"The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success," a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or…

Promoting learner autonomy is relevant in the field of applied linguistics due to the multiple benefits it brings to the process of learning a new language. However, despite the vast array of research on how to foster autonomy in the language classroom, it is difficult to find step-by-step processes to design syllabi and curricula focused on the…

A change in language laboratory use at the University of North Alabama has given new meaning to the lab requirement and role. While developing a language program, the developer reviewed the language lab's traditional role and found a mixed history with many negative aspects. Personal experience also revealed problems, including: students and…

Argues that video material for foreign language teaching should be designed to serve as model for immediate language production and not just for listening comprehension and culture. Describes some classroom strategies for use with video instruction. (EKN)

Stories are recounted about students enrolled in an intermediate level intensive English program at a university. The stories show how classroom pedagogy can transform students' negative perceptions about their abilities and result in their empowerment as writers. (Contains six references.) (LB)

This detailed guide is for new teaching assistants (T.A.'s) teaching elementary French at the college level. Individual sections address the following topics: (1) the first day of class (including forms to be distributed to students); (2) written exams (policies regarding contributions, exam procedures, and corrections); (3) oral exam of the…

A French writing workshop used at the university level in Japan to enhance French language instruction is described. The exercises, in which students write Haiku and minimalist poetry in French, stress such aspects of language use as associations, connotations, and creative word use. Several exercise types are described. (MSE)

This study presents a model for teaching a French conversation course on the college level. The research is based on French language classes in Quebec general education and professional colleges (CEGEP). The first part states the problem, examines several programs, describes the organization of the conversation classes, presents several language…

A university second language program using associative learning and context to enhance retention of words, expressions, and structures is described. Observed results of this situational approach are discussed. (MSE)

A self-paced introductory French course sequence offered at Francis Marion College (South Carolina) was begun in response to nontraditional students' difficult study schedules and varied language backgrounds and knowledge levels. This program of individualized instruction has objectives identical to that of standard French instruction at the same…

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…

Part IV of the proceedings includes five presentations. They are: "Pitfalls in Teaching Business Language Courses and How to Avoid Them" (Margit Resch); "Achieving Active Student Participation in the Business Foreign Language Course" (John Holley); "Business Language Components for Various Levels of Foreign Language…

An innovative foreign language methodology, " Read-and-Speak," was tried in a year-long pilot section of beginning French. The method involves: (1) massive easy readings assigned from the outset; (2) speaking the foreign language from the start; (3) delaying formal grammar instruction until April, when an entire introductory text is…

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…

A college-level introductory Spanish instructional system uses an interactive combination of microcomputer and program-stop tape recorder to enhance students' listening skills. The basic content is listening drills, adapted to the computer medium. Microcomputer use adds considerable versatility to instructional materials, including such features…