Higher education institutions often pair native speakers with English as a second and foreign language learners to encourage oral conversation practice. Born out of such circumstances, the current investigation, drawing upon the activity theory perspective, examined the plausibility of native-speaking conversation partners providing oral…

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…

Describes conversational language course of exercises designed to single out mistakes students kept making in language lab and concentrate on exercises to correct them to enrich English with more complex structures not used by students spontaneously. Method can be used to proceed from closed to open conversation exercises. (Author/BK)

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)

Presents procedure for designing a course in directed conversation in a second language, including choosing topics and developing workbooks that become the psychologically accepted replacement for an official text and a tool for the teacher. Gives two sample units. (Author/BK)

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)

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

Describes an approach to Russian conversation courses at the undergraduate level. (PMP)

Reports on a pilot project which used an imaginary tour of an Italian city as the basis for conversation exercises. (AM)

Showcases how several English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructors at a large, Midwestern university dealt with computer assisted language learning and successfully incorporated hands-on, student-directed Hyperstudio computer activities in their ESL conversation courses. (Author/VWL)

Describes the undergraduate internship in conversation at New Mexico State University, a course which attempts to improve the oral communication of basic language classes. The course offers undergraduates opportunities to hold conversations with more advanced undergraduates in weekly meetings. In order to make the class nonthreatening, neither…

This study investigates closing patterns for an institutional conversation in an ELP (English Language Program) at a university in the United States, noting the relationship between the closing patterns of the participants and their level of proficiency in English. By indicating that ESL learners, especially beginners, face difficulty in closing…

Five directions foreign language departments should explore in the 1980s in order to revitalize their programs include uniting foreign language and international studies, cross-cultural studies, teaching process of communication, career preparation, and language for humanistic studies. (BK)

Describes the suggestopedic method and an experiment using it in an American college elementary language class. The class organization, the way suggestopedia works, the classroom program, and results of suggestopedic courses are discussed. (AMH)

Examines the differences between explicit and implicit methods of teaching grammar in a university's advanced French conversation classes. Students taught explicitly performed better overall (in writing and orally) than students who were exposed to an implicit presentation of the same grammar content. (CB)