It is said that children are amazing at acquiring their first language (L1); by the time they reach school age, they are using complex grammar and demonstrating a wide vocabulary. Even more impressive, these young learners might show up at school with two languages in their toolbox or add a second language (L2) with far less effort than older…

A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group design was used to examine the effect of a mobile gamification application on third and fourth grade students' Spanish language achievement and student academic self-efficacy. In this study, the treatment group's Spanish language instruction was through the use of…

Educators have generally believed that foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten or earlier to promote optimum oral language development (e.g., Abbott, 1998; Curtain & Dahlberg, 2010; Rhodes & Pufahl, 2010; Rosenbusch, 1991; Swender & Duncan, 1998). This article describes two Spanish programs in the Westport…

Sistema de formas en colores (SFC) is a symbols-based system for teaching Spanish grammatical structures and concepts within a communicative context in the elementary school. The (ACTFL) Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century states that, "While grammar and vocabulary are essential tools for communication, it is…

Learning to speak another language requires students to adopt new ways of thinking. Some teachers believe that students can assimilate idiomatic expressions and cultural turns of phrase simply through the teacher's use and the students' practice. Others work to explicitly show the difference between the target language and native language, as if…

Discusses the various functions of grammar in second-language (SL) education, and examines the relationship between discourse and grammar in SL education. Two problems are then examined concerning the relationship between discourse and grammar within grammatical exercises, and with the help of concrete examples, suggestions are offered to better…

Describes diverse aspects of the speaking proficiency of novice-low to novice-mid level foreign language in the elementary school students and to identify the syntactic knowledge underlying such behavior. Data were collected from students who had been studying Japanese continually for 6 and 7 years on a variety of oral production tasks.…

The provincial guidelines for primary level French second language instruction in Alberta begin with a discussion of the rationale and time allotment for language instruction within the curriculum. Minimum exit expectations for listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing are then outlined, and general and recurring themes for classroom…

This rationale for the German immersion program of the Milwaukee public schools (grades K-5) sets forth general and specific program goals as well as criteria for evaluating communicative competence. A list of sample exercises for specific communicative acts (e.g., telling, informing, requesting) is included. Topics for oral and written…

The Kinder Lernen Deutsch (LKD) materials evaluation project identifies materials appropriate for the elementary school German classrooms in grades K-8. This guide consists of an annotated bibliography, with ratings, of these materials. The guiding principles by which the materials were assessed were: use of the communicative approach; integration…

Delaware's state standards for the Latin curriculum in the public schools are presented. An introductory section outlines the goals of the Latin program for reading, cultural awareness, grammar, writing, and oral language and briefly discusses the philosophy of and approaches to Latin instruction in elementary and middle schools. Three subsequent…

The guide is designed to assist elementary school German teachers by giving suggestions on the nature of material, structure, and sequence of linguistic items to be introduced in the first year. It contains suggestions for 10 teaching units, each containing vocabulary, grammar items, cultural information, songs and rhymes to reinforce vocabulary…

The purpose of this manual, which accompanies a video program, is to provide general background information for foreign language teachers who are, or soon will be, teaching in total, partial, or two-way immersion classrooms. Part of a series of video programs, this manual highlights current theories, issues, and questions about second language…

Four classroom activities for French second-language instruction are described: a unit on Lorraine, a region of France; a song and related exercises for young children; an exercise in interviewing classmates, based on an 1890 interview with Marcel Proust; and a literature-based unit on friendship. (MSE)

This report summarizes the proceedings of a 1996 workshop on modern language teaching, sponsored by the Council of Europe. It first outlines the workshop's aims to examine relevant recent research in Europe, suggest policy concerning language teaching and language teacher training, and encourage cooperation among researchers and their…