This training manual and program guide for staff focuses on planning and designing a notional-functional curriculum for English as a Second Language program. Chapter 1 explains a notional-functional curriculum that is designed around instructional objectives developed upon interrelationships between language functions and notions. The focus of…

This booklet, based on a nationwide study of elementary school foreign language programs, addresses the following topics: (1) why students should learn a foreign language; (2) information that may help persons select and initiate a specific type of program; and (3) a detailed description of three elementary school approaches used in the country…

This study is an attempt to identify levels of support for foreign language programs in Tennessee within individual schools, school systems, counties, and congressional districts. Extensive charts, tables, and maps accompany the discussion of availability of foreign languages, support of foreign languages, enrollment in foreign language classes,…

Among the justifications for using games in foreign language teaching, one finds the theory that games play an important role in the instructional and learning processes and that they can be designed to develop linguistic skills and communicative abilities. A review of several authors not only suggests the value of games and game-like activities…

A Foreign Language Enrollment Motivation Inventory was administered to 400 secondary school foreign language students in Minnesota. The following considerations were found to be influences on decisions by students to continue or not to continue language study: (1) language classroom activities, (2) interest in speaking the target language, (3)…

Explores ways in which advanced conversation classrooms may provide the aural and written comprehensible input necessary for fostering the students' continued acquisition of the target language through examination of research and literature on: prelistening, decoding, intensive listening, comprehension, and skill application. (CB)

A chair of a university's department of Romance languages and literature addresses the status of two high priorities in the teaching of foreign languages: the integration of linguistics in the "new" curriculum; the continuing development of language teaching approaches in the classroom; and the commitment of foreign language programs in the…

A college-level Spanish language teacher developed a textbook for fourth-graders that supported the audiolingual approach and was based on American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Guidelines. Subject and vocabulary areas covered in the textbook included: salutations, the alphabet, numbers, colors, days of the week,…

Describes a course, offered by Michigan Technological University, designed to increase the intercultural communication skills of American postsecondary students. Activities include readings and movies illustrating cross-cultural conflicts; application of a model to a cross-cultural case study; panel discussion; and cultural simulation. (Author/CB)

Describes materials and activities used by Tarrant County (Texas) Junior College, Northeast Campus, in its conversation classes for high school students as well as for its own students and career-ladder credit conversation courses for foreign language teachers. (Author/CB)

The Televised Japanese Language Program provides long-distance Japanese instruction by recycling videotapes of live classes. This system is an effective and economical means for offering instruction in foreign languages when there is insufficient staff. (Author/CB)

A college course used an explicit intercultural approach and collective research activities to compare French and American cultures and to examine the reasons for cultural attitudes and culture conflict. Class assignments dealt with contrastive analyses of American and French institutions like advertising, cinema, feminism, etc. (MSE)

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…

Emphasizes the need for cooperation and resource sharing among university foreign language departments as a means of ensuring their survival and enhancing their academic offerings. Some of the goals that could be achieved through this strategy include: new educational opportunities, improved quality of programs, planned diversity, cost avoidance…

An oral language test administered at the end of a four-year program combining business administration and French is described. The test consists of the formal presentation of a report including numbers, graphics, and text, a discussion of a theoretical issue, and interview. (MSE)