Although language policy in New Zealand is emerging piecemeal, without any clear central planning and without much of the data needed for sound policy development, political pressure from indigenous, community, and other language interest groups is interacting positively with government values and may still lead to a coherent national policy. (39…

Provides study results of the attitudes of first and second year foreign language students enrolled at historically Black colleges and universities toward foreign language study, and makes recommendations for improving the status of foreign language education at these institutions. (13 references) (GLR)

Analysis of the responses of Spanish, Chinese, and German learners of English-as-a-Second-Language to English sentences with empty pronominal categories found that, although empty pronouns were pragmatically more natural in finite clauses of Spanish and Chinese than in English or German, only the Spanish subjects had significantly higher mean…

The efficiency of oral error correction was investigated as a function of 35 Dutch-speaking high school seniors' individual characteristics of aptitude, motivation, anxiety, and previous achievement. Results were mixed but generally suggest that error correction does not lead to across-the-board improvement of achievement. (Contains 55…

The new diversity of foreign language students' motivations and learning paths requires a new, more learner-centered approach to instruction. Alternative ways of organizing the learning experience include modular curricula, individualized instruction, and guided independent study. This implies a more culturally oriented approach to language…

Learning sign language is a multisensory, high-interest, developmentally appropriate activity for young children. Learning to sign improves children's attention, self-esteem, motivation, sensitivity to others, language development, reading and math readiness, behavior management, vocabularies, and retention; and allows for inclusion of special…

Investigation of the development of metalinguistic consciousness examines bilingual children's perceptions of language contact in a situation of marked social imbalance between their first and second languages. The exploratory investigation focused on how school-age bilinguals view written forms in Spanish and Nahuatl. Forty-five Spanish/Nahuatl…

Explains how education is essentially about expanding students' literacies by developing sets of social practices that help them understand and participate in different social worlds, describing how to expand literacies through a Hispanic influence across the curriculum and how to increase the Hispanic influence through structural variations in…

Describes a year-long project to create and produce English-language, school-based, community newspapers at Israeli high schools using a Teacher's Guide specifically designed for the project. The project enhanced students' newspaper and journalism skills, reading and writing skills, community involvement, teamwork, critical thinking skills, and…

Responds to a previous article that discussed paired testing of oral languages and focused on the role of the examiners, suggesting that the paper was not necessarily correct in saying that the problems associated with paired testing are outweighed by its positive advantages. This paper argues that paired testing has many potential problems that…

Today's mobile computers, digital cameras, and digital camcorders have features that were unimaginable a few years ago. For the foreign-language professional interested in capturing and sharing authentic language materials in digitized form, these new tools offer exciting opportunities for enhanced presentations of target cultures and languages,…

Describes a first-grade classroom to illustrate a classroom environment that supports second-language learners while drawing on linguistic diversity to enrich the language learning of all students. Discusses resources and routines; as well as risks and rewards both in a rich language arts curriculum as well as in the social environment. Describes…

Study examined transfer of learners' first language (L1) orthographic processing strategies to second language processing. Two groups learning Japanese, differing by L1 writing system (phonographic vs. morphographic), were tested on ability to represent novel kanji characters in short-term memory. Results indicate learners with a morphographic L1…

Reports a study of the relationship between nonverbal forms of communication, principally gestures, and second language (L2) private speech through recall and picture narration task. Results show nonverbal elements illuminate the private speech they accompany, and gestures alone act in a self-regulatory capacity after pauses, implying a connection…

Presents a brief introduction to current models of curriculum development and evaluation, analyzes their relevance to curriculum practice based on a case study of the curriculum process in English-as-a-Second-Language program at a multistate community college in the Southwest, and suggests implications for future development based on current…