An interview with Jean-Claude Chevalier in which the advantages and dangers of eclecticism are discussed. Some topics covered are: the role of traditional grammar; recent linguistic research in French; the development of teaching methods; Chomsky's theory of universal grammar. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

This bibliography cites books and articles in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Roumanian concerning the SGAV teaching method (structuro-global audio-visual) and the verbo-tonal method of teaching phonetics in a second language. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

There is evidence that the ability to produce syntactically complex structures in a foreign language can be accelerated through a different strategy for teaching writing. A writing strategy is outlined which introduces the student gradually and in a very structured way to the concept of sentence-combining. (CHK)

Criticizes a critique by J. Marsden of Leonard Cohen's pop song "Suzanne" as material for high school foreign language teaching. States that the song is useful in classes of boys and that Marsden asks for too much teacher guidance. A procedure with greater student activity is outlined. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Gives some general suggestions for teaching English modal auxiliary verbs. For example, "would" and "could" should be taught as verbs in their own right, rather than as forms of "will" and "can." English modals do not exactly match German modals. (IFS/WGA)

Discusses the importance of two Firthian themes for language teaching. The first theme, "Restricted Languages," concerns the "microlanguages" of every language (e.g., literary language, scientific, etc.). The second theme, "Collocation," shows that equivalent words in two languages rarely have the same position in…

A report is made of a study tour to Europe and Japan. The status of language laboratories and audiovisual education is discussed and machinery and methods described. (RM)

Determining the gender of German nouns is an awesome task for the beginning student of German. This article lists rules which might facilitate this task. The gender can sometimes be inferred from the ending of a word, sometimes by the meaning, but sometimes only through memorization. (Author/TL)

A rebuttal is made to an article entitled "The Case Against the Conventional Language Laboratory" by John R. Allen ("System," Vol. 2, No. 1). Arguments made in that article against the language laboratory are outlined and discussed. (RM)

Speakers of Italian often have problems mastering Spanish because they erroneously believe its great similiarity to Italian makes it easy to learn. One of the fundamental problems is the lack of ability to choose the correct verb, "ser" or "estar," both equivalents of the Italian "essere." (Text is in Spanish.) (CFM)

This article discusses an experiment carried out in a high school in Germany to test the effectiveness of an audiovisual approach to the teaching of French to German speakers. The results show the "Voix et Images de France" method to be effective. (Text is in French.) (CFM)

Language learning is not maximally efficient without intentional practice following tests that evaluate student achievement of an instructional objective. Post-evaluation practice must be at increasing intervals to maximize student retention, and must sometimes be unscheduled, to achieve automatic language usage. A distribution schedule and types…

The planning of foreign language teaching must be based on a theory of instruction specifically geared to foreign language learning. The approach of the "Berlin School" is recommended. Proceeding inductively from content and methodological concepts, the communicative goal can be defined. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Describes a language-learning simulation based on unedited news obtained directly from one of its major sources. Outlines objectives of both substantive and performance media simulations and their importance to second language learning activities. Provides guidelines on the technology needed to access the news from press agencies. (SED)

Discusses both the pedagogical arguments and the psycholinguistic rationale for small-group work in the second language classroom. Claims that the negotiation work possible in group actiity makes it an attractive alternative to the teacher-led discussion. Reviews research findings on interlanguage which generally support the claims made for group…