Suggests that by nurturing a pleasant, meaningful, and self-motivating atmosphere, Fluency First reading and writing assignments prove rewarding to teachers and students alike. Fluency First is a systematic set of activities for developing fluency and then focusing on clarity and correctness. It was designed and implemented by English for academic…

Focuses on mothers of school children living in small isolated communities in arctic Quebec. Patterns of perceived language ability and use in three languages, Inuttitut, English, and French, for both themselves and their children were examined. The pattern of perceived language ability was similar across the three languages. Results are discussed…

Makes a case for introducing specialized texts in the English for specific purposes classroom earlier in the reading process. Addresses the question of whether an engineering word list might be a short cut to reading fluency for engineering students, and if so, which words might appropriately be listed. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on a phenomena emerging from examination of a corpus of language interview data, representing a type of institutional talk evaluating the English language ability of international students for the purposes of elective English-as-a-Second-Language course placement. This phenomenon is the students' self-deprecations of their own English…

Decries the emphasis in foreign language curricula on rapid attainment of speaking skills. Advocates eliminating formal speaking exercises and focusing on reading and writing skills, with intensive English grammar review at regular intervals, for the first two years of foreign language training. (SR)

Explains the difficulties teachers of French as a Second Language face in improving their knowledge of French language and culture. The article provides suggestions on how to improve the teachers' knowledge base and appeals to all Canadian provinces to share information on the inservicing available so that a master list of upgrading courses can be…

Examines the accuracy of the current public attitude that instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) at the college level is too expensive, and that nonnative students' success is not commensurate with the cost of teaching them. The article argues that these students represent the country's future and that educators must counter the assault…

Focuses on understanding the problem of students who are particularly resistant to acquisition of English language skills and on developing effective strategies to overcoming difficulties in the acculturation process. An experience of loss is part of the process of immigration; counseling can provide support during the transition period. (14…

A case study is reported involving a detailed content analysis of the daily journal writing of 20 teaching assistants. Results showed that most students approved of and benefited from journal writing, particularly for improved confidence and language fluency and as an outlet for stress; however, little analytical or reflective writing took place.…

Examines the current situation in China surrounding the teaching of French as a Foreign Language. After the decline of French teaching subsequent to the Cultural Revolution, the language returned to favor around 1970. Chinese students are infatuated with French; many study it as a first or second foreign language. Additionally, French literature…

Surveyed students at Arizona State University to find out why they had chosen to study French, whether they planned to continue studying French, and what courses they would like to see offered. Responses indicated that the students plan to visit France or a French-speaking country, that they are interested in gaining fluency in French, and that…

Given recent claims that task-based instruction has desirable pedagogic qualities, this article investigates the effects of choosing different types of tasks, as well as different task implementation conditions, on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the language that is produced when tasks are carried out. (Author/VWL)

In this study of German as a foreign language, formal classroom experience is compared with informal use of German outside the classroom focusing on three syntactic features: main clause word order (subject-verb-object, or SVO), topicalization (subject-verb inversion), and subordinate word order (subject-object-verb, or SOV). T tests and…

The research reported in this paper explores which variables predict native and non-native speaking teachers' perception of fluency and distinguish fluent from non-fluent L2 learners. In addition to traditional measures of the quality of students' output such as accuracy and lexical diversity, we investigated speech samples collected from 16…

This report shows that verbal routines are not easily acquired by adult second language learners and it identifies some of the specific problems they have in acquiring routines. Empirical data concerning the role of verbal routines, (that is, fixed expressions which have been acquired as memorized wholes), in adult second language performance are…