Comparison of language proficiency gains in Russian study abroad in Russia looked at homestay versus dormitory residence. Statistical analysis of the American Council of Teachers of Russian students records database, which contains proficiency data on 2,500 study-abroad participants, was used to compare gains made in speaking, listening, and…

Two studies that included high school students classified as at risk for learning a foreign language are described. The first compared at-risk students classified as learning disabled with at-risk students not classified as LD. The second investigated only students classified as LD, comparing them with and without discrepancies between their…

By encouraging English-as-a-Second-Language learners to keep a daily word calendar, teachers can tap into their need for success by helping them keep a visible count of their growing vocabulary. Describes how to prepare and fill-in word calendars, use them in classroom activities, and conduct extension exercises. Sample student word calendars are…

Using games to determine students' feelings and attitudes toward their language learning can help build group trust and air possible problems. Presents some well-known games that are adapted to find out more about what students think ("Find Someone Who...,""Prove It!," and "What Are You Good At?"). Game variations and teacher training adaptations…

Argues that the best moment for responding to student writing is before any draft is completed. Analyzes ways in which this can be put into practice in the composition classroom and reports on how a group of undergraduate, intermediate-level Portuguese English-as-a-Second-Language writers reacted to this kind of pre-text feedback. (Author/SM)

Suggests that language awareness, or consciousness raising, has great potential in second-language learning. Language awareness presents students with linguistic data so they can work out grammatical rules for themselves. Offers a variety of examples of possible language-awareness lessons, first for the teaching of English, then for the teaching…

This first of a two-part article looks at the language learning-acquiring distinction, discussing the consequences of teaching at either end of the learning-acquiring continuum. Describes the distinction between the two, discusses the learning versus acquiring of grammar, and compares the two. The second part of the article will focus on memory…

Discusses the view that the spread of English is endangering many regional languages and their corresponding cultures. Suggests that this view is based on premises that no longer hold true in a world marked by cultural intermixing and growing multilingualism. Implications for the English-as-a-Second-Language teacher are highlighted. (Author/VWL)

Describes Subarashii, an experimental computer-based interactive spoken-language education system designed to understand what a student is saying in Japanese and respond in a meaningful way in spoken Japanese. Implementation of a preprototype version of the Subarashii system identified strengths and limitations of continuous speech recognition…

Describes a system, provisionally named Pronto, that uses automatic speech recognition for training pronunciation of second languages in adult learners. Methods are included for developing training in Pronto, and results are presented from evaluating classes of speech recognizers for use in different aspects of pronunciation training. (Author/VWL)

Looks at how speech-interactive computer-assisted language learning can help the classroom teacher carry out recommendations from immersion-based approaches to language instruction. Emerging methods for pronunciation tutoring are demonstrated from Carnegie Mellon University's FLUENCY project, addressing not only phone articulation but also speech…

Describes some of the dilemmas that nonnative English teachers face as they are exposed to competing discourses of educational ideologies and market forces and have to reconcile the contradictory demands of global pressures with the local conditions in which they work. Argues that it is vital to resist a simple transfer of teaching approaches and…

Discusses aspects of context from a relevance-theoretic perspective and considers how this may lead to a better understanding of how language learners recover verbal input. Proposes that the way context is defined affects (1) the relationship between knowledge of language and context and (2) the way speakers access assumptions in everyday…

Reviews research findings of studies dealing with distance-education programs; describes the results of a distance-learning study implemented with secondary school students learning Spanish; and identifies questions that must be addressed as the foreign-language profession attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning in current…

Presents the sources and solutions of listening-comprehension anxiety as reported by foreign-language students and discusses the pedagogical implications that relate to the results. (Author/VWL)