Developed at Tarrant County Junior College (TCJC) Northeast Campus (Texas), this paper presents and discusses materials and activities for teaching foreign language conversation classes. Introductory comments describe TCJC's Department of Foreign Languages, new curricular emphases on the development of oral skills, the nature of the college's…

ALL ORAL LANGUAGE DRILLS MAY BE SEPARATED INTO TWO TYPES--(1) MIM-MEM OR MIMICRY MEMORIZATION DRILLS OR (2) PATTERN PRACTICE DRILLS. THESE TWO LARGER CATEGORIES CAN BE SUB-DIVIDED INTO A NUMBER OF OTHER TYPES, SUCH AS TRANSFORMATION AND SUBSTITUTION DRILLS. THE USE OF ANY PARTICULAR TYPE DEPENDS ON THE PURPOSE TO WHICH THE DRILL IS PUT. IN ANY…

As a group, the uncommonly taught languages have benefited greatly from government funds and activities that support their instruction. Although in absolute terms their enrollments are low, many of these languages have been gaining students in recent years. Instruction in the uncommonly taught languages accounts for more than half of the student…

After commenting briefly on the current state of instructional materials available to students and teachers of Japanese at a college level, the paper underlines the need for materials that deal specifically with aspects of Japanese culture, and outlines suggestions for possible materials. Graded intermediate materials that stress particularly the…

A major problem in learning a second language is the interference of a structurally different native language. Contrastive analysis (CA) combined with learner error analysis (EA) provide an excellent basis for preparation of language instructional materials. The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project proved that full application of CA…

This volume contains papers presented at the Kittamaqundi Conference on the Uncommonly-Taught Languages, in Columbia, Maryland, September 29-October 2, 1974. The volume has two main sections. The first contains papers dealing with conceptual issues of developing materials for uncommonly-taught languages, without extended reference to any specific…

This paper attempts to provide guidelines for writers who are preparing new materials as well as to offer suggestions to language teachers who must use prescribed texts. The basic assumption is that scientific grammars only describe the production of language by native speakers, while pedagogical grammars are sets of rules ordered in such a way as…

Provides the theoretical underpinnings to a very successful project that involves high school teachers in the development of carefully sequenced student materials for the German video series "Deutschlandspiegel." (22 references) (Author/OD)

This paper is one of ten that were commissioned to investigate research needs and to stimulate planning activities. Two underlying assumptions of this paper are that all Americans should have the opportunity to develop an ability to speak, read and write English well, and that all Americans should be encouraged to maintain or acquire a second…

This paper summarizes a survey conducted to determine the need for dual-trained personnel in foreign languages and technical/professional skills. The project also produced a large annotated bibliography and a model curriculum for integrating language and occupational training. The survey included an analysis of government agencies to determine the…

This paper describes a pilot program in an integrated media presentation of foreign languages and the production and usage of seven computer-generated video tapes which demonstrate various aspects of French syntax. This instructional set could form the basis for CAI lessons in which the student is presented images identical to those on the video…

Recent progress in special purpose tape-recording devices for language learning are discussed, and two preliminary experiments in English teaching for Japanese students are reported on. Both programs use an untrained native speaker as an evaluator. One is an oral repetition test-training program of sentences. Problems concerning optimization of…

The dual purpose of this book is to set forth guidelines for appreciating the kinds of instructional materials available for the uncommonly taught languages and to suggest an approach to writing new materials which will be as adaptable as possible. Of principal concern are considerations relating to: (1) the nature of language teaching, (2) the…

Quality is seen as a primitive characteristic of media, but one that can be manipulated in various ways. Since media vary in their "relating power," that is, their ability to involve students, standards of quality also may vary in the ways certain production technique parameters, such as lighting, sound, and exposure, are manipulated. Some media,…

Reviews the use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in second-language education and asserts that CALL is an instructional tool rather than a teaching method. More active involvement by educators in planning and developing CALL technologies and software for the second-language classroom is advocated. (83 references) (JL)