This paper describes and explains a classroom exercise in French translation, with a view to promoting translation as an integral part of language instruction, particularly at the third-year college level when the student can be expected to have acquired an advanced knowledge of the parts of speech, of the grammatical distribution and their…

A disjuncture between Ontario high schools and universities in the aims of their German language programs has become apparent in the last few years. In the high schools, the methods used in language classes have been fundamentally audiolingual, whereas in the universities, the emphasis has been on reading literature, with classroom analysis…

This Middlebury College summer 1974 commencement address is an informal presentation of the author's experiences as a language learner. The effectiveness of such pedagogical methods as the grammar-translation, audio-lingual, and "balanced" approaches, and of language learning with the aid of an informant, is discussed. It is concluded that, given…

Translators and teachers of foreign languages need each other: translators need formal academic training and recognition and teachers of foreign languages need students. Unfortunately, translators know only too well that most FL teachers are not competent translators, and FL Departments generally consider translation as an activity beneath the…

Grammatical transfer is used to render the values and meanings of the structures in Romanian pronouns into English. This device can be used in explaining the exact nuances of Romanian pronouns to speakers of English. In translating from English to Romanian, a special problem is presented by the pronoun "you," which in Romanian can take…

This paper concerns the practice of adopting literature in translation courses and civilization courses taught in English as a way of increasing foreign language enrollments at the undergraduate level. The need for cooperation between English and foreign language departments in coordinating courses is stressed, and several course titles are…

This paper describes a program at the Technical University of Budapest which is designed primarily to teach scientific English while at the same time improving everyday conversational English. The program combines the traditional textbook method and a new method whereby students in the first term read and translate technical material on a homework…

This paper questions the practical application of the audiovisual method in FL instruction in Belgian secondary schools. Some of the reasons for the lack of success of the audiolingual method are given as: the large size of the classes; the young age and poor motivation of the students; the small number of weekly hours devoted to FL instruction;…

Error analysis concerns the investigation of negative influences on the foreign language learning process. Errors are usually thought of as caused by interference from the native language to the target language. In this article it is shown that interference occurs in the other direction as well, i.e. from language 2 to language 1. Jakobovits has…

When Loyola University dropped its foreign language requirement in 1971, another requirement took its place. Students are now required to take three courses in literature, one of which is to be a course in a literature not originally written in English. Introductory courses (called Masterpieces courses) in French, German, Spanish, and Russian…

After presenting evidence that there is a wide gap between teaching a language and translating a language, reasons for proposing a program in Russian translation are offered. The proposed program for Iowa State University will be selective in admission of undergraduate Russian majors. The program will lead to a certificate in conjunction with the…

In a recent paper (1977) Levenston and Blum suggested that lexical simplification operates according to universal principles, and that these derive from the individual's semantic competence in his mother tongue. This paper examines the validity of this suggestion by means of a comparative study of lexical simplification in three different…

This paper presents historical information about language teaching methods and focuses on "formal" and "functional" strategies of teaching and learning. Particular attention is directed toward the immersion type of education. A table that lists developments in language teaching theory from 1840-1977 is presented. A table that summarizes…

The paper reports some of the results of a preliminary survey of the language proficiency of matriculation students of French in Britain and Australia. The technique used (especially the use of Chief Examiners' reports) is justified and the deficiencies that exist in current matriculation examinations are noted. In particular, the examinations are…

On the theory that a large part of children's learning comes from their peers, a successful, innovative tutorial system has been initiated for ESL (English as a second language) junior high school students. Bilingual eighth and ninth grade honor students representing the languages spoken by the ESL students are recruited to help tutor…