Describes a summer program in France designed to teach French to Americans using teaching techniques drawn from dramatic arts courses. The theory behind Ionesco's method is that the living language of the theatre facilitates linguistic and communicative competence in students. (MSE)

An innovative foreign language methodology, " Read-and-Speak," was tried in a year-long pilot section of beginning French. The method involves: (1) massive easy readings assigned from the outset; (2) speaking the foreign language from the start; (3) delaying formal grammar instruction until April, when an entire introductory text is…

Describes a year-long intercultural exchange program between fifth year Spanish students from a suburban high school and English as a second language students from an inner city junior/senior high school in Rhode Island. Results of the exchange show that attitudes and proficiencies improved for both sets of students. (LMO)

Advises the secondary school teacher lacking special training how to use the ACFL Guidelines to test for oral proficiency in the classroom. Sample situation cards and a sample grading sheet are included. (LMO)

Considers the implications of Yoruba as the Nigerian mother tongue for linguistic competence in French at the phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and sociosemantic levels. (CB)

Describes the component parts of interactive video systems and suggests reasons for the increasing popularity of interactive video over other forms of instruction in education and training. A British project is described which is concerned with investigating the potential of interactive video for teaching foreign languages to secondary school…

A visiting professor of linguistics to a provincial Chinese university describes aspects of his experience in China, the structure of the college curriculum and university experience, the influence of communism, and university students. (MSE)

When college students (N=124) studying French performed a cloze test, translated additional text, and recalled the reading, results indicated that both syntactic and vocabulary proficiency positively affected reading comprehension and recall of text. This supports continued attention to grammar and vocabulary-building exercises for students in…

The two major justifications for the traditional grammar curriculum in Dutch schools are: (1) its superiority to direct skill training in improving general language ability; and (2) its facilitation of teaching and learning foreign languages. An evaluative investigation, which included a literature review and logbook and textbook surveys, found no…

Reviews current literature on coherence in written text, defines coherence in broad terms, and then presents a three-lesson revision unit based on modern coherence principles. In this unit, students "deconstruct" assignment prompts, prepare first drafts, examine another student's first draft, and then revise their essays and examine the revisions.…

Describes an eight-week model role-play project applicable to second language classes on secondary, college, and adult levels. The project was found to result in a greater variety in the students' acquired vocabulary, improved written work, enriched cultural knowledge, and an unusual classroom atmosphere. (Author/SED)

Suggests that the use in English language teaching of visual media is based on insufficient analysis of the properties of visual formats, the skills demanded in using them, and the existing literacy of the students. The design and implementation of the appended Visual Information Test are described. (Author/SED)

Describes a fifth-semester university course in German in which students analyze the stylistic features of the language and its function in specific cultural contexts, such as films, speeches, songs, and newspapers. The course is conducted entirely in German and focuses on a single stylistic theme each week. (SED)

Discusses how to overcome the hurdles of teaching the special language style found in German business correspondence and describes a new approach to teaching business German that uses a computerized support system. (SED)

Describes the history of the status of the Welsh language from the Acts of Union in 1536 and 1543 to the present day. The teaching of Welsh in the country's primary and secondary schools and career and employment opportunities in the the Welsh language are also discussed. (SED)