This paper investigates the difference in achievement among 20 University of Utah students of modern standard Arabic. One group of 11 students followed an intensive eight-week summer course, and a second group of nine students studied the same course during a regular academic year. Also reported on is the correlation between achievement and…

Discusses statistical indication of decrease in students studying a second foreign language. Responses to a questionnaire sent out in 1973 to German teachers in the county of Yorkshire in an attempt to discover reasons for these statistics are analyzed and discussed. (RM)

Discusses the problems of teaching Russian in American universities. (LG)

China has had the same written language, "wen-yan," since the third century B.C. "Wen-yan is the classical, literary language. In this paper the author discusses the five problems which must be considered with regard to the teaching of classical Chinese to American college students. These are: (1) why this literary language should…

Language laboratories are especially neglected at the intermediate and advanced levels of foreign language learning. Teachers fail to avail themselves of an important teaching tool at a critical point, when the more mechanical aspects of assimilating the target language should give way to gaining an actual communicative competence in it. At the…

Translators and teachers of foreign languages need each other: translators need formal academic training and recognition and teachers of foreign languages need students. Unfortunately, translators know only too well that most FL teachers are not competent translators, and FL Departments generally consider translation as an activity beneath the…

Speech delivered at the National Council on the Humanities, on October 21, 1971, in Washington, D.C. Author is Executive Secretary of the Modern Language Association of America. (DS)

This issue of the workpapers includes the following reports and papers: "The ESL Service Courses at UCLA: A Progress Report," by Kathleen M. Bailey; "A Comparison of Item Analysis Programs," by Earl Rand; "Stereotypes in Media - or - How to Avoid Functional Fixedness," by James Heaton; "The Search for a Second Language Acquisition Index of…

American students enrolled in a beginning Spanish program in Mexico were tested to see whether they benefitted from the foreign study; this premise has been questioned in the past. Results indicate that the group learned three semesters of Spanish in 3 1/2 months. The need to communicate forced students to learn. (CHK)

Enrollment trends in Italian courses at the college and secondary level are presented. The largest Italian department is at Rutgers College in New Brunswick. The history of this program is presented. (SW)

A series of discussions among members of the language departments at SUNY/Buffalo was held to examine ways of improving language teaching methodology in the college, particularly at the second-year level. The suggestions resulting from these meetings are offered as a practical response to the decreased enrollment in language courses. The…

There is a need for expanding offerings in foreign language instruction to reach different age and interest groups, prepare teachers, and educate students for positions in business, industry, and government. For students, foreign language study could be combined with the study of another field. (SW)

Language laboratory use in the first three semesters of German study is outlined. First semester pattern drills and second and third semester conversation exercises are described. A rationale for the student for laboratory use is included. (AF)

THIS REPORT OF THE SECOND CONFERENCE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ADDRESSES--(1) "FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS--BORN OR MADE," (2) "ARE LINGUISTICS IMPORTANT," (3) "LANGUAGE LEARNING AND LINGUISTIC INTERFERENCE," (4) "APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC THEORIES TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING," (5) "USE AND MISUSE OF…

The perennial problem of articulation of foreign language programs between the high schools and the colleges is readdressed in this paper. Six factors are identified as primary in contributing to the problem: (1) instruction is paced too fast, thus encouraging superficial learning and creating a disparity of coverage practices among the many…