A response to the de Kanter/Baker draft report, "The Effectiveness of Bilingual Education: A Review of the Literature," the monograph argues that: the report contains many misinterpretations of theoretical work in psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational research and of the empirical evidence on the efficacy of second language…

Second language educators need to examine in greater depth the learning processes of young children in order to provide them with the kind of teaching they need in order to really learn. This means searching other fields to learn as much as possible about: questioning strategies and the development of critical thinking skills; hemispheric…

To determine formal principles of discourse processing and production, a study reviewed theories in various disciplines related to language and/or thought and thereby rationalized an approach of quantitative matrix analysis to the problems caused by discrepant discourse structures encountered in second language learning. Statistical analyses of…

Many more bilingual preschool programs are needed. Bilingual programs provide an environment where language minority students acquire English. Bilingual educators use innovative as well as time-tested methods to expose students to the English language. Instruction in and through the minority language assists students in developing the academic…

While the populations of students learning writing in English as a second language (ESL) are diverse and have widely varying needs, three general recommendations to nonspecialist teachers of ESL pupils are to: (1) organize courses according to thematic unity; (2) limit the number of formal, polished essays assigned; and (3) encourage students to…

In response to the need of local schools for assistance in introducing language study at the elementary and junior high school level, Tarrant County (Texas) Junior College (TCJC), Northeast Campus, designed a 5-week program in language development and methodology for prospective teachers that was designed primarily to develop skills in oral…

Dialogue journals, notebooks in which students communicate individually with the teacher on whatever topics they choose, can be both an important way to develop second language ability and a method of integrating language and classroom management. This is particularly true in a multicultural classroom, since the dialogue journals can help the…

This transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist Filipino immigrants in erasure of their foreign accents can be used for either individual or group study. Narrative and taped demonstrations of American English that pinpoint typical phonological barriers and pronunciation difficulties are outlined. The author's own system of…

Short-term travel study programs for high school students offer international interpersonal encounters, exposure to foreign languages, and opportunities for students to develop a sense of global citizenship and international responsibility. There appears to be a growing interest among educators in involving students in foreign travel and study. A…

Developed at Tarrant County Junior College (TCJC) Northeast Campus (Texas), this paper presents and discusses materials and activities for teaching foreign language conversation classes. Introductory comments describe TCJC's Department of Foreign Languages, new curricular emphases on the development of oral skills, the nature of the college's…

Pronunciation is regarded as a valuable subskill in foreign language teaching and testing. Its quality is commonly assessed in a global way by having examinees read aloud. An atomistic test is a more systematic and explicit approach. Such a test would consist of about 40 items, use recorded performances, and draw on an inventory of pronunciation…

A college second language program compared the effectiveness of traditional second language instruction and a communicative approach in second year French, German, and Spanish courses. The communicative classes used only authentic materials, thematically organized and prepared for classroom use by the instructors. Similar topics were addressed in…

A study of the effects of learning Swedish as a third language on the previously-learned English of native Finnish-speaking students examined 10,000 English-language school-leaving examinations of Finnish students for possible examples of Swedish influence in vocabulary, grammar, and word order. The examinations were those graded by a native…

A discussion of points raised by Dell Hymes in his article "On Communicative Competence" leads to a proposal for a clearer and more comprehensive theory of communicative competence based on two models, a matrix of discourse analysis and a model of communication interaction. Pedagogical implications of the theory are considered, including the…

It is not enough for students of English as a second language enrolled in English-language elementary school programs to speak English fluently at the conversational level; they must be provided with language and an environment for continuing cognitive development through the application of high-level thinking skills, often without the benefit of…