Discusses the development of a notional functional syllabus for university second language classes. (EKN)

Describes curricular program which allows students to opt for more oral practice of a foreign language through individual presentations, situations, and skits. Discusses classroom procedures and information as to materials and methods. (BK)

Explains how traditional materials available to most teachers can be a point of departure for a program which focuses on communicative competence and suggests ways of incorporating computer programs, slide/sound presentations, and conversational activities into the curriculum. (EKN)

The commonly-occurring mismatch between second language student and course level, resulting in student boredom or intimidation, is due to overreliance on standardized language tests. These tests emphasize passive skills, such as recognition of grammatical structures and translation, and they ignore the element of communicative competence. As a…

Integration of extracurricular activities into the second language curriculum is supported in the context of culturally oriented communicative second language teaching. After methodological approaches in the literature are analyzed, various extracurricular program provided at the University of Toronto are described. (MSE)

The guide is one section of a resource kit designed to assist Peace Corps language instruction coordinators in countries around the world in understanding the principles underlying second language learning and teaching and in organizing instructional programs. This section outlines basic principles of second language learning and teaching. An…

It is no longer possible to approach the teaching of foreign cultures with an ethnographic and objectivist perspective that allows students to believe in the absolute value of a given definition of culture. The first goal of foreign language and culture teaching is the acquisition of communicative competence in the broadest sense of this…

Describes schedules and activities of the summer and weekend foreign language immersion programs at the State University of New York College at New Paltz. Gives some highlights of last summer's program. (EKN)

Describes a successful reciprocal bilingual exchange program between Anglophone fourth-year high school students of Spanish and native speakers of Spanish in an elementary school. Plans and specific activities are outlined for weekly interactions which serve as a sociocultural and linguistic bridge between the two groups of Spanish speakers. (PMJ)

Presents a practical, flexible framework for teaching communicative competence. Examples of objectives, materials, activities, and testing procedures are from the first-year German courses at the University of Arizona but are largely applicable to foreign language instruction in general. (EKN)

Communication-based teaching techniques are described that lead German language students from input to output in a stimulating and motivating learning environment. Input activities are most useful for presenting speech acts, vocabulary, and grammar; output activities, for fine-tuning those areas as well as for expanding students' productive…

The National Core French Study had the objectives of defining and developing four syllabuses and assessing their applicability in Core French classes in Canadian elementary and secondary schools. The communicative/experiential syllabus reported on here reflects real-life language use needs. The first chapter is introductory. The second elaborates…

A guide to setting objectives for foreign language instruction provides a model for specifying comprehensive objectives and a discussion of their nature and educational implications. It follows up on the suggestions made in the "Threshold Level" series begun in 1975 with more complex specifications. Chapters define aims and objectives, examine the…

Use of authentic content-based videotape recordings to integrate content with English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction and English for academic purposes in college-level courses is discussed, particularly as it is relevant to the Japanese university context. Focus is on adaptation of techniques used in the United States for sheltered…

The time to make positive changes in foreign language education programs and instruction has come. The first step in effecting change is to find out about the students' language backgrounds, interests, and intentions for their language skills. Language instruction can take many different emphases: foreign language and international studies,…