey.26-27 The close of a day.28-29 To elude.30-31 The plural of is.8-9 To cultivate.12-13 A bar of wood or iron.16-17 What artists learn to do.20-21 Fastened.

24-25 Found on the seashore.10-18 The fibre of the gomuti palm.6-22 What we all should be.4-26 A day dream.2-11 A talon.19-28 A pigeonF-7 Part of your head.23-30 A river in Russia.1-32 To govern.33-34 An aromatic plant.N-8 A fist.9-31 To agree with it.3-12 Part of a ship20-29 One.

17Mosaic

which was taken over by the lesscorrect Parole crociate and by theLatinism Cruciverba.

It was again Arthur Wynnewho, according to Augarde (1984,p. 54), provided England with thefirst crossword puzzle whichappeared in the Sunday Express onNovember 2, 1924. The Timesfollowed six years later, in 1930.

The English crossword puzzle,however, was more difficult thanthe American version. The lattertended to have more straight-forward clues and a larger diagram.

Arnot (1981, p. 3) points outthat in Britain, in spite of theshortage of paper, the crosswordpuzzle still found its place in thefour-page condensed newspapers.The reason was that the puzzle wasconsidered a therapeutic diversionduring the long hours in air-raidshelters.

In France this new word gameappeared for the first time inDimanche Illustré on November 9,1924 with the name of “Mosaïquemystérieuse”. (Figure 3). When thesecond crossword appeared thefollowing week, however, thenewspaper acknow-ledged that thefirst puzzle contained two errors:12 Across should have read“conjonction” and not“préposition” and 1 Down shouldhave read “mode de verbe” andnot “temps de verbe”. History wasrepeating itself: errors andmisprints which plagued the firstfew crossword puzzles published inNew York World were now plaguingDimanche Illustré. By December ofthat same year, the crosswordpuzzle had undergone anotherchange. It was not longer referredas “Mosaïque mystérieuse” but as“Problème de mots croisés”.

Other dailies such as Le Gaulois,L’Excelsior, Le Matin and L’Intransi-geant – to name a few – quicklyfollowed suit by inserting cross-word puzzles in their publication.

In 1925, Renée David published

Le journal des mots croisés. Thatsame year he also founded theAcadémie des mots croisés.

In Italy, crossword puzzlesappeared for the first time in inLa Domenica del Corriere onFebruary, 1925 (Figure 4).

enjoyed and is enjoying a greatsuccess. There are dozen of publi-cations which can be found in thevarious newsstands throughoutItaly.

That same year, 1925, Monda-dori published a book, Cruciverba,with a rather lenghty subtitle(Dossena, 1994, p. 245), remini-scent of the title published bySimon and Schuster.

Figure 3The first crossword puzzle which appeared in France.

Horizontalement 1. Champêtre. 8. Favorable. 9. Chiffre. 10. Note. 11. Arme. 12.Préposition. 15. Fleur. 16. L’éal de quelqu’un. 18. Pronom. 20. Appel. 21. Note. 22.Arbre. 24. Particule d’atome 25. Vive lueur.Verticalement 1. Temps de verbe. 2. Conscience intime. 3. Note. 4. Personnagelégendaire. 5. Terme de jeu. 6. Dépôt de liquide. 7. Détruit. 13. Fleuve. 14. Petit animal.17. Vêtement. 19. Meuble. 21. La terre. 23. Négation. 24. Pronom.

The following Sunday, in thesame magazine, there appeared anillustration by the famous artist,Achille Beltrame (Figure 5) Itdepicts a ballroom scene with alarge crossword puzzle on the wall.Couples were asked to solve thepuzzle while dancing. Since thattime, the crossword puzzle in Italy

Figure 5

Figure 4

Da sinistra a destra1. Un tedesco – secondo un francese

– durante La guerra.2. Coloro che stendono atti pubblici.3. Paese natio di un celebre ciclista.

Dall’alto in basso1. Recipiente.4. Do da mangiare.5. Alberi resinosi

Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 200818

.

