Discusses various class activities conducive to second-language learning. These include working on a legal document, group singing, a presentation on environmental pollution resulting from plastic bags, and listening to a tape on an organization and then posing and answering questions regarding dealings with that group. (CK)

Discussion of student participation in classroom projects when learning English as a second language highlights conditions that support language and content learning; approaches that can facilitate language and content learning; and what technology and other resources support English language learners in content-area classrooms. Uses a project on…

Focuses on a real world technique used to teach language proficiency in the classroom. This method involves creating deliberate information and opinion gaps by administering pop quizzes and other communicative games and filling those gaps through cooperative action. Use of this technique generated heated discussion among students. (nine…

Discusses a questionnaire designed to measure parents' perceptions of their child's developmental and academic histories, classroom learning characteristics, and previous foreign language learning. Results suggest parents' perceptions may provide helpful screening information to foreign language teachers. (51 references) (Author/CK)

The "hot potato technique" (HPT) is described as an effective way to engage high school English-language students in class discussions. HPT involves using newspapers and magazines to stimulate participation. (LB)

Four instructional ideas for use in the French second-language classroom are described, including an exercise in the temporal aspect of French past tenses; part of a series on simulating a French village community; a verb tense drill set in the context of a murder mystery; and an exercise in current French street slang. (MSE)

Examines how the principles about teaching culture in English-as-a-Foreign-Language have promoted cultural confrontation in the guise of cultural acquisition. Discusses the impact of the culture-oriented classroom on three areas of language pedagogy: (1) approach; (2) design, and (3) procedure. (Author/VWL)

Based on experience teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to primary school children, the author finds the "ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students" outlined by the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages do not define ESL progress as specific skill levels but offer open-ended descriptors and sample progress indicators…

Presents an approach for developing oral proficiency in the advanced conversation course that proposes, as an organizing principle, the use of Swales's concept of genre as a class of communicative events that share a communicative purpose. It is concluded that focus on genre can improve proficiency performance and articulation. (eight references)…

Reviews several teaching methodologies in terms of negative affect. Findings indicate that in those situations where students have little incentive to do well or admit that they wish to do poorly, increased negative affect can motivate them to function at a level of operational tension and achieve optimum learning and performance. (36 references)…

Examines the role of films as an instructional aid in class activities devoted to learning a foreign language as well as one's native tongue with the support of modern technology. One of the primary ways of using film to encourage learning is to interest the students in criticizing the film and then to expose them to published criticism of the…

Within the sphere of information, the term "interactive" has acquired a meaning that encompasses the usage of information networks and the end results of accessing the information. This article emphasizes that teachers of second languages can best meet the academic needs of their students by guiding their usage of computer information to…

Focuses on research addressing how to integrate content and language teaching, with specific reference to studies conducted in French immersion classrooms. Findings indicate that teachers should structure activities to incorporate a focus on form into content teaching through teacher-led instruction and collaborative tasks with peers. (21…

Analyzes four language activities from Korean English textbooks to ascertain how much they conform to the reform principles and the main purpose of the Korean 6th curriculum of English, which is to cultivate communicative competence of Korean students. (Author/VWL)

Describes the use of computer pen pals to offer foreign language students who are at different levels of instruction to participate in activities that involve real life situations. Designed to develop writing skills, these activities help students review vocabulary and to practice verb forms and grammatical structures. (Author/VWL)