A selection of essays on foreign language planning at the national level contains articles on the language planning process, language choice, teacher education, testing and assessment, and transnational planning. Essays include the following: "Foreign Language Teaching Policy: Some Planning Issues" (Theo J. M. van Els); "Foreign…

The set of three workbooks is designed for Canadian introductory-level instruction in Blackfoot, an American Indian language. Each workbook is intended to provide basic understanding of language use and daily language functions. The first volume focuses on the Blackfoot oral tradition, alphabet, and phonology, and some basic daily living skills.…

Instructional materials for use in advanced Arabic second language instruction are presented in two separately-bound parts. The first contains 28 lessons on a wide variety of subjects using a series of authentic texts, all in Arabic. These texts include personal and formal correspondence, short stories, essays, plays, poems, proverbs, and excerpts…

Essays on second language teaching focuses on how the kinds of tasks performed by the learner relate to language output. "Choosing and Using Communication Tasks for Second Language Instruction" (Teresa Pica, Ruth Kanagy, Joseph Falodun) contains a taxonomy of communication task types, based on the concepts of goal and activity,…

Current versions of Massachusetts state laws, regulations, policy statements, and guidelines concerning the education of limited-English-proficient (LEP) children are compiled here. They include: a policy statement from the state board of education; a synopsis of the mandatory transitional bilingual education law of 1971, in question-and-answer…

This collection of 14 articles look at the issues in theory and application that arise in the use of simplification in language pedagogy. Articles include the following: (1) "Simplification in Pedagogy" (Christopher Brumfit); (2) "Simplification" (H. V. George); (3) "Fossilization as Simplification?" (Larry Selinker);…

A way in which second language teachers can use analysis of student discourse to understand how small group interaction defines students' roles relative to each other is demonstrated in a case study. The study compared the participant role of a 21-year-old Japanese male student in an intensive English second language program in two different…

A group of instructional strategies for monolingual teachers to use with elementary and secondary school students with limited English skills are described. The strategies are drawn from a teacher education curriculum focusing on this issue. All are based on the notion that monolingual and bilingual teachers can team teach to break down linguistic…

This manual provides specific lesson plans for teaching life skills and literacy to adult beginning readers and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. It includes four curricular sections: Focus on Language Arts, Focus on Life Skills and Literacy, Focus on Holidays and Observances and Focus on Survival Math. A total of 95 topics are…

Reciprocal teaching, a method of teaching first language reading comprehension, is explained and three distinct applications of the method and materials in second language instruction are described. Reciprocal teaching is viewed as a three-level hierarchy of components and strategies, reflected in the organization of materials and activities. The…

A practicum project to develop instructional materials and related class activities for students of English as a second language (ESL) is described. The context in which the project took place is the ESL instruction of Japanese students with minimal English skills and low motivation in an American community college in Japan. The materials consist…

This article examines the learning experiences of 3 teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) as they attempted to encourage productive thinking in 36 preservice student teachers by increasing creative, critical, flexible, and reflective thinking. They also sought to make the student teachers more assertive and less shy. These changes were…

At the Louisiana State University Laboratory School, the 4-year course sequences in French and Spanish use American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines as a basis for planning for language skill development. In listening proficiency, the course sequence integrates teaching of listening skills with other…

The following presentations are included in this report on conference proceedings: Conference Opening (Joyce Fairbairn); Greetings (John Gogo); Special Address (Ramon J. Hnatyshyn); "Paulo Freire on Adult Education," an interview and panel discussion (Carlos Torres et al.); Keynote Addresses (Jonathan Kozol, John Gogo, Peter Calamai,…

This resource guide is designed to provide foreign language teachers with suggestions for helping students become better language learners. The four chapters of the guide for teaching speaking skills are as follows: (1) Teaching Learning Strategies (e.g., rationale for teaching, types, useful strategies, guidelines, instructional sequence, and…