A survey was conducted at the Chulalongkorn University Language Institute in Thailand to identify societal needs for using English. The following issues were investigated: (1) the extent to which English was being used and was needed by Thai government personnel; (2) the extent and purpose of using listening, speaking, reading, writing, and…

The report details developments in three areas of United States foreign language instruction, each reflecting major changes in the way foreign language educators think about their role and the way in which they structure the learning process for students. The first section describes the adoption of a voluntary national standard for testing…

A number of language classroom activities designed to incorporate the senses into the English-as-a-Second-Language learning process are described. The strategies used involve group problem-solving, role-playing, information-gap activities using drawing and visual aids, the Total Physical Response approach, student-developed illustrations, games…

The fourth-year update of a longitudinal study examined the progress of the 31 remaining members of 2 classes in the first cohort of a Spanish immersion program and their standard-program monolingual comparison group of 15 students. Achievement gains were measured on standardized tests of mathematics and language skills. Results provided new…

Increasingly, technology is incorporated into second language teaching and learning both in and out of classroom situations. The computer alone has many capabilities for enhancing language learning, but when combined with other technologies, the possibilities multiply for information retrieval, interactive audio- and video-assisted learning, use…

The process of setting objectives for the reading component of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at Suva University in Fiji is described. The course is taken concurrently with a history course whose reading component is integrated into the EAP curriculum and whose specified objectives were to be facilitated by the EAP instruction. The…

Problems inherent in student evaluation of second language teaching methodology, particularly task-based instruction, are discussed and recommendations are made. It is argued that course evaluation by learners is based on their assessment of their own communicative performance, and that they are likely to attribute a general sense of progress, at…

A model for evaluating a college second language writing instruction program is presented, based on experiences at the De La Salle University (Philippines) writing laboratory. The laboratory, a support unit of the university's language program, provides remedial instruction in composition and academic writing for referred students. The proposed…

The matched-guise technique uses recorded voices speaking first in one dialect or language, then in another. Listeners do not know that the speech samples are from the same person, but judge the two guises of the same speaker as two separate speakers. The technique has been used to investigate a variety of sociolinguistic, social-psychological,…

A University of Waikato (New Zealand) course in English for academic purposes is described. The credit course was originally designed for native English-speaking students to address their academic writing needs. However, based on the idea that the writing tasks of native speakers and non-native speakers are similar and that their writing…

The newspaper can be a stimulating and effective teaching resource in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom, bilingual classroom, or any class with limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. ESL teachers can use English-language newspapers to teach both basic language skills and content areas (math, science, social studies). Mainstream…

The report describes briefly two foundation-funded inservice training institutes for middle school teachers in Los Angeles (California) who have limited-English-speaking students in their classes. The first was designed to: (1) introduce teachers to the communicative approach to math and science instruction; (2) help develop instructional…

Models of teacher training have tended to emphasize development of competencies in teachers that emphasize cognitive aspects of learning, and minimize affective factors. Second language teacher education has adopted this emphasis on learning as cognitive rather than as a strong interaction of cognitive and affective factors. In fact, affective…

The Transcultural Education Model presents a unified working model for teaching limited English proficient, English-as-Second-Language (ESL), or English-as-Second-Language transcultural (ESLT) students to read, write, and speak English. The model is designed for students and teachers in elementary, secondary, and adult schools. The model is…

The question in English-As-Second-Language (ESL) classrooms is not whether a teaching method is good or not, but whether the teacher knows how, for what purpose, for what kind of students, and in what language situation a particular method is used to enhance learning effectively. In teaching English to Chinese students at Xi'an Foreign Language…