Many teachers feel that the primary goal of language education is the development of communicative rather than linguistic competence. This shift in focus has affected syllabus design. However, no single syllabus appears satisfactory by itself. The grammatical syllabus is effective to instill in learners automatic production of accurate structural…

A discussion, in French, of second language grammar instruction looks at the differences between a traditional linguistic approach to grammar learning, used less and less with the advent of communicative language teaching methods, and a sociolinguistic approach, which focuses more closely on the sociocultural context of functional variants of a…

An adult continuing education course in introductory Spanish is described. In planning the course, special attention was given to making course objectives realistic for the target population; rather than undertake a traditional college-level syllabus, academic and grammar-oriented in nature, the course was designed to provide students with basic…

The Alberta (Canada) teaching guide for French native language instruction in the early elementary school years (grades 1-3) is intended as a resource for classroom teachers. Its objective is to help teachers integrate notional content and meaningful communicative activities, both oral and written. Introductory sections discuss the guiding…

The Alberta (Canada) teaching guide for French native language instruction in the later elementary school years (grades 4-6) is intended as a resource for classroom teachers. Its objective is to help teachers integrate notional content and meaningful communicative activities, both oral and written. Introductory sections discuss the guiding…

A conceptual and practical structure for designing a local native language and culture curriculum for preschool through grade 9 is presented. The first section outlines the program's philosophy, rationale, and general and specific learner expectations, and offers an overview of the suggested linguistic and cultural content of such a program. The…

Three issues of the journal "TEAM" are presented. Each issue contains feature articles, a section on teaching techniques, book reviews, English Language Center news items, and announcements. The articles in these three issues deal with the following topics: the freshman English course at the University of Minerals and Petroleum, a course in…

A functional approach to language teaching begins with knowing how students intend to use the foreign language for specific purposes and in specific situations. Instructors of medical Spanish can begin by determining the specific language functions that their students must be able to express when communicating with Hispanic patients, by means of a…