Presents a method for managing and teaching oral presentation in the conversational foreign language class. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the potential of conversational simulations for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and reasons why this potential is largely untapped. Topics discussed include artificial intelligence; microworlds; parsing; realism versus reality in computer software; intelligent tutoring systems; and criteria to clarify what kinds of CALL…

Examines the impact of the workshop in oral proficiency testing organized by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Illinois Foreign Language Teachers Association. The workshops were designed to train college professors to administer oral interviews to rate the level of oral proficiency of foreign language speakers. (SED)

Showcases how several English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructors at a large, Midwestern university dealt with computer assisted language learning and successfully incorporated hands-on, student-directed Hyperstudio computer activities in their ESL conversation courses. (Author/VWL)

Features excerpts from selected articles that reflect major trends in English language teaching during the past 40 years. The four articles selected here focus on games that motivate students, guidelines for a conversation class, understanding language change, and the humanistic approach. (Author/VWL)

Describes an advanced conversational Spanish language course based on community experiences, multicultural education, and collaborative research taught at the University of Santa Clara in California. The class combined authentic materials with real-life experiences. (Author/VWL)

Reviews research on proficiency levels attained by foreign language students, and describes an advanced Russian conversation course, which is geared toward students who have achieved intermediate-mid or intermediate-high oral proficiency and who are striving towards advanced level speech according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign…

Describes the establishment of a course for long-distance learners in Korea. Students studying English conversation who left school to work in other cities finished their course via telephone. (Author/VWL)

In response to the growing Hispanic population in Dade County Florida and the resultant need for the English-speaking businessperson to be conversant in Spanish, Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) developed and produced a non-traditional, conversational approach to Spanish instruction. In Miami, where Hispanics account for almost 60% of the…

Talk is proposed as the subject matter of foreign language courses. The key to acquiring liberated expression lies in the assimilation of the learner to the target culture. Once he/she is assimilated, the learner's involvement in a situation matches the involvement of natives of the target culture. For example, faced with some life circumstance…

An adult immersion program in the Mohawk language took place in an Iroquois community in southern Ontario. The class was limited to 12 students who had taken a readiness course that introduced them to basic grammar and vocabulary. The class met daily in the relaxed setting of a house. The preparation and sharing of meals, the presence of fluent…

Papers in this volume on individualized instruction in foreign languages include: (1) "Individualized Instruction and 'Back to Basics': Are They Compatible?" by Howard B. Altman; (2) "Individualized Instruction in French at Northwestern University" by Margaret Sinclair Breslin; (3) "An Individualized French Program for…