This article presents a roundup of the Arabic language instruction offered in the Dearborn, Michigan, school district. Only one of the district's 22 elementary schools--Becker--offers Arabic. Pupils receive at least two 40 minute periods of Arabic a week. The school gave up a two-way immersion program, in which students were taught half their…

In foreign language education where culture has been integrated as a core curricular component, a "categorical approach" to the concept of culture has been the mainstay. Depending on the orientation of the times, academic debate has been focused on what category of culture should be emphasized in the second language classroom. "Behavioral culture"…

The conflicting pressures of supply and demand often raise significant challenges for providers of languages for adults. Numbers of learners are inconveniently patchy, trends in take-up often short lived and provision vulnerable due to funding pressures. This makes institution-based curriculum planning very precarious. The answer, it seems more…

The paper surveys a number of projects and documents that are attempting or have claimed to describe a "long-term view" of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning in schools. A long-term approach involves mapping needs and common pathways and measuring (assessing and reporting on) progress across learners, classes, and year levels.…

A discussion of articulation in second language education between instructional levels looks at the current state of articulation, issues in the transition from secondary to higher education, and proposes a new approach that shifts the focus from product to process. Three forms of articulation are distinguished: vertical; horizontal; and…

This digest discusses some of the practical implications of using alternative methods of assessing students in foreign or second language classrooms. First, assessment and testing are contrasted, and assessment is defined as an ongoing strategy through which student learning is not only monitored, but by which students are involved in making…

Sign Talk Development Project (STDP) is a four-pronged project that grows out of needs identified through the program of Sign Talk Children's Centre (STCC). STCC is a bilingual/bicultural day care for children of deaf parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The center offers programming in two languages, American Sign Language (ASL) and English; and in two…

This paper draws on data from a longitudinal comparative study of languages policy in New Zealand and Victoria, Australia, to explore the nature of school programs in languages other than English. After describing some theoretical considerations that underlie the main study, the paper presents two hypotheses that might explain the situation of…

This paper reports on a project examining the relationship between program model, sociolinguistic factors, and linguistic outcomes in a small sample of school languages other than English (LOTE) programs in Victoria. The languages are Chinese, German, Greek and Italian. Issues under consideration include: content-based versus language-object…

The term "content and language integrated learning" is suggested as an umbrella term for a general pedagogical approach that includes a number of methods of teaching and learning non-language subjects through a second or foreign language. Usage of other, related terms is discussed, and distinctions are made between them. These include…

Language awareness activities appear to give new breath to intercultural approaches within Swiss schools. They allow children to be involved in language by comparing languages, sharing knowledge, and reflecting on language structures and functions. Children develop a rudimentary research approach to languages, and begin to understand that their…

Recent studies by the Management and Coordination Agency of the Japanese government and the Japan Overseas Educational Services (JOES) reveal that Japanese students returning from overseas want to retain their foreign language, and that a majority undertake various maintenance activities. Maintenance classes are widely adopted. Research indicates…

This article from a quarterly newsletter discusses the requirements necessary to obtain an endorsement on a Washington Teaching Certificate (WTC) to teach Japanese as a Second Language in K-12 public schools in the state. Candidates are required to have 24 quarter hours (16 semester hours) in Japanese writing/composition, conversation, reading, or…

This book addresses the problem of the future of Germanics as a field of study at colleges and universities in the United States. It is noted that the study of Germanics has been losing tens of thousands of students for the past 25 years, that this slide downward is no longer attracting enough attention from the Germanics community, and if it…

An effective, inexpensive means of cross cultural and linguistic enrichment is available through a "Friday Lunch Program" developed by Ashland College, Ohio in October 1980. International students from the college meet in three one-hour lunches, with selected 5th and 6th grade students from local schools. The lunches are intended to…