While written exercises may serve students adequately on tests, the structures they emphasize can remain elusive or difficult for students to master in conversation. Students tend to interpret their difficulty in applying what they have learned as a lack of language ability, and they can quickly lose confidence when speaking. Producing a target…

Curriculum design and implementation can be a daunting process. Questions quickly arise, such as who is qualified to design the curriculum and how do these people begin the design process. According to Graves (2008), in many contexts the design of the curriculum and the implementation of the curricular product are considered to be two mutually…

This beginning text in Hindi follows the "microwave" style of lesson organization originated by Earl W. Stevick of the Foreign Service Institute. (An explanation of the "microwave" approach, as well as suggestions to the teacher, are provided in the Introduction.) Successful trial versions used in Peace Corps training programs…

Part 1 of a two-part series on teaching spoken and written French as a communication tool. Part 2 will appear in the April-May issue of "Le Francais dans le Monde". (DS)

Explains how to simulate dinner at a foreign restaurant to aid language learning in adult education classes. (CK)

This report, a follow up to H. McKaughan's article "Language Materials Development" (Philippine Journal for Language Teaching; v2 n1-2 1969), reports on a project at the Pacific and Asian Linguistic Institute (PALI) of the University of Hawaii to develop a set of materials for seven Philippine languages: Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon,…

The present volume is a 176-unit course in spoken Sesotho, designed to prepare Peace Corps volunteers to communicate using basic sentence patterns in the most commonly encountered cultural contexts. The units, or "microwave cycles" are presented in two phases, "manipulative" and "communicative" oral practices. The…

"Xiangsheng," a Chinese oral art form, are written and performed using idiomatic, colloquial Beijing speech and thus provide excellent material for studying spoken Chinese. Suggestions for preparing xiangsheng as teaching materials and teaching xiangsheng in the classroom are offered. Chinese character transcription, pinyin transcription,…

In this essay the author attempts to put forward an innovative teaching mode in the course of "English Conversation" for sophomore English majors in China. In this mode an authentic conversation is used as the teaching material and the theoretic aspects of Conversation Analysis (CA) are applied for the teaching of the course. This mode…

The present volume comprises an introductory course to spoken siSwati, an African language of the Niger-Congo group, also referred to as Swazi. The materials have two principle components, "Understanding siSwati" and "Speaking siSwati," each consisting of a series of "Cycles." The purpose of the U.S. component is to give the student an opportunity…

Adult basic education and English as a second language teachers, as well as volunteer tutors, can help new refugees acquire functional English through the use of a survival kit. The Literacy Volunteers of America's guide to teaching conversational English recommends these items for a survival kit: a written copy of student's name, address, and…

Instructional objectives of the Dade County Public Schools Quinmester Program in German for use with "Lernen Wir Deutsch: Part 1" focus on the development of basic skills through the use of short dialogues and structured exercises. The contents of this guide focus on: (1) course description, (2) broad goals and performance objectives,…

Instructional objectives of the Dade County Public Schools Quinmester Program in German for use with "Lernen Wir Deutsch: Part 2" focus on development of basic skills through the use of short dialogues and structured exercises. The grammar of the course includes the study of nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Possessive determiners are…

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of conversation classes for learning a foreign language, and outlines three basic prerequisites for a successful conversation class: a small, homogeneous group, actual facts and ideas available for discussion, and a basic working vocabulary. (CLK)