Fifth- and sixth-graders can learn, from the beginning, to express themselves in the foreign language. Language elements are adapted to their needs, approved by age-peers who are native speakers. School situations are listed in which the material can be used. A sample teaching sequence is given. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Discusses contextless drills, pattern exercises in dialog form, exercises with indicated situation, micro-dialogs. The latter three are useful for impressing the material on the memory and for developing competence in dialog. A warning is given against limiting the drill period to pattern practice alone. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Recommends using short nonsense texts, containing as many contradictions as possible, to further the students' acquisition of free-speaking competence. The nonsense sentences are to be corrected by the students, and are to be labeled: "practically impossible,""impossible in the context," or "strange." Four short nonsense texts are given. (IFS/WGA)

In pattern drills, the context must be clear. Frequent repetition is necessary, and spontaneity must be sought. Intonation must be considered as well as content and structure. Pattern drill should start with one sentence, but progress beyond the sentence level, to free use of the materials. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This article stresses the idea that teaching communicative competence and the ability to deal with a variety of language situations should be the goal of foreign language teaching, with grammar instruction in a secondary position. Teaching by means of "dialogues with options" is discussed and sample dialogues for Italian instruction are given.…

In addition to the communicative end served by language learning, there is another objective: the discovery, by the student, of the system and the workings of his native language. The values of this objective include: (1) formative value: the possibility of achieving a better understanding of the fundamental and uniquely human phenomenon which is…

This practical book is designed for the classroom teacher of a second or foreign language at any level. The articles are grouped into two distinct but interdependent sections on general considerations and specific techniques. The contents of the first section are as follows: "Moi Tarzan, Vous Jane?: A Study of Communicative Competence" by P.B.…

This workbook is designed for second level students of Spanish and contains thirty units, each unit focusing on a selected topic and the Spanish idioms relevant to that topic. Each unit includes a list of the idioms, a dialogue containing the idioms, completion exercises, paraphrase exercises, and suggestions of activities to help students learn…

This paper attempts to provide guidelines for writers who are preparing new materials as well as to offer suggestions to language teachers who must use prescribed texts. The basic assumption is that scientific grammars only describe the production of language by native speakers, while pedagogical grammars are sets of rules ordered in such a way as…

This book is meant to serve as a guide to more efficient language teaching. Although it is based on theories both from standard audiolingual theory and cognitive-code learning, the basic objectives remain those of the audiolingual approach. The book focusses on the teaching of grammar and on the most efficient way to use drills in the classroom in…

This paper argues for a reorganization of the educational procedures in the ESL classroom, in the interest of developing communicative competence. Special emphasis is placed on the use in the classroom of only structural and phonological patterns which are easily transferrable to real-life situations. In the interest of abolishing mechanical…

The most basic and simplest act of communicative competence in Spanish involves the appropriate decoding and selection of the pronominal address forms "tu" and "Usted." Their selection and semantic value are not, however, determined by linguistic criteria alone. Since "tu/Ud." mark the relative status of each speaker in a given context, their…

This study of the linguistic acts of assenting and confirming is inspired by an attempt to create instructional materials for the learning of spoken English as a second language, with communicative competence as a goal. Observations are based on several hours of informal conversation between native speakers of English, mostly students and…

A major implication in the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages concerns classroom interaction in which students should participate. Ideally, this interaction should be identical to interaction in real-life communication situations that students will encounter. A prerequisite for determining whether these situations are in…

This paper presents some reasons for reconsidering the use of discrete structure-point tests of language proficiency, and suggests an alternative basis for designing proficiency tests. Discrete point tests are one of the primary tools of the audio-lingual method of teaching a foreign language and are based on certain assumptions, including the…