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…

For the past ten years, I have been using a basic framework to help my students grasp question and answer structures. I find that this enables them to develop their language skills quickly and increases their confidence in their conversational ability. Without mastering questions, learners can't even get to first base in terms of making a…

Continuing a theme introduced in the 6/73 issue, utterance types productive of active response (agreement, confirmation, emphasis, supplement, information, appraisal, position-taking, offering of proof) and designed to lead to ability to make free conversation are suggested. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Illustrates techniques of stimulating classroom discussion in language courses through imaginative use of poetry. (RL)

This course in spoken Greek is intended for use in introductory conversational Greek classes. Book I in the two-volume series is divided into two major parts, each containing five learning units and one unit devoted to review. Each unit contains sections including (1) basic sentences, (2) word study and review of basic sentences, (3) listening…

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

This course in spoken Serbo-Croatian is intended for use in introductory conversational classes. Book I in the two-volume series is divided into two major parts, each containing five learning units and one unit devoted to review. Each unit contains sections including (1) basic sentences, (2) word study and review of basic sentences, (3) listening…

This course in spoken Finnish is intended for use in introductory conversational classes. Book I and Book II, combined in this text, are divided into five major parts, each containing five learning units and one unit devoted to review. Each unit contains sections including (1) basic sentences, (2) word study and review of basic sentences, (3)…

This course in colloquial Dutch was originally prepared for use by American Armed Forces personnel who needed to develop a working command of the spoken language in a short period of time. Thirty-one lessons, based on activities common to Dutch culture, are contained in the text. Each lesson provides three parallel columns of sentences: the…

This course in spoken Malay is intended for use in introductory conversational classes. Book I in the two-volume series is divided into two parts, each containing five learning units and one unit devoted to review. Each unit contains sections including (1) basic sentences, (2) hints on pronunciation, (3) listening comprehension exercises, and (4)…

This course in spoken Japanese is intended for use in introductory conversational classes. This text is divided into two major parts, each containing five learning units and one unit devoted to review. Each unit contains sections including (1) basic sentence and pronunciation practice, (2) grammar notes and exercises, and (3) conversation…

Six units of instructional materials in conversational Spanish are presented. The audiolingual course is designed to be completed in 90 to 120 hours and intended to be used with a set of correlated tape recordings which may be purchased from the School for International Training. Lessons contain a variety of structured exercises including (1)…