Examines several key issues that parents must know about their children learning a second language, including the benefits of knowing a second language; the benefits of learning second languages in elementary school; how languages are taught to children; whether second languages will interfere with English ability; how parents can help; and how…

A study examined perspectives and learning experiences of 71 college students with learning disabilities who were granted course substitutions for foreign language requirements. Students rated grammar as the most difficult foreign language task and the majority said they would have enrolled in modified foreign language courses had they been…

Landeskunde, or cultural studies, in Germany is a discipline trapped in a circle because the only avenues of development open to it relegate it to a subsidiary role within language education. If it is to develop in the long term, it will be necessary for it to define its objectives independently of language learning. (Contains five references.)…

Provides insight into the teaching of modern languages to young learners in Hungary. Demonstrates how different the educational context is from the United States and how the Prussian educational tradition still influences today's processes. Also discussed are language teachers, resources of early language programs, young learners' attitudes and…

A comparison of 46 college students with learning disabilities (LD) who received permission to waive a foreign language (FL) requirement with 21 students with LD who fulfilled the requirement found that more students who had petitioned had a 1.0 standard deviation discrepancy between IQ and achievement and were referred only for FL learning…

Proposes ideas to help enhance the visibility and role of college foreign-language departments, highlighting four goals: becoming a department that offers intellectual opportunities to students and intellectual value to other departments; using every possibility to publicize the importance of the department's areas and accomplishments; assuming a…

One common procedure for oral performance testing of Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) learners is one-on-one interviewing wherein the interviewer asks questions and the child candidate responds to them. While existing research has focused primarily on outcomes elicited by such procedures, this study examines the processes…

This is a research brief of a longer report, also published as "Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Summary Report, 2009-2010". Twenty-nine percent of students enrolled in Austin Independent School District were English language learners in 2009-2010. The majority of them (62%) continued to make progress in English…

This article presents a roundup of the Arabic language instruction offered in the Dearborn, Michigan, school district. Only one of the district's 22 elementary schools--Becker--offers Arabic. Pupils receive at least two 40 minute periods of Arabic a week. The school gave up a two-way immersion program, in which students were taught half their…

In foreign language education where culture has been integrated as a core curricular component, a "categorical approach" to the concept of culture has been the mainstay. Depending on the orientation of the times, academic debate has been focused on what category of culture should be emphasized in the second language classroom. "Behavioral culture"…

The paper surveys a number of projects and documents that are attempting or have claimed to describe a "long-term view" of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning in schools. A long-term approach involves mapping needs and common pathways and measuring (assessing and reporting on) progress across learners, classes, and year levels.…

A discussion of articulation in second language education between instructional levels looks at the current state of articulation, issues in the transition from secondary to higher education, and proposes a new approach that shifts the focus from product to process. Three forms of articulation are distinguished: vertical; horizontal; and…

This digest discusses some of the practical implications of using alternative methods of assessing students in foreign or second language classrooms. First, assessment and testing are contrasted, and assessment is defined as an ongoing strategy through which student learning is not only monitored, but by which students are involved in making…

Sign Talk Development Project (STDP) is a four-pronged project that grows out of needs identified through the program of Sign Talk Children's Centre (STCC). STCC is a bilingual/bicultural day care for children of deaf parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The center offers programming in two languages, American Sign Language (ASL) and English; and in two…

This paper draws on data from a longitudinal comparative study of languages policy in New Zealand and Victoria, Australia, to explore the nature of school programs in languages other than English. After describing some theoretical considerations that underlie the main study, the paper presents two hypotheses that might explain the situation of…