In this article we present an integrated curricular model for addressing the transition from the intermediate to the advanced language level through peer-assisted learning activities in the post-secondary German classroom. In a series of group projects between students in second- and third-year conversation courses, we employed a learner-centered…

Presents procedure for designing a course in directed conversation in a second language, including choosing topics and developing workbooks that become the psychologically accepted replacement for an official text and a tool for the teacher. Gives two sample units. (Author/BK)

Describes an advanced conversational Spanish language course based on community experiences, multicultural education, and collaborative research taught at the University of Santa Clara in California. The class combined authentic materials with real-life experiences. (Author/VWL)

Topics for conversation courses include conversational rules and structure, conversational strategies, functions and meaning in conversation, and social and cultural contexts. The direct teaching of conversational skills involves adding specific language input, increasing the role of consciousness raising, and sequencing communicative tasks…

Reviews research on proficiency levels attained by foreign language students, and describes an advanced Russian conversation course, which is geared toward students who have achieved intermediate-mid or intermediate-high oral proficiency and who are striving towards advanced level speech according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign…

Describes the establishment of a course for long-distance learners in Korea. Students studying English conversation who left school to work in other cities finished their course via telephone. (Author/VWL)

A large number of middle aged and retired French-speaking Canadians spend time in Florida during the winter months. While most of them have some knowledge of English, they have a need for communicative competence in English in some business and social situations. This ESP (English for Specific Purposes) syllabus development project attempts to…

A preliminary analysis of the language syllabuses and language students at Southampton University (England) is used to determine needed improvements in language teaching methodology and to establish clear aims and objectives that will build on students' previous experiences, plug gaps that remain, and relate this language learning to the…

The federally funded Piedmont International Business Program of Lynchburg College has begun offering conversational Mandarin Chinese for people whose business activities bring them into contact with Chinese speakers. The course has three phases: an 8-week fall session with an enrollment of 11 students; two 8-week sessions offered in winter and…

Examines problems with improving oral language skills of limited-English-speaking adults and describes a university English as a second language course that is organized around issues in the women's movement. Topics are selected by the students, and a variety of approaches are used. A lesson plan and evaluative remarks are included. (AMH)

Describes a one-semester conversational language course based on specific proficiency goals. The oral proficiency pre- and posttests, goal contracts outlining performance objectives for each chapter of the text, specific instructional and grading techniques, and class activities are detailed. (MSE)

Presents the goals, procedures, visual aids, instructional materials used in a German conversation and culture class taught in English. The courses are intended to realistically portray the way of life and the environment of the people of East and West Berlin. (LMO)

Describes a one-semester conversational course taught at Harvard University designed to teach basic oral communication skills in French with the main emphasis on teaching students to pause while speaking. (AM)

The first in a series of three volumes comprising a college-level course in Kikuyu, a Bantu language, this document contains the outline for a full-length course whose objective is to provide oral mastery of grammatical principles necessary for more than survival-level proficiency. The 20 units are organized into grammatical categories. Each unit…

A course designed to teach survival Japanese language and culture to businessmen and professionals with little time for language study is described. The goals were to teach survival vocabulary and a few basic sentence structures and to develop the learners' pragmatic competence in using them. Portions of a commercial textbook were used for…