Surveyed students at Arizona State University to find out why they had chosen to study French, whether they planned to continue studying French, and what courses they would like to see offered. Responses indicated that the students plan to visit France or a French-speaking country, that they are interested in gaining fluency in French, and that…

Focuses on a particular teaching experience where a contemporary fiction work featuring high tech has been used as a source material in English for science and technology courses, and how this approach has had a positive impact on students' motivation to learn English as well as on their overall performance in the foreign language. (Author/VWL)

Reports views of Hispanic cultures held by a group of high school students who were studying Spanish as a foreign language. Students' perceptions of Hispanic cultures were culled from comments they made during an instructional activity, an interview, a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews. Findings overall revealed some degree of empathy toward…

Two teacher-researchers present a framework of criteria and strategies to help English-as-Second-Language/bilingual practitioners, counselors, and administrators develop a process for determining how and when to move ESL students into mainstream classes smoothly and successfully. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the reliability and validity of different measures of lexical richness in various language data research and computer simulations, and examines the behavior of these measures in spontaneous speech data of first language and second language children learning Dutch, aged 4 to 7, compared with their lexical abilities as measured by tests.…

Describes the First Steps program for bilingual learners in elementary school. After discussing learning as developmental, examines factors in effective learning (problem solving, embeddedness, working memory, interaction, and time); explains the developmental curriculum of First Steps; discusses First Steps as a resource for teaching; and looks…

Presents a case study of an ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) student's development of academic writing skills in two sequential English for academic purposes (EAP) courses. Describes how the student faced conflicts about audience, purpose, and content knowledge. Questions the validity of EAP courses, especially in terms of the transferability of…

Describes English-as-a-Second-Language programs for "green workers," or individuals who work in green industries such as golf course maintenance, landscaping, and horticulture. Discusses the benefits of supervisors learning to speak Spanish, and the necessity of workers learning English to avoid accidents, make fewer errors in following…

Spontaneous speech samples of a bilingual Spanish-English speaking child were collected during a period of 17 months (ages 6-8). Data revealed percentages and rank ordering of syntactic elements switched in the longitudinal language samples obtained. Specific recommendations for using code mixing in therapy for speech-language pathologists are…

Given recent claims that task-based instruction has desirable pedagogic qualities, this article investigates the effects of choosing different types of tasks, as well as different task implementation conditions, on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the language that is produced when tasks are carried out. (Author/VWL)

Presents findings from research into listening strategies and tactics of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners from the People's Republic of China studying in an intensive English language and academic skills program in a university in Singapore. Showed that high-ability listeners used more strategies and tactics than the low-ability ones.…

Looks at Chinese learners in New Zealand to investigate the negative effects of anxiety on linguistic performance. Particular focus is on a kind of anxiety that has come to be known as communication apprehension. Discusses an action research project conducted in a high school that shows sources of communication anxiety. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the need for teaching gender-neutral English in the Indian context, and shares the mixed response of undergraduate science students in a functional English course. (Author/VWL)

Describes how a Canadian college professor uses WebCT to provide a highly interactive Internet seminar for international graduate students. The virtual seminar acts as a resource and supplement to a regular graduate course on second language methodology for teachers. Examines the WebCT bulletin board and the enhanced interactivity it allows,…

Describes an effective model for a collaborative approach to designing integrated multimedia materials for language courses. The University of Winnipeg is successfully using the model to create a first-year French course. The model includes collaboration between departments, colleagues, and instructors with their students to design a…