Discusses an introductory course in basic conversational Spanish that raised enrollment. It is noted that the course interested students who desired a basic knowledge of spoken Spanish and those students who feared failure in regular courses. It was found that some students later enrolled in regular courses. (Author/AMH)

Discusses what the college language department needs to communicate to the dean about what it does, including the substance of language, literature, and culture and the disparate teaching demands they create. Focus is on how realistic current staffing patterns are and how they may have to change for language departments to be allocated adequate…

Analysis of the responses to a survey regarding the instruction of language for specific purposes indicated that this instruction was an established part of the foreign-language curriculum at most of the responding four-year institutions. Courses were most likely to be at institutions that had professional schools, entry or exit foreign-language…

Reports on a survey of the textbooks used for first- and second-year German language instruction at 44 Canadian universities and colleges. (Author/MSE)

Describes the roles and intellectual contributions of foreign language methodologists in order to help other foreign language faculty work with them and understand their primary research interset in developing techniques and approaches that enhance language teaching. (CB)

Reviews research about orality and literacy. Since foreign language students are already somewhat literate in a first language, the traditional orality-based foreign language teaching should be revised to first teach reading and writing, the literacy skills. (DJD)

Briefly discusses the theoretical and empirical literature regarding the "negotiation of meaning" as a construct, presents and discusses selected findings from a longitudinal study of an intact Spanish conversation course at the college level relative to learner-to-learner conversation and the "negotiating of meaning," and…

Advocates the concepts of performance and teamwork among college and university language faculty to develop and maintain pride, recognition, and high professional status in the face of the typical "poor relation" status of the foreign languages and literature field in the university family. (CB)

Describes a university's strategy for screening and hiring talented language faculty, including required qualifications, interviews at professional conventions, candidate ranking, on-campus visits, and existing faculty evaluation of potential faculty. (CB)

Presents data obtained from a survey of 2,796 colleges and universities regarding foreign language enrollment, focusing on trends in foreign languages at 2-year colleges, language registrations between 1960 and 1990, and less and most commonly taught languages. (CB)

Explores differences between college English and foreign-language departments' treatment of literature and culture education, making a case for enhancing foreign language pedagogy's transmission of culture and literature through restructured academic territories, reorganization of authority, and redistribution of resources. (19 references) (CB)

Foreign Language across the Curriculum (FLAC), a practice that modifies non-FL liberal arts courses to include an FL reading component, is described as implemented at two private colleges. It is concluded that FLAC offers only a token FL benefit to most students. (33 references) (LB)

In a study of learners' levels of comfort with language activity types allowing differing degrees of interaction, 110 first-year college students of French, Spanish, and Italian were surveyed at a university and community college. Results suggest the value of activities facilitative of negotiated interaction. The questionnaire is appended. (10…

Suggests an innovative technique for the graduate curriculum in literature and language that can help new faculty members develop not only culture courses but also competency in interdisciplinary scholarship, discussing course organization, varieties of interdisciplinary study, and the professional development seminar. (20 references) (CB)

Describes a university's use of a multilingual cable network as a foreign language instructional resource by incorporating series, news programs, and commercials into foreign language courses. (CB)