French immersion (FI) programs in Canada have historically served predominantly Canadian-born, English-speaking students and families in their endeavour to learn both of the country's official languages, French and English. However, FI programs are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse as a result of increased global…

The vocabulary research of the 1980s and 1990s brought a breath of fresh air into the language classroom. Teachers in many remote EFL locations had long suspected that vocabulary was their learners' main challenge, but there was little research evidence to confirm this or say what to do about it. Then, suddenly, work by Nation, Laufer, Meara,…

Tracey Derwing and Ron Thomson reflect on the growth of Canadian L2 pronunciation research from the early 1990s onward. Although many phoneticians and language educators called for pronunciation instruction (PI) for decades, in the early 1980s little empirical research existed to inform pronunciation pedagogy, despite an influx of Vietnamese…

British Columbia (BC), Canada, is home to 34 Indigenous languages, all of them classified as endangered. Considerable work is underway by First Nation communities to revitalize their languages. Linguists classify many of the languages of BC as polysynthetic, meaning that words are composed of many morphemes, or units of meaning. While strong…

It is argued that the demise of traditional language teaching methods is due to their incompatibility with the dual nature of the brain's organization. The concept of neural "bimodality," with brain hemispheres receiving incoming stimuli in tandem, not separately, is described as a basis for discussion of brain-compatible language teaching. 63…

The contributions of the originator of the Natural Approach to second-language learning are described. (Author/LB)

The differential usage of negative forms in French and English is analyzed. French-speakers tend to use negatives often, as in negative questions and impersonal phrases. Study of translations also shows that many words with a positive equivalent in French are translated by a negative word or phrase. (five references) (Author/MSE)

A study of the feminization of personal titles in French is reported, and teaching materials based on the findings are suggested for use in college-level intermediate or advanced language classes. The objective is to help language learners understand the phenomenon of feminization and its practical implications. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the need to incorporate form-focused activities into second-language communication instruction, and suggests pedagogical strategies for doing so. Provides examples of tasks that may help realize this goal. Examines relevant empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such tasks. (Author/MSE)

Explores the phenomenon of second language speech fluency and how it may be facilitated through instruction. An overview of research on fluency in second language speech is presented; empirical research is discussed in light of psycholinguistic knowledge about mental processes underlying second language production, and a model is posited that…

Describes a technique for teaching the French prepositions "a and de" by explaining the syntactic process implicit in verbs that are followed by those prepositions. Outlines sentence structure based on several verb types. (MSE)

Current colloquial use of the simple past and present perfect shows a tendency of the former to encroach on the semantic field of the latter so that the two may be used in free variation in many contexts. The contexts in which this is not possible are defined, and implications for teaching English as a second language are discussed. (MSE)

Argues that oral grammar correction in second-language classrooms produces overwhelming problems both in making corrections and dealing with their harmful side effects, and that the practice should be discontinued. Research evidence suggests that oral correction does not improve learners' ability to speak grammatically, and no good reasons have…

In response to a published study of second-language input processing and processing instruction, a relatively new concept in language teaching, misinterpretations of theoretical and conceptual issues are pointed out and methodological concerns about the study are discussed. (MSE)

This article argues that "triadic dialogue" (Lemke, 1990), much criticized in the past, has an important role to play in L2 learning and that its effectiveness should be judged in accordance with the particular pedagogical goals that it is made to serve. Drawing on three recent studies of L2 classrooms in a variety of instructional settings, the…