Argues for increased participation by college language departments in teaching intercultural communication to international business students, discussing the insufficiency of language training alone, the lack of intercultural communication training among language faculty, the low priority given to such programs, and specific case examples and…

Describes the Canadian program of French immersion in terms of current issues in the theory of second-language (L2) learning, including the role of consciousness, optimal timing of L2 learning, communicative competency classification, and the role of the first language. Implications for L2 pedagogy and requirements for a new language pedagogy are…

This article illustrates some of the characteristics of the Chinese language from the perspective of how the language is learned by American students. The article also makes recommendations to help practitioners when teaching and designing reading and curricula for both beginning and advanced learners of Chinese. (SM)

Examines practical ways to improve the quality of Russian language instruction in higher education. The article reviews briefly chapters from two recently revised Russian textbooks, suggests a move from a grammar-based to a communicative syllabus, and notes difficulties and rewards in switching to a notional-functional syllabus. (SM)

Responding to foreign language learners' affective needs may help enhance learners' success in Japanese. American students face many linguistic and psychological barriers when learning Japanese. The article examines such affective variables as anxiety, risk taking, and motivation as significant contributing factors for differential success in…

Details errors commonly made by learners of Korean because of inadequate linguistic description or grammar explanations; suggests that one way of minimizing learner errors is to provide explicit linguistic descriptions (i.e., grammatical rules, explanations, and usage); also attention must be paid to presentation of word order and vocabulary…

Investigated the test-taking processes of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) testees taking a multiple choice listening-comprehension test, evaluating the effectiveness of immediate retrospection for accessing such processes. Linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge was activated in a parallel manner for all subjects with input of various…

The University of Idaho and Moscow School District (Idaho) cooperated to create a Spanish enrichment program designed to stimulate academic interest among elementary school children and to provide preservice teachers with additional foreign-language teaching experience. The model offers content-based courses and addresses concerns of junior high…

Describes talk-write, a form of cooperative learning aimed at enhancing fluency in writing during English-as-a-Second-Language instruction. The paper explains how to implement talk-write, discusses the logic behind talk-write, and presents some tips for talk-write in practice. Several modifications for implementing talk-write are suggested. (SM)

Considers the question of which variety of Indonesian to teach in Australia. Issues related to standardization, formality, and diglossia in Bahasa, Indonesia, the use of its many varieties across Indonesia, differences between the Jakarta dialect and the standard form, and pedagogical considerations in teaching non-standard varieties are…

Discusses the importance of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) education in the multicultural country of South Africa, where for the majority of residents, English is the second language. Examines the variety of languages of South Africa, the language-education crisis in South Africa, and the country's need for language teachers. (SM)

Comparison of three training conditions for Spanish-vocabulary development with 30 deaf undergraduates found no significant differences for short-term memory. However, long-term-memory scores under the repeated writing condition were significantly higher than scores under the fingerspelling or silent-reading conditions. (Author/DB)

Discusses the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) performance guidelines for K-12 foreign-language learners. The guidelines comprehensively describe the language performance of students of foreign languages across three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational), following specific periods of…

Qualitative data obtained from teaching-assistant surveys, interviews, journal entries, and videotape critiques were analyzed to discover specific concerns of international teaching assistants (ITAs) about grammar and how these concerns influence their problems of language, cross-cultural communication, and pedagogy. Thematic summary of data and…

Describes how to use a language-processing model to develop holistic reading strategies for college-level English-as-a-Second-Language students. The paper explains how to use an English reading processor, develop a supplementary reading program, access students' background knowledge, and find methods that work, noting that this model will nurture…