Translating current principles of language learning into effective classroom practice requires a nuanced understanding of the cognitive and social factors that shape how learners engage in instructional activity. In this paper, we identify four principles that represent a current theoretical consensus in the field, which we hope will guide…

Presents a method which draws upon students' imagination, creativity, and associative abilities and engages them in the language learning process. (Author/AM)

A foreign language learning activity is described in which second-through fourth-year French students write, cast, produce, direct and perform well-known fables for their language classes. The performances are recorded on videotape and shown to other classes and to parents. (Author/RM)

A description of the twenty learning center units for advanced classes developed by the French and Spanish teacher-participants. Learning centers permit students to work independently at well-defined tasks. The units deal with housing, shopping, cooking, transportation, sports, fiestas, literature, history, architecture, painting, and music.…

Describes the efforts made at one school to provide language students with contacts with international visitors. (KM)

Presents techniques from Writing Across the Curriculum adapted to the foreign language classroom. Strategies for encouraging students to write more effectively in the foreign language are described. The strategies include assigning relevant topics, treating writing as a process, and responding to and evaluating student writing in a more…

Describes how foreign stamps can be collected, catalogued, photographed, and arranged in thematic areas in order to be incorporated into a language curriculum or culture cluster. (Author/AM)

Describes a method, developed to make vocabulary learning a creative challenge, that consists of a four-step learning process that makes the student responsible for selecting words to learn daily. (Author/AM)

This article states that affective learning is important to prevent boredom and stimulate language use. Use of affective learning activities in the language classroom is outlined and a teaching technique, the open-ended sentence is described as a method that elicits responses charged with personal opinions, feelings and humor. (CHK)

Explores various aspects of the functional-notional textbook or syllabus. This is a concept originating with the Council of Europe that involves the organization of a textbook or syllabus according to the notions or functions that a learner hopes to be able to express. (RM)

Examples of worksheets are given and their use discussed in teaching an audiolingual course in French on the junior and senior high school levels. Activities on the worksheets involve auditory discrimination and reading and writing skills. Tape recordings are used. (RM)

Factors contributing to the development of successful early childhood foreign language programs are considered within a specific context. Grouping procedures, curriculum design, hierarchies of language learning experiences, affective learning processes, and instructional materials are discussed. (SW)

Suggestopaedia is defined as the application of the principles of suggestology (the science of suggestion) to teaching. The main principles of this system and their pedagogical application are briefly described. (Author/EJS)

Foreign language teachers need a reservoir of techniques designed to dispel misconceptions students may have about poetry and to lead them step-by-step into its study. This article presents learning experiences of such a nature and illustrations for teachers to help them devise activities. (Author/SW)

Describes the immersion experiences developed by one high school to involve foreign language students in speaking the target language over a period of hours or days. Experiences ranged from an afternoon of language games and a party for first-level students to a weekend involving 165 people from 13 schools. (KM)