Discusses the pedagogical advantages in using live dramatic sketches in the classroom. These include drama as an interactive activity, repetition of language points, use of body language as an effective visual aid, personalized messages to the students, and a display of language in action. (CK)

The characteristics of linguistically gifted students are classified into four areas: language traits, conceptualization traits, socialization traits, and productivity traits. Curricular modifications to meet the needs of linguistically gifted students involve changes in the content, process, product, and learning environment. (JDD)

The Orton-Gillingham method, a multisensory structured language approach which adheres to the direct and explicit teaching of phonology, is presented as an alternative instructional strategy for dyslexic/learning-disabled or other "at risk" students learning a second language. A method for adapting this approach to teaching Spanish is…

In a college-level introductory French literature course, one teacher uses a highly structured curriculum of lecture, class discussion, written assignments, improvisation, and dramatic performance. This approach encourages students to practice all language skills while learning to become independent critical readers and interpret literary works as…

Presents syllabus and discusses methodology for a course on British Industrial Relations for economics majors at the University of Bergamo taught in English. Course was successful in extending the subject matter in the second language (L2), and it allowed participants to learn more of the language, practicing it in an environment other than the…

Promotes student-as-teacher strategies in general, while extending their definition to include the peer teaching arrangement usually referred to as "group study." Cloze passages and rehearsed dictee are examined as well as the theoretical suggestion that these exercises are especially apt to encourage a variety of learning styles. (six references)…

Presents an overview of third-grade bilingual students and their literacy curriculum. Discusses a series of instructional lessons ("strategy wall charts") developed to provide the students with various tools to work their way through literacy blocks as they read and wrote in English. Looks at patterns of internalization that occurred when the…

Ten guidelines, along with corresponding teaching techniques and learning activities, are offered for developing students' communicative proficiency as described in the "ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines." The objective is to improve students' Spanish and Portuguese communication ability in authentic, situational contexts. (16 references) (LB)

Describes an alternative approach to traditional English-as-a-Second-Language presentation of the (Z) and (D) morphemes. Learners from different backgrounds and proficiency levels who used orthography-based approaches improved their oral accuracy to the extent that performance differences resulting from disparate language backgrounds disappeared.…

An approach to teaching and testing advanced French reading comprehension of expository social science texts is presented within a "communicative-cognitive" framework. Learners receive instructions that encourage them to perceive and use the writer's overall rhetorical scheme as a conceptual-functional framework for integrating the components.…

Discusses language instruction in international schools, with particular focus on understanding the international school context, a typology of early language learners, and a typology of early-language-learning programs. (Author/VWL)

Points out the military and linguistic necessity of including culture as part of language instruction. Maintains that addressing the cultural based Content Final Learning Objectives within the Defense Language Institute's Foreign Language Center classroom provides an invaluable, necessary foundation for enabling students to develop passion for the…

Describes the Yazigi language center in Bradenton, Florida, and its role in teaching English-as-a-Second-Language to Brazilian students. At Yazigi, the communicative approach has proved very successful. Learning is further enhanced by students of different linguistic backgrounds studying together and compelling each other to communicate in the…

Addresses some of the recent debates regarding second-language acquisition (SLA). Draws on studies of school restructuring and argues that SLA needs to be understood as an institutional phenomenon, because the ways in which schools are structured present or constrain possibilities for language use and development. (Author/VWL)

Examines the problem of foreign-language syllabi in a brief historical review. The three main types of syllabi are described--structural, notional-functional, procedural task-based. Suggests that methodologies that cover language description, learning theories, and needs analysis should be reflected in English for special purposes courses or…