By drawing on the experiences of children aged 3 to 8 attending schools in Britain, Germany, Iceland, Australia, and the United States, 11 case studies of young children provide insight into what it means for children to enter a new language and culture in school. The case studies are: "Learning through Difference: Cultural Practices in Early…

A model workplace literacy program is described that was designed to upgrade the basic skills of adult workers and developed by El Paso Community College in partnership with J&J Register Company, a Texas division of Philips Industries with approximately 300 workers. Pre-assessment results indicated that about 95 percent of the workers had…

This work is one in a series that focuses on nine languages representing the bulk of the second language learning effort in Australian education (Arabic, Modern Standard Chinese, French, German, Modern Greek, Indonesian/Malay, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish). These languages were categorized as the Languages of Wider Teaching. Overviews of Arabic…

The Bilingual Education Act (BEA) title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is the federal program intended to help children who are limited English proficient (LEP) learn English. BEA activities focus on transitional bilingual education; developmental bilingual education; special alternative instruction (such as English as…

This book provides an overview of research and thinking on age-related dimensions of language acquisition, intended for students, researchers, and educators with some experience in linguistics and applied linguistics. The first chapter introduces the variety of issues associated with age and language acquisition. Chapter 2 examines the evidence…

A study investigated the use of content-based tasks as central and peripheral in second language instruction. Specifically, it examined the relative effects of such tasks that were either central to the syllabus, as sources of knowledge or skills in their own right, or peripheral, as occasional source of language practice. The study was conducted…

An ongoing longitudinal study, 15 years old at the time of publication, is reported. It is a sociolinguistic, developmental study of the acquisition of two languages, Spanish and English, by a boy from birth, with data drawn from direct observation and occasional tape recordings of speech. An introductory chapter outlines the objectives and method…

This document consists of the first 16 issues of a serial providing learning activities for intermediate and advanced students of Spanish. Each issue is organized around a separate theme, with the first 9 issues devoted to celebration of the fifth centenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus: (1) "Cultural Contact"; (2)…

This publication is intended for mainstream teachers and school administrators involved in the education of language minority students, and describes professional competencies necessary to capitalize on the linguistic and cultural strengths inherent in a culturally diverse population. The materials included are designed for both training and…

Five working papers in linguistics and education are presented. "The Mediators: Providing Access To Texts in English in a Semi-Urban Maharashtrian College Community" (Grace Plamthodathil Jacob) examines the teacher's role in mediating cultural awareness as part of English second language education in a multilingual, non-western society.…

The 1986/87 issue of the journal on second language teaching and learning contains seven articles in French and four in English, including: "Learning How To Learn English"; "Socrate est-il un chat? Pratiquer le syllogisme pour apprendre a argumenter (Is Socrates a Cat? Practicing Syllogisms To Learn To Argue)"; "La production orale en francais des…

Despite considerable linguistic diversity in Kenya, the country is increasingly trilingual, with individual Kenyans tending toward varying degrees of proficiency in the vernacular, Swahili, and English. The vernacular is acquired at home and in the neighborhood with co-ethnics in both rural and urban contexts. Swahili is typically learned…

This report documents two coordinated exploratory studies into the nature of oral English-for-academic-purposes (EAP) proficiency. Study I used verbal-report methodology to examine field experts? rating orientations, and Study II investigated the quality of test-taker discourse on two different Test of English as a Foreign Language? (TOEFL®) task…

The findings of a study of language and language education policy in each of the three independent nations of Comoros, Mauritius, and the Seychelles are reported in this book. Each country is discussed separately, focusing on the linguistic and educational history, the existing educational system, and current language policies and programs.…

A study examining the perceptions of college students in beginning foreign language classes toward various teaching discovered a discrepancy between the value students and teachers ascribe to communicative language teaching. The study was conducted at the University of South Carolina, in two classes where a variety of teaching techniques were…