By encouraging English-as-a-Second-Language learners to keep a daily word calendar, teachers can tap into their need for success by helping them keep a visible count of their growing vocabulary. Describes how to prepare and fill-in word calendars, use them in classroom activities, and conduct extension exercises. Sample student word calendars are…

Argues that the best moment for responding to student writing is before any draft is completed. Analyzes ways in which this can be put into practice in the composition classroom and reports on how a group of undergraduate, intermediate-level Portuguese English-as-a-Second-Language writers reacted to this kind of pre-text feedback. (Author/SM)

Suggests that language awareness, or consciousness raising, has great potential in second-language learning. Language awareness presents students with linguistic data so they can work out grammatical rules for themselves. Offers a variety of examples of possible language-awareness lessons, first for the teaching of English, then for the teaching…

This first of a two-part article looks at the language learning-acquiring distinction, discussing the consequences of teaching at either end of the learning-acquiring continuum. Describes the distinction between the two, discusses the learning versus acquiring of grammar, and compares the two. The second part of the article will focus on memory…

Describes some of the dilemmas that nonnative English teachers face as they are exposed to competing discourses of educational ideologies and market forces and have to reconcile the contradictory demands of global pressures with the local conditions in which they work. Argues that it is vital to resist a simple transfer of teaching approaches and…

Reviews research findings of studies dealing with distance-education programs; describes the results of a distance-learning study implemented with secondary school students learning Spanish; and identifies questions that must be addressed as the foreign-language profession attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning in current…

Explains how selections from "English Teaching Forum" articles were incorporated into methodology courses to form a successful 30-hour semester. The pilot course, which has five groups of students studying methodology, concluded with a questionnaire that brought a vast majority of enthusiastic responses.(Author/VWL)

Discusses the use of German literature in courses teaching cross-cultural management. The article argues that literature depicting society and culture promotes effective business interaction. It also attempts to clarify the benefits of using literary texts to supplement theoretical texts on international business. (26 references) (Author/CK)

Focuses on the assurance by the Alliance Francaise of Paris of professional development of future teachers of foreign languages. The article describes the members of the Alliance as professors at the Foreign Language School of Paris with university training in such diverse fields as linguistics, modern languages, education, and philosophy. Their…

Describes the Optimal Learning Environment (OLE) Curriculum, a resource for teachers of Spanish-speaking children, which looks for the upper range of the bilingual child's academic, linguistic, and social skills. Details principles governing the OLE curriculum, including the effect of students' sociocultural background and learning handicaps on…

This article provides one English language teacher's reflections on how to bring her teaching closer to her beliefs about old writing pedagogy within the present institutional framework. Different aspects of writing, such as audience, purpose, time pressure, and feedback are inspected, and their implications for the classroom are explored.…

Focuses on a particular teaching experience where a contemporary fiction work featuring high tech has been used as a source material in English for science and technology courses, and how this approach has had a positive impact on students' motivation to learn English as well as on their overall performance in the foreign language. (Author/VWL)

Given recent claims that task-based instruction has desirable pedagogic qualities, this article investigates the effects of choosing different types of tasks, as well as different task implementation conditions, on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the language that is produced when tasks are carried out. (Author/VWL)

Describes how a Canadian college professor uses WebCT to provide a highly interactive Internet seminar for international graduate students. The virtual seminar acts as a resource and supplement to a regular graduate course on second language methodology for teachers. Examines the WebCT bulletin board and the enhanced interactivity it allows,…

Describes an effective model for a collaborative approach to designing integrated multimedia materials for language courses. The University of Winnipeg is successfully using the model to create a first-year French course. The model includes collaboration between departments, colleagues, and instructors with their students to design a…