This empirical study of the effects of grammar instruction was conducted at a college-prep, private school on 70 participants in grades seven through twelve. The dependent variable was the number of correct items over the forms from a pre-test, post-test, and delayed-post-test. Chi-square was used to find if there was a significant difference…

This research seeks to extend our current knowledge by exploring the relationship between preferred language strategies, age, proficiency, and self-efficacy beliefs. Responding to the call for more replication of strategy research and for research in different cultural contexts, this research was undertaken in Botswana between 2002 and 2005. The…

14,000 Saudi students are currently studying in the UK. Before they start their coursework in their major, most take English language courses for at least a year and should pass the IELTS test. Interviews with a sample of Saudi students studying in the UK showed that focus in the English courses that students take is mainly on grammar and written…

Presents among other things the didactic-methodological procedure in Teaching Units 3 and 4, Grade 10; the development of (predominantly monologue) speaking proficiency and proper translation into the foreign language, with special attention to measures to be taken immediately before and after watching the television program. (Text is in German.)…

Discusses the function of mediators (cues designed to elicit an explicit cognition-mediated process that generates new sentences), criteria for their construction, and experiments in their use. (KM)

A discussion of Krashen's monitor theory and its applications to foreign language teaching includes consideration of the very important role input plays in language development and examination of the relationship between the development of grammatical competence and traditional instruction in grammar. (CB)

Suggests ways in which college and university teaching assistants can acquire a proficiency orientation toward foreign language teaching. These include clarifying the concepts associated with proficiency, integrating these concepts into the curriculum, and evaluating students by measurements of proficiency rather than by achievement. (SED)

This paper asserts that in a world that has accomplished globalization by engulfing itself in the world of technology, the world of translation must not be too quick to join the bandwagon. Providing translators or students of translation with computerized translation tools is not the link to what makes the individual an effective translator.…

Describes a five-step creative writing program designed to improve student language skills. (JL)

Suggests restructuring language programs to capitalize on the visual medium through use of video-based second language instruction. Gives examples of video-based language activities developed over four years at World English Center, University of San Francisco. (Author/BK)

Discusses an approach to teaching about the environment in the Spanish classroom. The approach incorporates oral proficiency goals and is based on authentic materials that are accompanied by worksheets that include prereading exercises, small-group discussion activities and structured conversation and composition suggestions. (VWL)

Evaluated the effect on French language proficiency of an integrated formal, analytic and functional, communicative approach to second language teaching in the immersion classroom. Impetus for the study arises from previous research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent,…

Investigates how different types of focus-on-form instruction affect second language learning of English grammatical structure, particularly present perfect. Results showed that subjects with both rule instruction and visual enhancement of input showed higher proficiency than other groups in the short term. (Author/VWL)