A generation or two ago, the achievement of children who came to school knowing little or no English was not a prominent national issue. Today, with the increased focus on school accountability and educational equity, it is. This comprehensive resource explores the research on promoting academic success among language-minority students. The…

The article presents a format for intermediate, university-level German instruction called "global simulation" (GS) as the curricular manifestation of several recent trends in the literature on instructed second-language acquisition, in particular interactionist and task-based approaches, sociocultural theory, and the acquisition of intercultural…

Presents strategies for exploring the cultural content of feature foreign films in the language or culture and civilization classroom. Examples are taken from Francois Truffaut's "L'Argent de poche" and from Agnes Varga's "L'Une Chante, L'autre pas." (AM)

Recognizing that different groups of students have different reasons for learning a second language, different language needs, and different intellectual capacities and abilities, this guide presents recommended language skills for an eclectic approach to English as a second language instruction. The language and reading scope and sequence for…

Alberta's curriculum guide for French immersion programs outlines the programs' rationale and objectives and the content of the oral language, reading, and writing components for six years. An introductory section discusses the aim of developing language competence and recent theory on competence. The role of language as an instrument of…

This guide deals with the subject in two parts: (1) background materials, and (2) classroom activities for teaching English to Spanish speakers. The first part discusses the general characteristics of the Spanish-speaking population in the United States, with particular attention to the diversity among them, some group profiles, and dialects and…

This teaching manual is designed for the Spanish language training of Peace Corps volunteers serving in Chile, and focuses on daily communication skills needed in that context. It contains 12 topical lessons outlining targeted language and communication competencies, suggested classroom activities, phrase and vocabulary lists, grammar and usage…

Classroom techniques for teaching Chinese to students in the United States are presented for four areas of instruction: pronunciation; writing; grammar; and culture. A discussion of Chinese phonology offers comparisons with English phonetic patterns and articulation, and advises emphasizing pronunciation of individual syllables. It is also…

This paper contends that many of the difficulties students of Chinese have in reading comprehension are directly related to their level of understanding of Chinese language and culture, and that these difficulties could be alleviated by providing students with knowledge about the value system, social customs, formation of Chinese characters and…

This guide is designed for the Arabic language training of Peace Corps volunteers serving in Tunisia and focuses on daily communication skills needed in that context. It contains 15 lessons, each made up of: a teacher's guide sheet, which outlines specific objectives, contents, and materials needed; a dialogue introducing the lesson's theme; a…

This text, designed to provide teachers and teacher-trainees with a comprehensive and up-to-date grasp of the theoretical foundations of foreign language teaching, is based on the assumption that a teacher-trainee needs to gain broad but systematic knowledge of the process of second language acquisition in order to understand and adapt teaching…