Seven years later, on October19, 1932, the best-known cross-word puzzle magazine was born,La Settimana Enigmistica (Figure 6).The magazine has kept the sameformat since its inception and,unlike other crossword puzzlespublished in the World, in theDimanche Illustré, and in othernewspapers, it can proudly andjustifiably boast of being free ofmisprints. La Settimana Enigmisticakept the term “parole crociate” in-stead of the more correct, “paroleincrociate”. While there are nu-merous crossword magazines pub-lished in Italy, La SettimanaEnigmistica remains perhaps themost popular.

1. the fascination of wordscommon to an articulate race,

2. self-education, and3. time-killing.

Augarde adds still anotherfactor:

4. the challenge of solving theclues, each of which may be aminiature puzzle or riddle.Crossword puzzles have also

been recognized as a validpedagogical tool. In fact, theItalian Ministry of Education in aMemorandum, dated July 16,1999, suggested and encouragedthe introduction of crosswordpuzzles in the Italian schoolcurriculum.

The Crossword Puzzle andSecond-Language Pedagogy

It is becoming more and moreapparent, both from the psycho-linguistic research (Jeffries, 1985)and from the experience of dailyclassroom routine, that the wayinto the learner’s mind andpersonality is not throughmechanistic, repetitive trainingtechniques, but through those thatallow us to enter into the mind’s“imaginative” channels. Thisimplies not only the applicationof “imaginative” teaching in theetymological sense of the word,but also “image or imagisticeliciting” procedures. One devicethat fell conspicuously into thispedagogical domain was obviouslythe crossword puzzle.

A great deal has been written onthe crossword puzzle in the lan-guage class using the printed wordas stimulus. Dino Bressan (1970),classifies direct-definition cluesinto nine different headings:1. Generic. Clue: Pronm. Answer: Ils.

2. Synonymic. Clue: Tout naturel.

Answer: Inné.

3. Antonymic. Clue: Pas fictif.

Answer: Réel.

4. Allusive. Clue: Échappe au rêveur.

Answer: Réalité.

5. Allusive-negatory. Clue: Bien degens ne connaissent que sa marge.

Answer: Loi.

6. Definitory. Clue: Dont rien ne vienttroubler sa quiétude.

Answer: Sereine.

7. Descriptive. Clue: Rceueillents desmalheureux.

Answer: Asiles.

8. Punny. Clue: Il avait vraiment labosse du théâtre.

Answer: Polichinelle.

9. “In” clue. Clue: Lettres d’amour.

Answer: Am.

Bressan prefers the crosswordpuzzle for the obvious contri-bution it can make from alinguistic point of view andmaintains that

A carefully graded selection ofcrosswords in order of complexitywill contribute to the acquisitionof new words and phrases as wellas the consolidation of knowledgethrough repetition.

G. Latorre and Gloria Baeza(1975) point out that

The clues are central to the drillingobjective of the crossword puzzle,since most of the information thestudent gets for doing the exerciseis found in them. The clue is to thecrossword exercise almost what theprompt is to the old pattern drill:it is the stimulus that keeps thedrill going. As such, there is noplace here for ambiguity, deliberateor otherwise. On the contrary,clarity is essential. By reading theclue, the student must know witha fair degree of accuracy whichword is required, since in mostcases he is being confronted witha linguistic problem within hiscapabilities and knowledge (p. 51)

David E. Wolfe (1972) in anarticle published in The Audio-Visual Language Journal acknow-ledges Bressan’s worthwhilecontribution and offers a numberof examples as perhaps morerealizable in the language class,assuming that the crosswordpuzzle is teacher-prepared and is

Many attribute the origin of thecrossword puzzle to the acrosticand the word square (Parlett, 1995;Amende, 2001) although there aredissenting voices (Dossena, 1994).

To what does one attribute thepopularity of the crosswordpuzzle?

Augarde (1984, p. 61) cites threereasons given by Prosper Buranelliand Margaret Petherbridge for itsphenomenal success:

Figure 6Cover of the first copy ofLa Settimana Enigmistica

published in Italy.

19Mosaic

based on material previouslystudied by the student.

One of the examples Wolfesuggests is the picture clue anddeclares

Any concrete noun which theteacher can draw is appropriate asa clue assuming the noun has beentaught.

