Intercultural Communicative Competence is a paramount goal of modern foreign language teaching. It is the ability to communicate in culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate ways with speakers from other cultures. Being able to apologize is one component of this competence. Uttering apologies allows learners to rectify breaches of social…

Paper delivered at the American Classical League Institute in 1971. (DS)

Focuses on the potential ways that second language acquisition research can contribute to the formulation of instructional program goals, with emphasis placed on the nature of language, sequencing of skills, attainment, and language attrition. (CB)

The concept of "communicative competence" is one of the most influential theoretical developments in language education as it helped redefine the objectives of L2 instruction and the target language proficiency. While acknowledging these contributions, this paper asks if the conceptual formulation of "communicative competence" has other…

Discusses foreign language methodologies since World War Two and critiques their objective, of forming near-native speakers. Some less restrictive alternatives are suggested favoring acceptance of diversity and encouraging the social development of the learners. (AMH)

Outlines the mission of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) as it enters the 21st century. The plan is based on the belief that bringing the language and cultures of the German-speaking world to all Americans is an endeavor serving the national interest. The AATG seeks to foster excellence, promote access to German programs, and…

This paper examines the relationship between linguistic and communicative competence in terms of the student's acquisition of French as a foreign language and the interface of testing for each competence in the context of achievement testing. Reaching an acceptable level of communicative competence requires practice and guidance in understanding…

This introduction to second language learning is intended to provide language teachers with basic information on relevant principles and processes. After an introductory chapter, the second chapter looks at traditional beliefs about language learning, including those concerning transfer of first-language knowledge to the second language, the role…

Summarized in this report is an investigation involving the speaking and auditory comprehension skills in Spanish for secondary school students. Two objectives of the study were to organize the Spanish language into basic syntactic structures and to prepare a description of expected learner performance for each of the structures. Proposals, based…

A review of publications in foreign language instruction from 1946 to 1952 focuses attention on the experimental studies conducted during that period and the resulting literature. The first part of the article notes bibliographies, reviews, reference books, and studies examining trends and objectives. A section on the psychology of language…

The more the content of a language course corresponds to reality as confronted by the language learner outside the learning situation, the more this content will be favorably accepted, faithfully practiced, and learned. If "need" is defined as a state of unbalance, and answering this need is reorienting the organism by supplying the support needed…

Research on the role of age in second language (L2) learning, particularly at the level of primary education, is reviewed and discussed. It is concluded that evidence suggests early L2 exposure increases chances of ultimately attaining a high proficiency level in that language, but that in formal educational situations any long-term advantage will…

The initial chapter of this volume is concerned with determining the variables involved in language learning. The procedures and results of experiments conducted in order to formulate learning and teaching principles are described. Experiments include testing different approaches used to help students acquire sentence meaning, discovering the most…

Describes a study comparing two methods of teaching English as a foreign language in France: a traditional and an audiovisual method. The research methodology is described in detail. The central question is not which method is better, but who benefits most from the method used. (AMH)