The status and priorities of the teaching of East Asian languages were discussed in eight papers presented at a 1981 conference. The topics addressed include: (1) the need to give language teaching a higher priority as a national concern; (2) the role of the federal government in East Asian language study; (3) the teaching of Japanese, Korean, and…

A list of basic study practices and strategies, with examples and alternatives that focus on both receptive and productive skills and the value in interaction, is presented. The following hints are included: (1) don't study a language by yourself and in silence, but study aloud and with another person; (2) use the target language as much as…

After discussing the ties between language teaching and second language acquisition research, the present paper reviews the role that second language acquisition research has played on two recent pedagogical proposals. First, communicative language teaching, advocated in the early eighties, in which focus on the code was excluded, and then the…

The nature and role of electronic journals have been widely discussed over the past few years, and there is an emerging consensus on the parameters of such journals and the space in which they operate. ESL, however, is an unusual area in being inter-­ and multi-­disciplinary, and in having a constituency which in some ways is not like that of…

Discusses the successes and problems in designing and implementing transitional language programs for immigrant children in England. (Author/SDH)

This pronoun study examines the effect of two classroom learning environments on the acquisition of English personal and possessive pronouns by Primary Two students in Singapore on the premises that: 1. Students from the formal learning environment will perform better than those from the informal learning environment in the shorter term; 2.…

In its life-time, the profession of language teaching has undergone many changes. Early attempts at language teaching almost entirely lacked a theory base. In the 20th century, however, two sets of language teaching methods emerged; the first set borrowed theories from psychology, linguistics, and sociolinguistics whereas the second set was based…

This study explores how social pressure and identity construction patterns interact with the oral performance of secondary and post-secondary learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Data derive from 268 questionnaires probing students' perceptions of Spanish, Spanish speakers, their peers, and their instructors. Ethnographic interviews…

This study analyzes the types and frequencies of hedges and intensifiers employed in NS and NNS academic essays included in a corpus of L1 and L2 student academic texts (745 essays/220,747 words). The overarching goal of this investigation is to focus on these lexical and syntactic features of written discourse because they effectively lend…

Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) is the flagship research journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in the United States. It is a broad-based, multidisciplinary journal composed of original research articles and short scholarly essays on a wide range of topics significant to those concerned with the teaching and…

In recent years, the range and complexity of both language learning technology and the environments in which learners utilize it have become more central factors in language education. Given the already stunning--and growing--number of technological options for language learning, teachers working with both established and emerging applications…

In this fifth Report on Teaching compiled by Change Magazine, focus is on anthropology, foreign languages, and physics. Articles dealing with teaching competence at the higher education level in anthropology deal with both classroom and field instruction, written by: Francis L K. Hsu, Nathaniel Sheppard, Jr., Ronald Henkoff, Evan Jenkins, Liva…

"Skill-using" in second-language learning is often given less priority than "skill-getting" activities. The first and second year of language instruction should concentrate on longer and more varied sequences of tasks in which the learner is communicating and using "real" language. In addition, the learner's focus should be shifted from his errors…

This pamphlet, provided in both English and Spanish, presents a brief overview of Situational Reinforcement (SR), a teaching methodology used in the materials published by the Institute of Modern Languages. Explanations are given concerning its theoretical basis, its practical applications, the history of its development, and the support it finds…

The attention brought by Marshall McLuhan to our environment is perhaps his most general contribution to the language teacher. McLuhan often supports specific innovations in language instruction, including: (1) the emphasis on the spoken and heard aspects of a language; (2) the need for active student participation in learning; and (3) electronic…