Mollica concurs with Wolfe and,as he suggested in variouspublications (Mollica, 1987, 1988a,1988b, 1991a, 1991b, 1995, 2001),the picture clue is an effective wayof preparing a crossword puzzleparticularly when teachers wish toreview or the expand the student’svocabulary dealing with a specifictheme. The success of Mollica’spublications prompted otherpublishers to follow suit.

As far as I know, the firstsuggestion for the insertion ofcrossword puzzles in Italian second-language pedagogy was proposedby Mollica (1976) in an articlepublished in A Handbook forTeachers of Italian.

In agreement with Clifford T.Morgan and Richard A. King (1996)that

most, if not all people, experienceimages and that images often helpthinking, [and that] someindividuals have such vivid imagerythat they can recall things almostperfectly.

Mollica decided to use the visualstimulus.

Mollica is strongly convincedthat at the early stages of languagelearning, the crossword puzzle canbe an alternative to

• translation,• definitions and• descriptions,by relating language to context andby establishing a direct associationbetween language and image.

Firmly believing in the directassociation between image andword to facilitate learning, he chose

10 themes and arbitrarily selected20 words for each theme. Hedivided the 20 words into foursections of 5. He then created fourdifferent crossword puzzles for the20 words: Crossword Puzzle A, B,C and D.

Crossword Puzzle A (Figure 7)contains ten illustrations. At thebottom of each page, listed inalphabetical order, are printed theten words which are required tocomplete the puzzle correctly.

Students who may not know themeaning of an illustrated wordmay quite ingeniously discover itby counting the letters of theanswer and inserting it in theproper spaces. The activity thenbecomes an exercise in learningnew vocabulary as well.

Crossword Puzzle B (Figure 8)contains the other ten illustrationsand repeats five illustrations fromCrossword Puzzle A. At the bottomof the page, listed in alphabetical

Figure 7Crossword Puzzle A Figure 8

Crossword Puzzle B

Figure 9Crossword Puzzle C

Figure 10Crossword Puzzle D

Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 200820

order, are printed fifteen wordswhich are required to complete thepuzzle correctly.

Crossword Puzzle C (Figure 9)repeats the ten illustrations whichfirst appeared in Crossword PuzzleB and repeats the other fiveillustrations of Crossword PuzzleA not used in Crossword Puzzle B.At the bottom of the page, listedin alphabetical order, are printedthe fifteen words which arerequired to complete the puzzlecorrectly.

Crossword Puzzle D (Figure 10)contains all twenty illustrationsusing only the visual stimulus. Bythe time, the student has seen andwritten the words twice beforesolving this last puzzle and thefinal activity can be considered asa “test” puzzle to verify whetherthe student has learned all thewords of the visual vocabularypage.

Graphically, the process maysummarized as follows:

Words Crossword Puzzle

A B C D

5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5

The aim has been to providecumulative learning as well as afun element.

Clearly, teachers are providedwith the option of selecting acrossword puzzle activity asrequired by their students’linguistic ability. They may decideto use the cumulative approach orsimly use the last puzzle as a “test”item. Therefore, if students arealready familiar with thevocabulary, they may be given thelast puzzle which contains onlythe visual stimulus. Students whomay be less familiar with thevocabulary presented may begiven the other puzzles.

Mollica suggested that these

puzzles may also be given tostudents who are not completelyfamiliar with the theme and theactivity will become a learningexperience for them, since theywill have to identify theillustration. Counting the letters ofeach printed word and insertingthem in the proper spaces willprovide the solution they seek.

Of all word games, thecrossword puzzle is the mostpopular and the most versatile inlanguage teaching/learning. It isthe most useful and multifacetedtool to teach, learn, recall as wellas expand one’s knowledge ofvocabulary. Like the search-a-word, the crossword puzzle is veryuseful in language teaching/learning, for it complements thestudents’ learning styles: kin-aesthetic, auditory or visual:

• The kinaesthetic learner needsto write down words todetermine if they “feel” right.

• The auditory learner maymouth the words silently whilereading.

• The visual learner recognizeswords by their configurations.

