Presents discussions that have taken place in an electronic forum by language lab professionals to discuss issues relevant to their everyday work. The discussions covered focus on the practicality of digital audio lab, good programs for instructional technology, "Systeme-D /Atajo" writing assistant programs for French and Spanish, and LCD…

Discusses a new joint degree program involving the study of a language and its culture launched at an Australian university by the engineering faculty. Students who complete the program will be awarded both a Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Arts degree. The arts degree course is in the field of international studies and includes subjects…

Describes a study in which Australian high school learners of Japanese were given the opportunity to practice their communicative skills with native speakers. Students' performances were analyzed before and after a brief period of introspection. Results indicate that learners made few gains in terms of their own output although there was an…

Explores the impact of a change in status in language programs and the culture of second language learning in Australian schools, particularly in light of declared goals such as a language other than English for all and the integration of language teaching and learning with Australia's external political and economic priorities. (32 references)…

Describes a project trying to implement the nationally developed Curriculum Profile for languages in Australia from the vantage point of three teachers. Notes that the objectives of the project included highlighting teacher perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the profile, discovering difficulties experienced by teachers in applying the…

Examines the concept of culture from the perspective of language teaching and explores how conversation analysis assists in the teaching of culture in interaction. Argues that one outcome of language teaching should be communicative competence, that the model of language underlying an assessment is crucial, and that the interdependence of language…

Describes the changing social context of Asian language teaching in Australian universities and considers the increasing salience of the economic argument for Asian languages found in major reports on languages in education. Reviews major criticisms of this economic argument. (five references) (Author/CK)

Compares the acquisition of the syntax of negation in first-language development and second-language acquisition, particularly the acquisition of colloquial French and German by native speakers of Spanish. The comparison is intended to shed light on the principles and mechanisms underlying first- and second-language development. (67 references)…

Trends in teacher-conducted classroom research on second- and foreign language instruction are examined, drawing on relevant current literature. Problems in research methodology and in motivating full-time teachers to conduct research, and areas in which research is fertile, are examined. (MSE)

Examines classroom research as a means of professional renewal for language teachers, drawing on experiences in an Australian program to train teachers as action researchers with the support of a research community. Concludes that incorporation of professional renewal processes in formal classroom research projects is a way to maintain teacher…

Describes a variation of content-based instruction for beginning-level language learners called content-enriched instruction (CEI). In CEI, emphasis is on cultural and real-world information, and vocabulary, grammar, and content are integrated to reflect a specific theme, or converge to represent a specific topic. (Author/CK) (28 references)

The Speech Perception in Noise Test was administered to nine native-Mexican Spanish-speaking adults who learned English either before age 6 or after age 14 and nine monolingual American-English adults. Levels of noise at which speech was intelligible were significantly higher and the benefit from context was significantly greater for monolinguals…

Presents a model process for "bottom-up" teacher development of a proficiency-oriented, criterion-referenced second or foreign-language curriculum. The process is designed for second- and foreign-language teachers and administrators at all levels of education to enhance articulation and coherence of teaching objectives and practices between levels…

Illustrates strategies for the practical application of a whole-language approach in the second- or foreign-language classroom. Both first- and second-language teachers were interviewed and observed for the study. Provides practical whole-language activities appropriate for secondary- or university-level classes. (Author/JL)

Brings together the Census data from 1891 to 1991 on the numbers of Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh speakers in all part of the British Isles, with the exception of England. Concentrates on changes in the age structure of the Celtic-language-speaking populations as well as on the percentage of people speaking the language. (Author/JL)