Discusses the role of language laboratories in retrospective, paying attention to the technology diffusion process that accounted for their initial success, and contributing arguments for a revision of their historical evolution into a new tool for learning and teaching foreign languages. Includes a survey of existing language laboratory…

Suggests that distributed learning environments and content often lack a common basis for the exchange of learning materials, which can hinder or even delay innovation and delivery of learning technology. Standards for platforms and authoring may provide a way to improve interoperability and cooperative development. Provides an XML-based approach…

Examines the extent to which the provision of selected collateral material can enhance students' enjoyment of their writing tasks, and their performance in a context where although English is the official language, it is little used and much resisted by students for whom the language of choice for social interaction is the local Creole.…

Describes a study exploring the influence of cultural knowledge on the translation performance of German students of English. Found that the students often lacked sufficient knowledge about British culture to deal with widely-used cultural concepts. Findings suggest that factual reference sources have an important role to play in translation…

Reports results of a study that looked at the attitudes of students learning to write in Japanese a s a foreign language. Suggests that, despite the challenge composition writing presented to the students and their occasional frustrations over their limited linguistic skills, they felt writing to be an effective means of self expression,…

Describes a new reading and writing intensive course developed for college level intermediate German. Discusses reasons for developing such a course, its theoretical underpinnings, course content, teaching methodology, and assessment mechanisms. (Author/VWL)

Presents an approach to articulating foreign languages in the elementary grades based on the content-enriched foreign language in the elementary school program model that links language, content, and culture through thematic units about francophone countries. Describes a curriculum design of a unit titled, "La Martinique" and illustrates…

Focuses on the assessment of the effects of instructional technology (IT) on the foreign language curriculum. Offers a general overview of the evaluation of IT and seeks to provide a clearer understanding of the evaluation parameters that need to be taken into consideration when establishing the infrastructure for the on-going assessment of IT.…

Presents a situated study--based on a prominent pedagogical framework--of the implementation of threaded discussions, a widely used instructional technology, to meet constructivist curricular goals in university English-as-a-Second-Language classes. (Author/VWL)

Demonstrates how multimedia tools can be combined with an enunciation based analysis of the French verb system in order to develop innovative ways of teaching the imparfait and passe compose. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the use of student created videotapes in second language learning and their current and future role in foreign language acquisition. Observations are provided of the actual use of camcorders to facilitate classroom instruction. (GLR)

It is argued that reading skills are neglected in the first phase of second-language instruction in secondary schools. This article develops this argument and discusses the status of reading and listening skills as well as textbook selection and utilization in different approaches to foreign-language instruction. (IAH)

An exploration of second language acquisition research's traditionally separate focus on learners or learning, covering the development-as-sequence model, the development-as-growth model, learning style, cognitive orientation, and affective orientation, argues that a "whole" approach to language teaching must consider both the structural nature of…

Examines certain instructional effects on second-language acquisition, such as code-focused instruction and classroom interaction. Empirical research on instructional effects are outlined in relation to some basic issues, including learning environment influences and processing constraints. (54 references) (GLR)

Three methods by which hearing adults process speechread information are discussed: selective adaptation, immediate memory, and repetition priming. Also discussed are mental representations of speech by hearing-impaired and hearing children, infants' responses to speechread stimuli compared to other stimuli, infants' speechreading of a foreign…