In this article, the authors describe the redesign of a first-semester Spanish course at the United States Air Force Academy due to the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent transition from traditional, face-to-face instruction to fully online language teaching during the fall of 2020. More than 200 learners were enrolled across 11 course sections…

This paper describes one approach to focusing on Connections, one of the five Cs from the World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, as a means of exposing introductory language students to culturally diverse authentic texts through drama-based pedagogy. Our approach focuses on an instructor working within an established departmental…

Since its insertion in 1998, Kigali Institute of Education, currently known as College of Education under the University of Rwanda, henceforth "The University of Rwanda-College of Education (UR-CE)?, it`s first mission has been training and producing teachers for secondary schools in Rwanda. To a certain extent, bearing in mind that Rwanda…

This article discusses principles involved in developing course materials for technology-mediated Chinese language learning, with examples from a new course designed to take into account the needs of distance and independent learners. Which learning environment is most efficient for a given learning activity needs to be carefully considered. It…

The field of English as a second language has gone through a number of changes in the last decades and has seen extreme adjustments throughout the methods of teaching and curriculum planning. This article finds the relevance of the old methods to the new methods. After providing the background it becomes apparent that almost all the older methods…

Language is seen as a system for communicative purposes and as such it involves more than just a structural organization. Indeed this view of language considers different kinds of competence which make communication really meaningful: linguistic, sociolinguistic discourse, and strategic. Linguistic competence is what we usually regard as the basis…

Presents a language syllabus containing approximately 120 items that represents an easily achievable goal for people wishing to visit a foreign country for a month or more. Advice for learning the items in the syllabus is provided. (15 references) (GLR)

Focuses on the development of criteria for the design, implementation, and evaluation of English as a second language grammar teaching and learning tasks within the communicative curriculum by providing a working definition of grammar and drawing implications for task development. (Author/CB)

The role of the syllabus in second language teaching is described, distinguishing six major types of syllabi and how they might be implemented in various teaching situations. The foreign language teaching syllabus involves both the integration of subject matter (what to talk about) and linguistic matter (how to talk about it). Choices of syllabi…

Three communication courses for nonnative English speaking pharmacy students at the University of Maryland, Mercer University, and the University of Southern California are described. (Author/MLW)

This paper describes an experience for professionals based on an intensive 1-week language immersion course that has been offered in Akron, Ohio and Denver, Colorado. The course has been designed for professionals at the intermediate level in French and Spanish. The course requires that participants have acquired the basic grammatical structures…

The structure of a course designed to teach oral communicative competence is outlined, and the approach to evaluation is discussed. Evaluation includes both a criterion test and a specific oral task that students must accomplish. (MSE)

The stages of development of an adult communicative course in French are outlined, including the principles used in course content selection, structural progression, and the means found for encouraging student participation. The primary influence for the course came from the Council of Europe and experience with adult students. (Author/MSE)

Topics for conversation courses include conversational rules and structure, conversational strategies, functions and meaning in conversation, and social and cultural contexts. The direct teaching of conversational skills involves adding specific language input, increasing the role of consciousness raising, and sequencing communicative tasks…

Attempts to infer a standard definition of language skills as they relate to English for academic purposes, focusing on the four traditional skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Skills may or may not include language functions and structures, and they usually imply tasks. (Author/CB)