While many studies have documented the growth of second language abilities and intercultural knowledge as a result of participating in telecollaboration, research has not sufficiently investigated the development of content knowledge in this learning context. In response, this study explores content learning in a university-level, genre-based…

Previous research on foreign language classroom participation has shown that oral production has a privileged status compared to less salient forms of participation, such as mental involvement and engagement in class activities. This mixed-methods study presents an alternative look at classroom participation by investigating the relationship…

This research study documents the journey of two modern language faculty (Spanish and German) from their original beliefs that teaching foreign languages can only be conducted in a face-to-face format to their eventual development of an online class using Web 2.0 technologies to encourage their students' active skills of reading and speaking in…

Recent years have seen the emergence of Web2.0, in which users are not only passive recipients of the featured content, but actively engaged in constructing it. Sites such as "Facebook" and "Myspace" are typical examples of this, as are blogs that allow users to present themselves online, to write about their daily lives or even to establish…

To establish preliminary baselines in terms of instruction time and the teaching methodology used, the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview was administered as a final exam to all University of Michigan first- through fourth-semester German students. After one and also after three semesters, the majority of students were Intermediate Mid; after four…

The commonly-occurring mismatch between second language student and course level, resulting in student boredom or intimidation, is due to overreliance on standardized language tests. These tests emphasize passive skills, such as recognition of grammatical structures and translation, and they ignore the element of communicative competence. As a…

Communication-based teaching techniques are described that lead German language students from input to output in a stimulating and motivating learning environment. Input activities are most useful for presenting speech acts, vocabulary, and grammar; output activities, for fine-tuning those areas as well as for expanding students' productive…

Workshops on proficiency testing attended by foreign language faculty at the University of South Carolina provided the starting point for extradepartmental involvement in proficiency testing. As a result of funding requirements and a cooperative arrangement between the foreign languages department and the Masters in International Business program…