The Founding Fathers of the United States placed great importance on the learning of foreign languages and on excellence in reading and writing English. Sacrifices in the curriculum in favor of English were justified by the desire that Americans speak and write English as well as the British. Above all, the Founding Fathers were concerned with the…

The current textbook series used in the compulsory cycle's English instruction has been the subject of much criticism, including the suggestions that it is too structurally oriented, contains little interesting or motivating material, has little functional or communicative content, is not Jordanianized but has only a surface Jordanian element, is…

Cross-peer tutoring in English as a second language, in which an under-achieving native English-speaking student tutors a limited-English-speaking student, focuses on learning as a cooperative undertaking and addresses both the process and the outcome of learning. In one such project, student tutors were chosen according to their characteristics…

Simplification of reading materials for lower-level English for special purposes (ESP) instruction may make texts comprehensible, but it may not make them much different from texts written 50 years ago. What will make them different is their authenticity, an approach characteristic of ESP, even at the lowest levels. However, authenticity is often…

In an effort to address both the interests of Khmer and Vietnamese refugee students and the experiences of refugees making the adjustment to life in the United States, the Galang Refugee Processing Center developed a social language unit to add to the curriculum. The unit is designed to teach students socially appropriate ways to make and…

There is a widespread lack of understanding of what bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction consist of, and the day-to-day classroom operations are not easy to explain. Both bilingual and ESL instruction have seen rapid expansion in recent years, and the instructional and curricular approaches have been refined. It has been…

Failures and successes in teaching commercial foreign languages will speak for themselves. However, the profession must not foster exaggerated expectations of mastery in such a broad field, but must state honestly and realistically, with clear limits, what the commercial language course's goals are. In a college course enrolling somewhat…

In response to the increasing proportion of foreign graduate students in master's programs for teachers of English as a second language (MATESL), students in the University of Northern Iowa's program were surveyed concerning the appropriateness of the programs' design. In in-depth interviews and on questionnaires, foreign graduate students were…

The Ontario Test of English as a Second Language (OTESL) is a battery of instruments and procedures for evaluating the English proficiency of second language speakers in postsecondary institutions in Ontario (Canada). A Post-Admission test measures performance in reading, listening, and writing. An Oral Interaction Test is based on tasks of…

The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), an accrediting agency, may be an overlooked tool for establishing rationale and credibility for globalization of business courses. The 245 member institutions are bound by the agency's accrediting requirements, and many others are influenced by the standards set in those…

The successes and failures of a small private college in internationalizing its business curriculum are discussed. The college's condition of severely constrained resources is outlined, and the college's program development approach of sharing resources with other institutions is described. A consortium of local institutions was created to…

A course in English as a second language for diplomats, offered in Washington, D.C. is described. The course consists of two levels: the first aims at non-native speakers of English with threshold proficiency, and the second is designed for current and prospective personnel in foreign diplomatic services of non-English-speaking countries. The…

Most college curricula in business German are oriented to third- and fourth-year German students. Development of a course in introductory business German designed for the second year of language instruction required careful selection of materials and activities. Texts were selected for their comprehensibility for students with no business…

This paper commends qualitative assessment as a significant alternative to standardized testing to determine language proficiency, placement, and instruction for ethnic first and second language adult learners in postsecondary education. Standardized tests and traditional language curriculum and methodology are rigid in instructional scope and…

A study assessed the performance of language-minority and language-majority children in a two-way Spanish-English bilingual education program in Port Chester, New York. The program treats language learning as a resource for all students, with each group of children teaching their native languages to the other. Second- and third-grade classes are…