The objective of the procedure outlined in this article is to introduce new items, bring the learner to the point of being able to integrate these items in his approximative competence and so extend his ability to the production of extended discourse. Lesson transcripts document the use of the procedure. (Author/CFM)

After a discussion of some important impulses that language teaching has received recently, a way is described by which the capacity for meeting communication and information needs through the foreign language can be developed. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This discussion is divided into three parts: (1) [native] language acquisition versus [second] language learning, (2) successful language learning, and (3) teaching strategies (grammar-translation, direct, cognitive and cognitive habit-formation). (KM)

While most foreign language programs list communicative language use as a primary goal, classroom tests seldom reflect this objective but rather focus on discrete-point linguistic competence. The authors present a model of the communication process and point to the main task in constructing tests of communicative competence: devising simulated…

Rejects the assumptions which underlie the audiolingual method and offers two alternative propositions: (1) successful use of language requires the acquisition of communicative as well as linguistic competence and (2) first and second language learning are analogous processes. (Author/FB)

Secondary students of French interviewed a researcher posing as a French speaker. Error patterns and structures used were analyzed. Many errors were apparently due to interference; many others were apparently the result of reduction processes. Results suggested that errors might be corrected in terms of comprehensibility to a native speaker.…

Language teaching typically reflects current research, and, until quite recently, grammatical competence (e.g., in the Chomskyan sense) was the major target of linguistic research. Emphasizing the spoken language, the term "fluency," as applied to the foreign language performance of a language learner, is correlated to foreign language…

Prior to the development of modern sociolinguistics the immediate contribution of linguistics to society as a whole was negligible. Without the further development of sociolinguistics, the situation will not change radically. In order to arrive at a more useful system of linguistics, linguists must realize that this situation does not result…

Assumptions and conclusions concerning language teaching at the advanced undergraduate level are presented, and suggestions of both general attitudes and practical activities to implement the conclusions are proposed. Although the practical experience and all examples are drawn from the teaching of French, the principles and methods should be…

Three papers intended as preliminary studies to bilingual professional curriculum development are included. "Speech Acts and Discourse Analysis," by Terry McCoy, represents an introduction to discourse analysis as a tool for the language teacher. The notion of a typology of speech acts is set forth, and models of discourse analysis by…

This paper attempts to characterize what seem to be key movements in the teaching of EFL at various levels in Europe. These movements reveal that semantic approaches to language teaching are widespread. Recent research into the effectiveness of teaching methods has demonstrated how difficult it is to show whether audiolingual or cognitive code…

The language teacher must provide a variety of activities in the classroom in which the student can use the second language in unrehearsed, novel situations requiring, on his part, inventiveness, resourcefulness and self-assurance. There should be less emphasis on linguistic accuracy and more on truly spontaneous and creative language. In the…

In the first part of this paper several theories on the subject of communicative competence are examined. Part 2 is devoted to a discussion of how a teacher can test for communicative competence, and the practicality of this type of testing, in terms of class time, equipment required and objective grading, is emphasized. Part 3 summarizes a number…

This paper reviews the history of contrastive analysis (CA) against the background of its objectives and its present problems and presents an outline of procedures which seem to be necessary to make the methods meet the objectives of applied CA. CA in the United States was closely connected with structuralism, which was an obvious cause for later…

Besides lack of motivation and insufficient time allowed for foreign language study, one reason for the failure to develop communicative competence in second language students lies in the methodology. Until recently, most second language pedagogy has centered on linguistic competence, or knowledge of how to communicate in a language. Research in…