Fostering target language use in second language classrooms is a persistent challenge for teachers. A lack of specific guidelines in curriculum documents, inexperience with a wide variety of pedagogical approaches, and the tendency to default to English have been documented as reasons behind this challenge. Strategies from the neurolinguistic…

This article explores the use of gesture by a French language teacher during lexical focus on form (FonF). The analysis compares pre-emptive FonF (before a problem in communication has occurred), and reactive FonF (after a problem has occurred) and looks at the differences between teacher-initiated and learner-initiated FonF in the use and type of…

This article argues that "triadic dialogue" (Lemke, 1990), much criticized in the past, has an important role to play in L2 learning and that its effectiveness should be judged in accordance with the particular pedagogical goals that it is made to serve. Drawing on three recent studies of L2 classrooms in a variety of instructional settings, the…

A number of exercises for promoting communication and self-expression in the classroom are described. (RM)

The structural and practical sources of inefficiency in the second language learning and teaching environment are analyzed, and sources of efficiency are proposed. It is concluded that interaction or communication is a primary condition for efficiency, especially if efficiency is an objective. (MSE)

Outlines writing activities for the foreign language literature class that promote critical reflection, writing fluency, and successful classroom interaction. (Author/VWL)

This article provides an empirically based perspective on the contribution of conversation analysis (CA) and sociocultural theory to our understanding of learners' second language (L2) practices within what we call a strong socio-interactionist perspective. It explores the interactive (re)configuration of tasks in French second language…

Suggests a systemic functional linguistic (SFL) approach offers a distinctive perspective and characterization of content based language learning. Analyzes grammatical scaffolding by a teacher of causal explanations that form work by a group of second language students on a project on the human brain. Shows how SFL analysis reveals different…

A study examined the effect of authentic language materials on cultural identification and language production of kindergarten children, especially in relation to classroom structures and routines as they appear through ethnographic analysis. (MSE)

In response to a study of functions of first-language usage in the second-language classroom, it is suggested the findings extend the scope of sociocultural theory by complementing studies in which language is seen to mediate the learning of concepts, in this case the second language, and gives insight into issues currently under vigorous…

A study analyzed the communicative dynamics occurring during explicit instruction of a grammatical concept (concerning French verbs) taught within the students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Analysis focused on discourse strategies used at four levels of the ZPD. (Contains 48 references.) (Author/MSE)

A study of classroom interaction in French foreign language reading classes in Brazil is reported. Based on analysis of 40 hours of classroom discourse, it is concluded that student responses represent internalization of teacher and student roles, mutual relations, previous foreign language background, and conceptions of reading in the foreign…

Reviews early research on innovative use of networked computers in language learning, focusing on a study of computer-mediated discussion that examined student/student and student/teacher interactions in a college French course. Due to rapid nature of computer-mediated exchanges, the "conversation" is a hybrid somewhere between writing and…

Examines classroom activities engaged in by more and less experienced Punjabi-Sikh Grade 1 speakers of English and discusses how relationship between those speakers are implicated in their speech activities. Three occasions in this classroom are examined: A common, teacher-directed interaction; an excerpt of children at play; and a playful…