It is recommended that listening comprehension have a larger role in second-language instruction, particularly at intermediate/advanced levels. Sample materials focusing on the speech act of disagreement are proposed for university students of Italian. The materials expose students to a variety of registers and strategies and integrate language…

An inductive and interactive classroom technique to help advanced French language students reformulate simplified schemata into more useful insights into French grammar is described. It is proposed that, by developing the ability to revise continually structural hypotheses, students can expand syntactic repertories and improve long-term language…

The pressure to improve high school students' academic results has led many schools and districts to take the first step of enrolling more students in advanced courses. Business and state policy leaders have encouraged this practice. However, the hard part of the bargain is to ensure that students actually learn the advanced content implied by the…

While increased academic requirements for high school graduation have long been advocated, current research shows a mixed record in mathematics and science achievement among American middle and high school students relative to some of their international peers. In response to these concerns and other calls for reform, states have increased the…

The percentage of students taking more challenging courses in high school is dramatically higher now than in the early 1980s. The growth in number of students and schools participating in Advanced Placement (AP) courses is equally dramatic. AP courses are designed by college faculty and by experienced high school faculty. They are an example of…

A discussion of the teaching and learning of English as an international language (EIL) makes two proposals. First, the teaching of EIL in Japan should not lead to premature replacement of native English with Japanese English as a model or goal of English education. The change should be in the direction of nurturing communicative competence, and…

A study investigated how American learners acquire the pragmatics of Kiswahili greetings in a foreign language context. Subjects were 16 beginning, 12 intermediate, and 4 advanced students. After an initial month-long observation period, the following hypotheses were formed: (1) learners do not readily initiate greetings; and (2) most learners may…

The use of authentic materials for an advanced French course for students of journalism and communication has the drawback that authentic French sources assume a regular, informed readership sharing the same culture and history. A solution found at Ohio University is to use a publication that bridges the two cultures, such as the "Journal…

The major objectives and benefits of the Advanced Placement Program (APP) are summarized, and data specific to Delaware are compared to national statistics about advanced placement (AP) courses in high schools. School participation in the APP is considered an indicator of academic success by educators and policy makers. The extent to which…

Over 12,000 transcripts from a sample of 1982 high school graduates were collected and analyzed as part of the High School and Beyond Study. The analysis produced four statistics: the average number of years that students took courses in science and mathematics; the percentages of students who had taken three or more years each of science and…

The process-oriented advanced technical writing course described in this paper leads students progressively through the writing and editing processes while involving them in the technical writing of their respective disciplines. The readings, exercises, and report assignments used in the course are discussed to show how these activities awaken…

A college English instructor made an informal comparison of rewriting habits of students in a freshman composition course and two advanced composition courses. Notes kept on student rewriting focused on this central question: given peer and instructor response to their papers and a choice as to what and how to rewrite, what will students decide to…

This paper describes a variable-credit advanced writing course that allows non-English majors to set their own goals for writing and to develop specific writing skills that apply to their major fields. The course is a unitized sequence of three five-week sessions. The first session discusses the theoretical product model and process model for the…

These publications are intended for secondary-level business educators who want to include more economics in their general and basic business courses. They can serve as curriculum development documents for those charged with redesigning course offerings. Part 1 of the first publication briefly discusses economic ideas to be developed in general…

This paper reviews the Richmond (Virginia) Young Students Mathematics Class, sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Academically Talented Youth of Johns Hopkins University for upper elementary students. Discussed are student selection, course content and approach, instructional methods, staffing, student outcomes, student and parent…