Pedagogical Applications1. Teachers may wish to highlight

keywords of a short story. Thekeywords in the followingcrossword puzzle, based on theshort story “L’ouvrier modèle”by Roch Carrier (2007) may beused as a mnemonic device tosum-marize the short story.Teachers may wish to providethe answers for a couple of theclues. (Figure 11).

If students do not know thecorrect amswers, they canalways “guess” by counting thenumber of letters of the wordand the number of squares inthe puzzle.

2. Teachers may also decide toprovide students with keywords of a short story in acrossword puzzle and studentsare required to provide the

clues. This is obviously theopposite of the activitysuggested above. (Figure 12).

This activity forces thestudents to be creative andprovide clues which may notnecessarily be the same as theones provided by other class-mates. This activity may bedone individually, in pairs or asa group and gives the studentsthe opportunity to “negotiate”the wording of the finaldefinition (i.e., clues). Once allthe clues are decided upon, ablank crossword puzzle may begiven to other students or to theentire class to solve.

Teachers may wish to focuson one grammatical form (forexample, on verbs) and providethe answers of a crosswordpuzzles focussing on verbswhich are the key words inrecalling the events of a shortstory.

3. In order to teach/reviewassociation between verbs andnouns, teachers may wish toprovide a crossword whosedefinitions (i.e., clue) isincomplete. The student isasked at the introductory stageto complete the puzzle byselectiong from the list ofanswers guven. At an inter-mediate/advanced stage, tea-chers may wish to give the clueswithout providing the list ofsuggested answers. (Figure 13).

4. At the introductory stage oflanguage teaching, teachersmay wish to use illustrations toteach/review vocabulary usinga thematic approach. To assistthe student to remember thegender of nouns, teacher maywish to place the definite articleoutside the first square whichbegins the answers of the puzzleas indicated on this Spanishcrossword. (Figure 14).

5. Teachers may decide to teach orreview grammatical topics. Forexample, teachers wishing toreview/teach the endings of first

21Mosaic

Figure 11From: Roch Carrier, Roch Carrier raconte... textes choisis per Anthony Mollica, Welland, Ont., éditions Soleil publishing inc., 2007.

1

2 3

4

5 6

7

8

9 10

11

12

13 14

15

16

17 18

19

20

21 22

23 24

M

É

O R D O N N E R

A

I

L

L

E

Horizontalement 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. commander, donner des

ordres 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. objet que l’on offre à

quelqu’un 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. qui ne manque pas à la

foi donnée 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. montrer1111111111. personne qui se met

entièrement auservice de quelqu’un

13.13.13.13.13. vertu, pureté totale17.17.17.17.17. dire à quelqu’un de s’en

aller, renvoyer20.20.20.20.20. continuer21.21.21.21.21. personne qui exécute un

travail manuel22.22.22.22.22. partie du corps humain

qui s’étend desépaules à l’abdomen etqui contient le cœur etles poumons

23.23.23.23.23. prendre une décision24.24.24.24.24. bâtiment

assiduité briller cadeau citer

congédier décerner décider édifice

employé épingler exhiber exposer

Verticalement 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. pièce de métal généralement

circulaire frappée ou fondue enl’honneur d’un personnage illustreou en souvenir d’un événement

2.2.2.2.2. présenter, dire, expliquer 3 3 3 3 3. émettre ou réfléchir et répandre

une lumière vive, luire 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. application constante, zèle 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. attacher, fixer10.10.10.10.10. personne qui accomplit un acte ou

une fonction déterminée sous ladirection ou le contrôle d’une autre

12.12.12.12.12. faire de petits sauts successifs14.14.14.14.14. fixer avec des épingles15.15.15.15.15. accorder à quelqu’un une

récompense ou une distinction16.16.16.16.16. complimenter17.17.17.17.17. désigner une personne, une chose

digne d’attention18.18.18.18.18. personne qui travaille pour une

autre personne19.19.19.19.19. frapper légèrement à petits coups

répétés

féliciter fidèle intégrité médaille

ordonner ouvrier poitrine poursuivre

préposé sautiller serviteur tapoter

visser

AcrossAcrossAcrossAcrossAcross 1.To solve a ... 6.To climb a ... 8.To tell a ... 9.To iron a ...10.To shop for ...16.To to cook a...17.To tour the ...17.To pack a ...18.To pour a ...19.To organize a ...20.To eat a ...22.To ring a ...23.To ride a ...

