This study investigated the discourse of class discussion in the advanced undergraduate Spanish literature course. Motivating this study was the need for research to determine how discussion in advanced undergraduate literature courses provides discourse opportunities to students to develop advanced language functions, as defined in the ACTFL…

This article examines a graduate teacher-training course designed to meet both the Spanish language proficiency needs of mainstream, bilingual, and English as a second language teachers, and their common professional development needs to teach English language learners. For most course participants Spanish is their second language and the course…

This article examines the primary assumption underlying the recent passage of propositions aimed at meeting the need of English language learners (ELLs). The assumption is that English language learners normally need only one year of intensive structured English immersion to learn English well enough to be academically successful in an all-English…

This paper describes an action research project undertaken to look into the effectiveness of tasks designed to raise learner awareness of conversational strategies. The goal was to test whether tasks and direct instruction aimed at promoting learner awareness of conversational language at the discourse-level had any impact on the students'…

The purpose of the current study was (a) to assess the effectiveness of the lexical-set (LS) and the semantically-unrelated (SU) vocabulary instruction, separately and relative to each other, and (b) to assess the differential effects of the two methods for students of lower and upper English proficiency levels. Two intact EFL classes were…

This study focused on Japanese linguistic features that contribute to producing the paragraph-length and extended connected discourse that is expected at the Advanced and Superior levels in ACTFL oral proficiency interviews (OPIs). From 15 Japanese OPIs at the Intermediate-High through Superior levels, 3,062 predicates were identified. Frequent…

Students can be provided opportunities to build both English and mathematical proficiency through reading, discussing and extending mathematics-related books. The experience of a teacher through which she expanded her instructional use of mathematics-related literature is described, which was equally valuable for English Language Learners and…

The significant increase of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States raises complex questions about how to provide these students with access to high quality education that can improve both their content knowledge of school subjects and their English proficiency, particularly their academic English proficiency. The development of…

Interest in foreign language education is growing rapidly, linked to increased concern about international trade and international relations and a general interest in educational quality. The foreign language profession in the 1980s is committed to the development of proficiency-oriented curricula and instruction and the production of proficient…

On the basis of Soviet experience, types of work are sketched which are designed to develop the ability of the learner in dialogue and in group conversations. Russian and English examples illustrate the presentations. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This monograph describes the development of a language program for four-year-old disadvantaged boys in Northern Ireland. Various sections of the work describe the steps in devising the program; its objectives, organization, evaluations, and subsequent modifications; the problems affecting implementation, and the efforts made to overcome them; the…

This text contains 66 lessons in Fante for the student of Fante as a second language. The principal emphasis of the lessons is in developing skills in the spoken language, and study is preferable with a native speaker of Fante. The use of English is to be avoided except when absolutely necessary. Because of the attention given to oral skills, the…

This article discusses the "threshold level" approach to the teaching of second languages to adults, as introduced by Van Ek. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Description of a French course whose objective was to teach students the four skills as effectively and agreeably as possible. Topics covered are: general description of the materials, students and facilities; teacher preparation; detailed lesson plan of an article from "Quoi de Neuf". (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Discusses a foreign language pedagogy that facilitates teaching for communication and teaching grammar, which is defined as a system for converting meaning into language. The teacher is advised to do in the classroom only what cannot be done elsewhere. Four instructional tactics are described. (SED)