A poll of the various West German state Culture Ministries revealed that 24,000 students in Grade 5 were taking French as their first foreign language; 14,000 took French in the primary schools (first four grades). The report is helpful in considering further FL offerings. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Because language represents self and culture, a holistic approach to second-language learning goes beyond skill acquisition. The goal is a reintegrated sense of self achieved through transformative learning. (SK)

Discusses how students can use their knowledge of English to expand their French vocabulary quickly. The article emphasizes that while learning more words, students also discover the interrelationship of languages. (nine references) (Author/CK)

Reports on a large-scale study on learner autonomy in language learning carried out with students and English teachers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Examines the teachers' views of their roles and responsibilities, their assessment of their students'decision-making abilities and the autonomous language learning activities that they have…

Focuses on ways in which the students and teacher in a content based German as a foreign language class used repair in order to negotiate meaning and form in their classroom. Discusses how repair in this institutional setting differed from repair in mundane conversation and how repair was used differently by the students and the teacher.…

Explores quantitative and Qualitative differences between context and word morphology as determinants of students' guesses of the meanings of novel kanji compounds. Japanese language learners interpreted unknown compounds consisting of familiar characters under three conditions. (Author/VWL)

Revisits the classic debate on whether there can be an artificial creation that behaves and uses language with intelligence and agency. Argues that many moral and spiritual objections to this notion are not grounded either ethically or empirically. (Author/VWL)

Ideas that resulted from reading Jean LeLoup and Robert Ponterio's tele-collaborative projects, Monsters.com, are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the use of service learning as a way of enhancing student learning, especially in oral comprehension, conversation, and cultural understanding. Highlights a study of University of North Carolina-Asheville students who worked in the local health department, reporting the degree to which service learning helped them meet the American…

Examines the different uses of video technologies in English language teaching, including content and instructional presentation, planning for instruction, designing tasks for students, assessment, and using new technologies. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the issue of code switching in the classroom and analyzes the roles and functions of the first language in the second language class. The observation of intra-sentential code switching shows complex learning ad communicative strategies and emphasizes the need to better understand these strategies and their role in the learning process.…

Addresses the question of differential substitution in English phonology, arguing that an optimality theoretical analysis makes finer-grained predictions than earlier accounts. Suggests that crosslinguistically the substitution of [t] for/0/ is the default and that a [s] substitution only will arise when certain phonological alternations are found…

Offers a brief overview of the field of individual differences in language learning, especially as they are reflected in learning styles, learning strategies, and affective variables. Touches on areas for further research. (Author/VWL)

Questions the extent to which attention differentially affects different parts of language and how this differential effect interacts with increased linguistic knowledge. Subjects were native English speaking learners of Italian. (Author/VWL)

Discusses cryptograms--word puzzles that rely on a simple system of substituting one letter for another in a pre-determined pattern so that a word, phrase, or sentence becomes a puzzle--in the the English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language classroom. (Author/VWL)