DownDownDownDownDown 2.To sail a ... 3.To play a ... 4.To tour a ... 5.To ask a ... 7.To sing a ...11.To bake a ...12.To earn a ...14.To chew ...15.To drive a ...16.To spend ...19.To fly a ...21.To build a ...

bell bicycle boat cake car

city drink game groceries gum

house letter meal money mountain

party plane problem question salary

sandwich shirt song story suitcase

Figure 13

Figure 12From: Roch Carrier, Roch Carrier

raconte... textes choisis per AnthonyMollica, Welland, Ont., éditions Soleil

publishing inc., 2007

conjugation verbs in Frenchmay use the following puzzleby placing the infinitive in thepuzzle itself to indicate theverb which is being focussedon. (Figure 15).

6. Alternatively, teachers maywish to give the puzzleindicating the verb butomitting the clues. The

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Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 200822

students’ task will be tocomplete the puzzle by placingboth the clues and solving it(Figure 16).

While at first this appearsto be an easy crossword puzzle,it isn’t. Examine, for examplethe following.

Students may be temptedto identify V2 as PARLONS.But thiscannot be since the “o” ofPARLONS would fall on the fifthsquare of H4 and no other verbends in “o”. Therefore, theanswer must be PARLENT.Similarly, V3 must be PARLONS

since there is a verb which endsin “s” (tu ...). H3 cannot bePARLES since the final “s” isneeded for the ending of PARLONS

and PARLES (V3 and H5, respec-tively; therefore H3 must bePARLEZ. It is hoped that by thisactivity – while sometimesfrustrating – we will compelstudents• to think logically,

• to solve the puzzle

• and at the same time torecall the verb endings.

the finished puzzle would looklike this (Figure 17).

7. Crossword puzzles may be usedin conjunction with the game“the intruder” (See Figure 18) toexpand the students’ know-ledge of synonyms and an-tonyms. The student who finds

Figure 14

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la

la

la

el

el

el

elel

el

la

la

el

lael

el

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la

H12H5

H4

H6

H 8

H10

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H15

V2V3

V7

V9

V11

V14

V5

V6

V12

V1

Figure15

the activity difficult can easilysolve it by counting the numberof squares in the crosswordpuzzles and find the equivalentnumber of letters in the

suggested clue. Figure 18 dealswith adjectives (antonym/synonyms), but the sameactivity can be done with nounsand verbs.

8. Teachers may wish to use thecrossword puzzles to teachadverbs. In this case, a list ofadjectives is given as clues and

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Horizontalement2. nous ...3. vous ...4. je ...5. tu ...

Verticalement1. ils ...2. il...3. PARLER

Horizontalement2. __________3. __________4. __________5. __________

Verticalement1. __________2. __________3. PARLER

1P

A2

R

L3

E

R4

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Figure 16

1P

A2P A R L E

A L3P A R L E Z

A L R4P A R L E

L N

O T

N5P A R L E S

Figure 17

23Mosaic

students are asked to place thecorresponding adverb in thecrossword puzzle.

ConclusionWe are convinced that teacherscan find other ways of introducingthe crossword puzzles with otherlanguage activities in theirteaching

Crossword puzzles will helpstudents learn, recall or expandtheir basic vocabulary and, at thesame time, provide them withhours of fun and relaxation.*

Bibliographical ReferencesAmende, Coral. 2001. The Crossword

Obsession. History and Lore of theWorld’s Most Popular Pastime. NewYork: Berkley Books.

Arnot, Michelle. What’s Gnu. A History ofthe Crossword Puzzle. New York:Vintage Books, 1981.

Bressan, Dino. 1970. “Crossword Puzzlesin Modern Language Training,” Audio-Visual Language Journal, 8,2:93-95.

Carrier, Roch. Roch Carrier raconte...Textes choisis par Anthony Mollica.Welland, Ontario: éditions Soleilpublishing inc., 2007.

Jeffries, Sophie. 1985. “English GrammarTerminology as an Obstacle to SecondLanguage Learning,” The ModernLanguage Journal, 69:385-390.

