Online discussion boards are being used increasingly by tertiary educators as a tool for encouraging greater student interaction and developing learning communities. In particular, educators who have adopted a learner centered, socio-constructivist approach to teaching have sought to facilitate collaborative learning in which students reflect upon…

This study investigates the role of social interaction in language gain among study abroad students in France. Using the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the Can-Do self-assessment scale (Clark, 1981), a revised version of the Language Contact Profile (LCP; Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz, & Halter, 2001), and pre- and postdeparture…

Preserving a literary-based curriculum, creating a sensitivity to the literature, and encouraging communicative skills relative to the literature are significant goals in foreign language study. Therefore, a program involving strategic interaction and cooperative learning techniques applied to the study of literature fosters communication and…

Discusses conditions and methods that result in receptivity to learning and advocates their incorporation in language teaching. (RM)

Presents, in the form of a French-German glossary, material for use by students and teacher in classroom interaction. Included are such items as classroom announcements, reading, blackboard work, calling for answers, marginal notes on papers, and handing back the students' work. (Text is in German and French.) (IFS/WGA)

Investigates the nature of those portions of foreign language lessons in which teacher and students focus on the linguistic code rather than on content, that is meta talk. The focus is on scaffolded constructions and norms for meta talk. Examples and analyses are from lessons in Danish secondary schools. (SED)

Opportunities for autonomous interaction and creative communication should accompany the necessary skill-getting activities in second language learning. Paper presented under contract with the English Language Branch--Defense Language Institute, Lackland Air Force Base, Lackland, Texas, and delivered in 1971 to staff members of the Branch. (VM)

Focuses on communicative language-teaching (CLT), which holds that language-learning is learning to communicate and that it encourages students to communicate from the beginning. CLT creates communicative needs by implementing task-based activities in the classroom, e.g., self-introductions, obtaining information, and social small talk. (eight…

Focuses on two primary meanings of the term interaction in the second-language (L2) context: face-to-face interaction in which two or more people create meaning, and the creative interaction between the reader and the text. Argues that many claims related to the value of L2 spoken interaction can apply equally well to L2 reading. (94 references)…

Explores the interaction between heritage speakers and second language learners of Spanish in a synchronous computer-assisted learning environment. Students in an intermediate language course were paired with heritage speakers. Transcripts of interactions were examined for points of negotiation. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on learners' language in interactions between nonnative speakers (NNSs). Investigated features of nonnative speakers' interaction with NNSs from different cultural backgrounds in a second language learning context. Explores what types of misleading expressions and questions are generated in NNS/NNS interactions. (Author/VWL)

In a study of learners' levels of comfort with language activity types allowing differing degrees of interaction, 110 first-year college students of French, Spanish, and Italian were surveyed at a university and community college. Results suggest the value of activities facilitative of negotiated interaction. The questionnaire is appended. (10…

In two foreign language lessons with substantial amounts of undirected student-student talk, postlesson protocols were used to compare learner uptake from teacher and from peers. It is suggested that the validity of free-communication activities in the typical proficiency streamlined foreign language class lies not so much in the peer input they…

Describes the development and organization of the Colt (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) observation scheme and Lyster and Ranta's (1997) error treatment model, instruments including predetermined categories to describe features of instructional input and interaction in second language classrooms. Concludes that the choice of…

Discusses potential problems and advantages of assessing grammatical competence from production data from interactional contexts. Argues that regardless of difficulties in assessing grammatical competence in interactional contexts, the types of interactions change with time, as the interlanguage grammar develops. (9 references) (Author/CK)