Notes that effective second language teaching and learning depend on needs assessment, or understanding what language skills the student needs to learn and what language functions the student wants to produce after taking the course. Considers the mutual interaction of teacher, student, and materials of great importance to successful second…

Describes an inductive approach to teaching the general characteristics of a literary movement or period. Without prior discussion, students are asked to identify similarities among various art forms of a given period; this procedure stimulates further study, exploration, and disscussion of the subject. (EJS)

This article summarizes the content of the discussions at the 1977 M.L.T.A.V. Congress. The main issues were the relationship between language and culture, the aims and objectives of language teaching, problems of motivation and individualization, school language policies, examinations, and teacher training. (CFM)

Contrastive analysis of Spanish and English reveals the importance of giving as much attention to suprasegmentals as to segmentals in the teaching of pronunciation. (CFM)

Discusses three possible sources of nonrandom but extraneous variance in self-reported attitude data, and demonstrates that these data may be surreptitious measures of verbal intelligence and language proficiency. (Author/AM)

Describes a study designed to measure several variables and their effect on the language achievement of native Mexican children learning Spanish as a second language. (AM)

Examines the effects of aptitude, field independence, attitude, and strategy use upon four areas of language achievement: formal/oral, formal/written, functional/oral, and functional/written. Test results indicated that aptitude and field independence are related, as are strategy use and attitude; only aptitude and strategy use, however, affect…

A description of an exchange between an American high school German class and one in West Germany to explore and compare the interests of German and American teenagers. Items of interest to teenagers were exchanged. Various ways in which student motivation was increased are noted. (Author/AMH)

Types of errors Arabs make with definiteness are classified and the rate of occurrence of errors are counted. Sixteen three-hour college-level American history final examinations written by Arabic speakers were examined. (SW)

Reports on the independent classroom experiences of a teacher of English as a foreign language in Germany who used videotaped broadcasts of BBC's "News of the Week" and a teacher of English as a second language in the U.S. who used two-minute news capsules from a radio station in Los Angeles. (CFM)

Discusses "proper intake" (intake that contains certain designated features of informal communication) in the classroom, when the goal is for students to be able to use language in informal communication. (Author/HP)

Various activities designed to motivate adult learners of English as a second language are described, including the use of jokes, nicknames, evening news, card games, and short stories. (HP)

A panel discussion of the effect of immersion programs on first and second language learning. Questions are raised regarding the effectiveness of the regular curriculum, results of immersion for majority language and minority or immigrant children, the meaning of linguistic competence and underlying cognitive and intellectual processes. (AMH)

Describes a teaching technique using a non-language-teaching film in French as a stimulus for aural comprehension practice, discussion and composition. (Text is in French.) (MLA)

Four short articles discuss how to transcribe voice messages quickly and easily, how to learn to debate, new French expressions and games for language students. (Text is in French.) (MLA)