This paper examines the belief that as English rapidly infiltrates Native American cultures, school programs for teaching and maintaining native languages are not working. It suggests that Native American children who learn English first and their heritage languages second have difficulty learning the structures of their ancestral languages…

This report focuses on the ninth year in which the Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS) at the University of Dublin Trinity College offered foreign language modules to students who were not studying a foreign language as part of their degree program. The modules are designed to develop students' communication skills for purposes of…

This study investigated the relationship between what people looked up about new words when different kinds of information were available and how well they remembered those words. Dictionary information was incorporated into a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) program comprised of text, highlighted low-frequency words, and access to…

This paper discusses the details of existential sentences constructed with the Portuguese verbs "ter" and "haver" in the interpersonal form. The uses of these verbs are discussed and analyzed in detail. The history and evolution of linguistic changes in Brazilian Portuguese are discussed in an attempt to detect historical…

This document contains the May and November 2000 issues of "New Horizons in Education," with articles in English and Chinese. The May issue includes the following articles: "A Key to Successful Environmental Education: Teacher Trainees' Attitude, Behaviour, and Knowledge" (Kevin Chung Wai Lui, Eric Po Keung Tsang, Sing Lai…

While language-learning strategies as promoters of efficiency in second language learning have generated extensive attention, limited work as been done about awareness-raising regarding language-learning strategies. This study explores the relationship between heightened awareness of strategy use on learners' strategy use and on oral production.…

Acquisition of pragmatic competence by second language learners in the target language environment is examined, drawing on a study of learners of English as a Second Language in Dublin (Ireland). The hypothesis presented is that learners who perceive social or cultural distance between themselves and the target language culture will have greater…

Research studies on how adults learn and develop second-language reading competence were considered in the context of a componential theory of reading. In particular, C. A. Perfetti's Verbal Efficiency Theory (VET) was used as a framework in which to organize and evaluate the studies' contribution to the field of second-language reading. The…

Enrollment in a foreign language course increasingly is becoming an essential part of college students' programs of study. As a result, there has been an influx of students with diverse backgrounds, interests, and aspirations enrolling in foreign language courses in order to fulfill degree requirements. Unfortunately, many students underachieve in…

This document consists of three issues of a newsletter published during 1996 and 1997. Issues contain current events articles in Spanish and classroom language learning activities based on those articles. The articles are brief; topics include: the Beatles; the route of Don Quixote; pets; the climate, architecture, history and food of Castile and…

Reflexivity, defined as the self-applied process of learning, the use of self and others as active signs in the learning process, is examined through relevant literature in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction. When EFL learners are encouraged to stand back and examine the way they learn and why they learn this way, reflexivity…

This paper discusses the use of francophone films produced in French-speaking areas outside France in the second-language classroom, using several films from African countries and Canada as examples. The idea is that such films give students more than an abstract idea of a francophone region outside France, and represent large views of language…

Responding to a call to action by California's state leaders to make reading instruction in the early grades a top priority in the public schools, this booklet discusses California's new K-3 reading program. It begins with a discussion of what prompted this new focus on reading, and then discusses the four major elements of a balanced reading…

Noting that little in language can be understood without taking into consideration the wider picture of communicative purpose, content, context, and audience, this book address practical uses of various approaches to discourse analysis. Several assumptions run through the chapters: knowledge is socially constructed; the manner in which language…

This document consists of the four issues of this periodic bibliography published during 1997. All items listed are related to second language instruction and include recently-published resource materials, instructional materials, and literature on instructional methods and techniques, including research. Each citation contains basic bibliographic…