Latorre, G. and Gloria Baeza. 1975. “TheConstruction and Use of the EFLCrossword Puzzles,” English LanguageTeaching Journal, 30:45-55.

Millington, Roger. 1977. CrosswordPuzzles. Their History and Their Cult.New York: Pocket Books.

Mollica, Anthony. 1971. “The ReadingProgram and Oral Practice.” Italica, 48,4(Winter 1971): 522-541.

Mollica, Anthony and Angela Convertini,eds. 1976. L’Italia racconta... Toronto:Copp Clark.

Mollica, Anthony.1976. “The ReadingProgram and Oral Practice,” in AnthonyMollica, ed., A Handbook for Teachersof Italian. Don Mills. Ontario: Americanassociation of Teachers of Italian, pp. 75-96.

Mollica, Anthony. 1978b. “The FilmAdvertisement: A Source for LanguageActivities,” The Canadian ModernLanguage Review/La Revue canadienne

des langues vivantes, 34, 2: 221-243.Mollica, Anthony. 1981. “Visual Puzzles

in the Second-Language Classroom,”The Canadian Modern LanguageReview/La Revue canadienne deslangues vivantes, 37, 3:582-622.

Mollica, Anthony. 1987. Mots croiséspour les débutants. Welland, Ontario:éditions Soleil publishing inc. Pp. 88.

Mollica, Mollica. 1988a. CrosswordPuzzles for Beginners. Welland,Ontario: éditions Soleil publishing inc.Pp. 92.

Mollica, Anthony. 1988b. Crucigramaspara principiantes. Welland, Ontario:éditions Soleil publishing inc. Pp. 92.

Mollica, Anthony Mollica. 1991a. Parolecrociate per principianti. Welland,Ontario: éditions Soleil publishing inc.Pp. 92.

Mollica, Anthony. 1991b. Kreuz-worträtsel für Anfänger. Welland,Ontario: éditions Soleil publishing inc.Pp. 92.

Mollica, Anthony. 1995. Parole crociateper principianti. Perugia: Guerraedizioni. Pp. viii, 88. Reprint of the1991 éditions Soleil publishing inc.edition.

Mollica, Anthony. 2001. Mots croiséspour les débutants. Nouvelle édition.Welland, Ontario: éditions Soleilpublishing inc., Pp. xx+128.

Figure 18

Anthony Mollica is professor emeritus,Faculty of Education, Brock University

and professor(status only) atthe University ofToronto, Missis-sauga. He hastaught methodo-logy courses inFrench, Italianand Spanish for20 years. He haspublished wide-

ly. His latest publication is Teaching andLearning Languages (third edition, ed.,2008).

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Across 2. barren, fertile, fruitful,

productive 3. healthy, ill, sick, unwell 6. constant, intermittent,

occasional, sporadic 8. funny, sad, serious, solemn 10. cramped, small, spacious,

tiny11. contaminated, polluted,

pure, unadulterated12. concealed, hidden, obvious,

unclear13. closing, final, initial, last15. bright, dark, light, shining16. cruel, gentle, harsh, rough17. cheap, costly, dear expensive18. fancy, plain, simple,

unadorned19. dull, ignorant, intelligent,

stupid

Down 1. certain, doubtful, uncertain,

unsure 4. apathetic, bored, enhtusiastic,

indifferent

5. crazy, eccentric, mad, sane 6. bitter, content, displeased, dissatisfied 7. dangerous, harmful, hazardous, safe 9. afraid, courageous, timid, timorous14. adjacent, distant, far-away, remote

*Author’s Note: The essay is a modifiedand expanded version with differentexamples of Anthony Mollica, “Cross-word Puzzles in Second LanguageTeaching,” Italica, 84, 1: 59-78.

Morgan, Clifford T. and Richard A. King.1966. Introduction to Psychology. 3rd ed.New York: McGraw-Hill.

Parlett, David. 1995. The Guiness Book ofWord Games. Middlessex, England:Guiness Publishing.

Wolfe, David E. 1972. “Teacher-madeWolfe,David E. 1972. “Teacher-made CrosswordPuzzles,” Audio-Visual LanguageJournal, 10,3:177-181.