Four American professors formed a team to provide instruction in English as a second language (ESL) to university professors in the People's Republic of China. Participants received 180 hours of instruction in ESL methodology and English language skills based on individual approaches that covered the Silent Way, Community Language Learning, and…

Among the justifications for using games in foreign language teaching, one finds the theory that games play an important role in the instructional and learning processes and that they can be designed to develop linguistic skills and communicative abilities. A review of several authors not only suggests the value of games and game-like activities…

An experimental program in California may offer a potential answer to the nation's acute need for bilingual teachers. In the 1960s and 1970s the number of limited- and non-English-speaking students expanded rapidly, especially among the Hispanic and Asian-Filipino populations. Students with such English-language problems are more likely to drop…

The principal essay, by James E. Harf, describes the state of the art and prescriptions for the future in undergraduate international studies. It points out that undergraduates at some prestigious research-oriented universities and at small, prestigious liberal arts colleges have exposure to international education, but that at the overwhelming…

A college-level Spanish language teacher developed a textbook for fourth-graders that supported the audiolingual approach and was based on American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Guidelines. Subject and vocabulary areas covered in the textbook included: salutations, the alphabet, numbers, colors, days of the week,…

Describes a course, offered by Michigan Technological University, designed to increase the intercultural communication skills of American postsecondary students. Activities include readings and movies illustrating cross-cultural conflicts; application of a model to a cross-cultural case study; panel discussion; and cultural simulation. (Author/CB)

Describes materials and activities used by Tarrant County (Texas) Junior College, Northeast Campus, in its conversation classes for high school students as well as for its own students and career-ladder credit conversation courses for foreign language teachers. (Author/CB)

The Albuquerque Language Teachers Association's strategy for increasing public awareness of and support for second-language education has three components: (1) identifying goals; (2) defining projects; and (3) publicizing projects. (Author/CB)

A college course used an explicit intercultural approach and collective research activities to compare French and American cultures and to examine the reasons for cultural attitudes and culture conflict. Class assignments dealt with contrastive analyses of American and French institutions like advertising, cinema, feminism, etc. (MSE)

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…

The development of an oral language proficiency rating scale for use in evaluating New Brunswick's junior and senior high school students' core French program achievement is described and discussed. (MSE)

Describes courses that were developed for travel industry management degree programs to teach French, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin. Discusses the development of these programs, focusing on the Japanese courses. Explains the type of background information that was collected prior to developing materials for the first- and second-year Japanese…

A college French civilization course based on the important role of television in French contemporary culture, as formative of cultural habits, and on its similar importance to contemporary American students is described. (MSE)

An Air Force Academy German department study of the effectiveness of computer-assisted language instruction using interactive videodisc technology is reported. It was found that the limiting factor was not the technology but the available software, and the advantage over videotapes is the time saved in not having to find tape locations. (MSE)

This paper tells the story of Dr. J. Marvin Brown's life as a linguist and physicist in his quest to develop the means for adult, second language fluency. This is a combination of his auto-biography, which provides the context, and the lessons he learned in his 50 years as linguist, and language teacher. Brown's experiences indicate that adults…