This article addresses the questions: why is the development of conversational competence important within higher education? And how might this goal be pursued? We offer answers that may aid a broad range of stakeholders (language learners, course designers, lecturers, language development managers, and policy makers) in thinking through these…

Tasks can vary in terms of difficulty and implementation conditions, and these in turn may affect the nature of the language produced by the learner. There have been a large number of studies which have investigated the effects of these task properties and implementation conditions on the language the learner produces. To date, results have been…

This presentation is a case study of the Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) development of Mark, one of ten American students engaged in a desktop-videoconferencing telecollaborative exchange with a class of French students. Due in part to its inherent complexity, this context has not been widely researched. To observe ICC development, I…

Presents an argument in favor of using de Tocqueville as a point of departure for French conversation classes for advanced undergraduate students. Gives samples of questions prompted by readings of de Tocqueville. (BK)

An approach to perfecting French language skills, "Mon francaise, je m'n occupe," is described. (LB)

Describes a 1978 experiment in which French conversations (among advanced students of French) were transmitted by satellite from Hawaii to other locations in the Pacific. (AM)

Suggests activities in a foreign language classroom to develop language skills and listening comprehension through conversations. (DS)

Discusses research in listening comprehension and proposes model for listening comprehension activities in college French conversation courses. (BK)

The author used a movie poster to initiate three weekly exercise sessions. The first concentrated on types of posters and notices, the ways they may be mounted, and how that activity may be described. The second phase was description of the poster's subject. The third concerned the myths and symbols and emotional qualities of the drama portrayed.…

A great variety of authentic cultural elements may be introduced in the foreign language classroom, not at the expense of language learning but as an interrelated system. (Author)

Discusses the use of French mail-order catalogues as pedagogical aids, specifically in teaching French culture, vocabulary, and conversation. (AM)

Describes and gives examples of "chatter chain," a method of teaching pupils to develop their French oral skills from a single question and answer that lead to a short conversation. This method combines the main linguistic structures to be learned with enought new grammar to allow a fair degree of pupil choice. (SED)

A teaching experiment conducted in France among American university students and French workers to provide the students with practical experience in utilizing French. (DS)