A cross-cultural training seminar involving French, German, and American language teachers is described. The program was designed to examine the influence of teachers' cultural perceptions on selection of authentic instructional materials, sources of linguistic misunderstandings, and teachers' strategies for resolving cultural conflict. (MSE)

As a profession language educators are paying more attention to teacher-driven research to help clarify and explain those phenomena occurring in our classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the following question: What happens when teachers apply a teacher action research (TAR) strategy for improving their classroom practice? I will…

As teachers' roles evolve in technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), choices of technological devices and instructional delivery and the degree of foreign language (FL) teacher facilitation within TELL activities are prominent. This investigation compared 53 beginning college French students' comprehension of FL video in a teacher-assisted…

A study of second language learning processes had three goals: to establish a grounded theory on the role of tension, both euphoric and dysphoric, in the formal language learning process; to provide a comprehensive ethnography of the 7-week intensive beginners' class in the French School of Middlebury College (Vermont); and to demonstrate how a…

This collection of essays on early French second language instruction includes: "Why Bilingualism?" (Steven MacKinnon); "French Second-Language Programs: Alternative Approaches" (Henry P. Edwards); "Core French: A Brighter Future" (Janet Poyen, Judy Gibson); "The Parents' Role" (Deborah Whale); "Franco…

This guide is designed for Alberta (Canada) parents of French immersion students beginning formal English language instruction for the first time. In question-and-answer format, it discusses issues commonly of concern to these parents. Issues addressed include the following: why English instruction is introduced in the second or third year of…

This guide describes classroom activities and instructional techniques, including the use of computer programs, to be used in implementing the first-year core French language curriculum for Georgia's public schools. Activities are correlated with goals and objectives specified in the state curriculum. Each provides information and directions for…

A California State University (Fullerton) program brings together faculty in business administration, economics, and foreign languages in an interdisciplinary effort to internationalize the business curriculum. The program has attracted a rapidly enlarging student following, with Spanish the largest language concentration and Japanese the fastest…

The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) annually presents the Melba Woodruff Award to an exemplary foreign language program in the nation. This year at the ACTFL conference in Baltimore, MD, the Eisenhower International School received this award for its outstanding immersion programs. International student exchanges at the…

An Oak Park, Michigan student workbook prepared as part of the Oak Park Title VII Project for limited English proficient students or students whose first or second language is other than English. contains fifteen multicultural lessons presented in four units. The first unit focuses on the nature of human global interdependence and takes a…

This guide communicates the increasing need in California for young people to develop skills in languages other than English, and to direct attention to assessing these skills in terms of language use competency in realistic situations rather than in terms of courses taken or units earned. The guide recognizes successive stages of competency and…

The Development of Bilingual Proficiency is a large-scale, five-year research project begun in 1981. The final report contains three volumes, each concentrating on specific issues investigated in the research: (1) the nature of language proficiency, including second language lexical proficiency and the development and growth of metaphor…

Factors that might influence the acquisition of biliteracy were studied in four schools in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area (an Armenian-English school, a Greek-English school, a Hebrew-English school, and a French-English school). This report, the first of two parts, was written after 2 years of study in which the second year was spent both…

This article describes the evolution of a confluent language program, which provides simultaneous processes for successful language learning, self awareness, self appreciation, and interpersonal communication. The confluent language curriculum design has been successfully implemented in language classes throughout the United States and in some…

A two-year study of "Learning Disabilities Found in Association with French Immersion Programming" indicated that children who encounter difficulty in primary French immersion programs may have a specific learning disability characterized by a maturational lag in the temporal lobe regions of the brain. In addition, it was found that…