Parents of children in elementary and secondary school foreign language programs want to know what outcomes they can expect from the programs and how they can support and encourage their children's language study. Learning outcomes vary with program goals. Program types include immersion, partial immersion, foreign language in elementary schools…

The curriculum guide for Alberta's nine-year French language program, which spans grades 4 through 12, includes the following components: a set of objectives reflecting the province's goals of basic education and a rationale to support the inclusion of French in a school program; specification of minimum expectations for each language skill…

This teaching guide for second language instruction in North Carolina public schools outlines a competency-based program and provides specific guidelines for both modern languages and Latin. The introductory section provides an overview of the competency-based educational program, which includes information on philosophy and rationale, thinking…

States that it is common for international schools to take ever-younger children into early-childhood programs, unaware of the possible negative effects of doing so without mother-tongue support. Urges schools to examine their admissions practices as well as the research available on successful foreign-language acquisition in younger children. (NB)

States that making simple comparisons of test results between different schools, countries, or subjects can often produce misleading results. Illustrates the kinds of problems that can arise by investigating the results obtained by candidates from Egypt in Cambridge International Examinations' June 1998 International General Certificate of…

Issues in children's language learning, particularly as it relates to learning English as a Second Language (ESL), are discussed. The book is intended as a practical resource for regular or ESL teachers. The first chapter looks at the processes by which and conditions in which children become bilingual, both at home and in school. The second…

This issue of an annual publication on second language teaching contains nine articles. All but one of the these is written in French; each paper, however, is preceded by an English-language abstract. The articles are as follows: "Des cultures, des pubs" ("Cultures, Advertising") (Sophie Bailly, Isabelle Tolle);…

A teaching handbook accompanying North Carolina's revised competency-based curriculum for second language instruction in elementary and secondary schools is presented. An introductory section outlines the philosophy and rationale behind the curriculum and its revision, discusses the role of thinking skills in learning, briefly describes programs…

This unit was created as a result of a summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The Center's goal is to improve student learning of foreign languages in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). To this end, the Center provides professional support for foreign language…

This unit was created as a result of a summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The Center's goal is to improve student learning of foreign languages in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). To this end, the Center provides professional support for foreign language…