The concerns and the viewpoints of a principal who recognizes the value of the study of languages and who has seen the gradual deterioration of a once- proud discipline. (Author/MLF)

States the reasons for introducing the study of foreign languages as early as possible in the scholastic curriculum. (CFM)

Outlines a project for setting up bilingual schools for Italian children in Switzerland and Germany and discusses the advantages of doing so. (CFM)

Recommends the "distributional" and transformational grammar approach as especially suitable for developing a teaching grammar for dealing with the French simple infinitive and infinitive with "de". (IFS/WGA)

Offers a systematic statement of the lexical differences between "noch" and "schon," which should serve teachers better than their intuitive feelings for those words. (IFS/WGA)

This position paper was presented to the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies in October, 1978, and stressed the importance of providing Americans with opportunities to study foreign languages. (CFM)

Lists the Spanish verbs most frequently used in various texts, in order of frequency. (NCR)

The author argues that foreign language instruction in the United States is generally begun too late and that it must be started at the elementary school level. (CFM)

Provides examples of humorous errors in written exams made by university students of French and Canadian culture. (AM)

The natural process of learning language is to concentrate on what we mean, not only on how we are saying it. What we mean is dependent upon the context in which we speak. This context in turn depends on the society or the speech-community in which our speech act takes place. To be a member of a speech community is to know what language behavior…

Finds that teaching textbooks are becoming more complex and difficult, and less interesting. A procedure is suggested for measuring these qualities in a textbook, based on the "Reading Ease" and "Human Interest" indices of R. Flesh, in Volume 6 of his work "The Good Companion". Two samples from texts are appended. (IFS/WGA)

Cautions against a "synonymic" or "structural-semantic" approach to constructing texts and in reading them. Concern over matching each foreign word with a native-language word results in limiting the vocabulary of the text and the student's knowledge. Speech-act theory suggests a more flexible approach. (IFS/WGA)

Second language learners must acquire a generative system of grammar. There is, as yet, no way of describing notions in generative terms. Long-term syllabuses will have to continue to be syntactically based, but the incorporation of notions from a checklist is acceptable. (Author/JB)

Considers the functions that norms might have in the context of foreign language teaching and learning, with special reference to teaching English. (IFS/WGA)

Discusses the "francais fondamental" treatment of vocabulary, and proposes modifications for improvement of this tool. (AM)