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 Esperanto language was consciously designed as a coherent system, in contrast to the 3000 conventional languages originated by people's cave-dwelling ancestors. The systematic nature of Esperanto makes it ideal as an instructional tool. The amorphous nature of English makes its serious use very difficult for students. Even though they learn to…

This paper first addresses the issue of the contradictory nature of informed opinion and advice in the foreign language field today. It goes on to consider such controversial topics as the introduction of the written symbol, teaching the language versus teaching about it, teaching culture, the usefulness of FLES, and individualization. The…

Four games for use in the foreign language classroom are described. The first, "A Shopping Game," by Gordon Hartig, is played on a game board in the German classroom and provides practice in producing sentences with the preposition "in," which in some instances takes the dative and in others takes the accusative. A diagram of the game board is…

Sample examinations in French, German, Spanish, and Russian for the elementary and intermediate levels are contained in this publication. The French examinations test: (1) speaking ability, (2) listening comprehension, (3) vocabulary, (4) grammar, and (5) reading. The tests on German measure vocabulary, grammar, listening, and reading…

This study examines how a French- and Spanish-speaking child acquired English as a third language. It describes the linguistic experience of the 10-year old boy whose French and Spanish home, school, and playmate environments were changed to English school and playmate environments with French being maintained exclusively at home with the child's…

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…

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…

A guide developed by classroom teachers of foreign languages is presented. It is intended to be a practical tool for the teacher who wants to develop in students a set of skills which are sequentially presented. It is also directed to administrators and supervisors so that they too may participate in the development of a vital foreign language…