Describes the curriculum for training professional literary translators used at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. (AM)

An approach to teaching the rudiments of amateur journalism in an intensive language (Brazilian Portuguese) program component of a university Masters of International Business Studies program is reported. Ways that such a project can contribute to the fostering of a communicative language teaching curriculum are discussed. (LB)

The Nihongo tutorial system is an intelligent tutorial system designed to use a computer to assist scientists and engineers in developing reading competence in technical Japanese. It consists of three applications: the Nihongo Tutor, which provides useful information about an article (translation, syntax, pronunciation) to help understand the text…

A context-based framework for teaching the history of Portuguese is presented. It incorporates passages from a medieval Galician-Portuguese work to illustrate diachronic linguistic processes in the evolution of the language. Advantages of the approach, prerequisites, text, and syllabus are described, and a sample analysis is provided. (53…

Outlines a second language program that, over a period of three years, exposes the student to three languages and several teachers and stresses communicative competence. (AM)

A project introducing English as a third language in 30 elementary schools in the Basque Country (Spain) is described. The program, emerging from a national curriculum reform effort, begins English instruction when students are eight years old, three years earlier than previously. Students are already bilingual in Spanish and Basque, both official…

Communicative language teaching and self-directed learning is discussed, followed by an introduction of an analytical framework for designing a task using Nunan's framework. A case study is reported from the National University of Singapore with 220 first-year Japanese language students. Suggestions are made for course and task designers. (12…

In a Japanese business communication course taught at Clemson University (South Carolina), Japanese television drama is used to help language students understand the style of Japanese communication and improve their communicative ability. The course design was based on the following: (1) research on Japanese perceptions of the language needs for…

This paper describes the design of a new Maori, early childhood, immersion teaching diploma program at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). The program incorporates a strong focus on developing both the adult students' fluency in Maori, as a second language, and their skills for facilitating fluency in young children, many of whom will also be…

Fifty-five structures of the Chinese language are described and their particular usage patterns are discussed for the use of teachers, linguists, and advanced students of Chinese. Each structure is listed by its major structural element(s), its grammatical element(s), or a combination of the two. The examination of each structure consists of an…

This regional dossier aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of the European Union--Northern Ireland. Details are provided about the features of the educational system, recent educational policies, divisions of responsibilities, main actors, legal…

Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) was chosen as the national language to unite the linguistically diverse groups in Malaysia in the mid-1950s. This choice brought about a total change in education policy, whereby Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction for all subjects (other than English) in public schools. The decision saw a complete…

For a less commonly taught (LCT) language to thrive in a high school curriculum, issues of support and accessibility must be addressed. Counselors, administrators, and teachers must work together to show students that these are not difficult languages. Designing the programs for "gifted and talented" students unfairly excludes many capable ones,…