The language teaching profession should avoid discussing reasons to study a foreign language because the tendency is to invent shallow reasons. The deeper reasons for offering a language are derived from a general appreciation of the value of culture and education. Those are the lures that attracted teachers to the profession in the first place.…

A rationale is presented for describing the communicative competence of language students in terms of proficiency guidelines. Techniques are discussed for helping students develop communicative proficiency in the four skill areas (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and for evaluating students' proficiency levels in relation to…

Interest in foreign language education is growing rapidly, linked to increased concern about international trade and international relations and a general interest in educational quality. The foreign language profession in the 1980s is committed to the development of proficiency-oriented curricula and instruction and the production of proficient…

In the first half of this century, language learning was considered essential in an individual's education, and language study was seen as improving native language comprehension and use, promoting higher levels skill development, and developing discipline. At the time, the training offered, generally in passive language skills, was appropriate…

A discussion of the role of second language proficiency assessment in the evaluation of language programs argues that for four reasons, the use of proficiency is inappropriate as a central element in evaluation. The reasons are: (1) the construct of proficiency has not been operationalized in a way that enables it to be used usefully; (2)…

The University of Southwestern Louisiana initiated a commercial Spanish curriculum to serve the growing number of students in the business school. Two major factors were considered: (1) most business students had only taken language classes as electives and were concerned about the career relevance of those courses, and (2) language courses had to…

The College Board's recent report on academic preparation for college calls for foreign language proficiencies to be developed in secondary education. The needed proficiencies are outlined more specifically in a special booklet that also offers teachers practical suggestions for achieving them. The process of integrating language proficiency goals…

While a broad range of tests is available for second language testing, two of the basic approaches are developmental and non-developmental testing. The former is based on psycholinguistic evidence that language development is systematic, with all learners progressing through the same stages. The latter includes content selected in an ad hoc…

The curriculum guide outline (CGO) developed for the Richland School District One (Columbia, South Carolina) represents a structured effort to coordinate the curriculum across disciplines. The CGO is an outline that guides the total curriculum content of a course and states the level of mastery acceptable for course credit. It has five components…

A guide for teachers developing a high school Latin curriculum provides a rationale, structure, and method for course planning at four difficulty levels. The approach is based on seven subject matter goals and specific instructional objectives for each, which are appended. The goals are: to help students (1) understand simple Latin syntax; (2)…

Communicative proficiency, defined as native-like ability to use the language as a medium of two-way communication, is most effectively and efficiently achieved through instruction emphasizing development of listening and reading comprehension skills, and virtually excluding training in production. The comprehension approach avoids the teaching of…

The oral proficiency interview, a one-to-one conversational interview structured to elicit the best performance the student can sustain, is based on a scale and test developed 30 years ago by the Foreign Service Institute. Interest in it has increased substantially in recent years, and further research and development of the measure for use in a…

The demand for an improved international dimension in American education is a move in the right direction, and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and Educational Testing Service efforts in defining foreign language proficiency guidelines and developing a reliable mechanism for testing oral proficiency have resulted in…

Florida is experiencing a renaissance in foreign language study through more substantial curriculum and admission and graduation requirements in secondary and higher education. The increase has resulted in a critical shortage of foreign language teachers, to which the state has responded with a program of incentives, financial aid, and rigorous…

This paper describes the functional-notional approach to language teaching and learning in terms of the ways it can be used to meet the communicative needs of the potential language learners, particularly adults, who vary in what they want to do in the target language. It contrasts the functional system with conventional approaches, illustrates…