Describes results of course/career survey of French graduates by Brock University to elicit data useful to Romance Studies department and test viability of liberal education in a society in which vocational studies seem to be most favored. Results showed most respondents obtained work in academic world. Responses were divided regarding…

Study in language, literature, and culture has long been a defining feature of education in the liberal arts. Speaking, reading, and writing have traditionally stood at the heart of education because the arts of language and the tools of literacy are key qualifications for full participation in social, political, economic, and cultural life. Today…

Considers some of the most common cliches and their implications about foreign language requirements. (EKN)

Describes the Foreign Language Center at the European University Viadrina in Germany, asserting the necessity of foreign language training for Europeanization and globalization. Also discusses several ways of structuring foreign language programs. (EV)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and developmental English programs. The placement system includes: triangulating data from external test scores, with scores from a panel-marked hand-written essay (HWE),…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

Although the relationship between research and language teaching is often discussed among applied linguists, the views of language teachers are often reported anecdotally, if at all. Our article explores how language teaching colleagues in a Canadian university view this relationship as expressed in open-ended questionnaire responses and…

Offers a panoramic view of the assortment of theories and strategies dedicated to language teaching over the past 30 years and argues in favor of a method to join literature and language from the first weeks of study. Analyzes a series of texts that demonstrate how Spanish literature holds out new and uncommon options to understand the world. (EV)

Discusses the art and ethos of chairing or governance and all of the duties and responsibilities in being a department chair. The chair develops multiple personalities as administrator, mediator, visionary, and entrepreneur. Eight important tools are identified that a chair has at hand to carry out the multifarious work and maintain an effective…

Ensuring that students spend time preparing for class has always been one of the challenges of teaching. Indeed, when students are given an assignment that they are required to do before coming to the next lecture--whether it be written exercises or just studying--one wonders how often they are actually doing it. There are many ways in which…

Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) called for a major reorganization of undergraduate academic programs and even the structure of foreign-language departments. Typically, the initial two years of language instruction are taught by non-tenure-track instructors with little or no voice in the department. Faculty members mainly teach the…

A one-semester course in Schwyzertutsch is described. The Swiss German dialect is taught as the twenty-sixth language in the noncredit extension service of the University of Queensland. (LB)

Argues for the inclusion of courses in phonetics and phonology in college Italian programs, claiming that the myth of Italian as a phonetic language blurs the clear need for such training and that students actually require advanced coursework in phonetics and phonology to improve their articulation and pronunciation. (43 references) (Author/CB)

This digest provides a detailed description of the Program in Interpreting and Translating at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Specific sections address the following: (1) the degree emphasis; (2) formal training and professional relevance; (3) departmental provision for interpreting and translating; (4) the expertise and experience…

The Self-Instructional Language Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is described. Students transcribe their own set of lessons from master tapes and are expected to study at least two hours daily. Each week they converse in small groups with native speaker "drill instructors." (MLW)