Decries the emphasis in foreign language curricula on rapid attainment of speaking skills. Advocates eliminating formal speaking exercises and focusing on reading and writing skills, with intensive English grammar review at regular intervals, for the first two years of foreign language training. (SR)

Explored the effect of giving novice foreign language readers information about the rhetorical structure of an expository text as a text adjunct. Results indicated that an expanded framework is an effective text adjunct for the comprehension of the expository prose. (27 references) (Author/CB)

Briefly describes a program of supervised independent study of German as a second foreign language for fourth year students in a British secondary school. The study guide for students is presented. A sample workplan for one week is also included. (LMO)

Examines some possible relationships between research in second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language teaching. Special reference is made SLA research findings about the order of acquisition of grammatical items, and to a model of application for such findings to classroom practice. (23 references) (Author/CB)

The relationship between language use and second culture acquisition is examined in this study of first generation Iranian immigrants and exiles in the United States. The use of both Farsi and English is found to be instrumental in the process by which American culture is incorporated within the Iranian worldview. (AF)

Proposes a model for a computer-assisted language learning software design based on interactionist theories of first and second language acquisition. Comparison of the conversational discourse generated by two groups of students working on negotiable- and non-negotiable outcome programs found that the negotiable-outcome software generated…

Describes the organization of a video-letter exchange between a German ninth-grade class and a high school in the United States. The German students' experiences, feelings, and thoughts relating to the exchange formed the basis of a class questionnaire, and quotations from students responses are appended. (Author/VWL)

Two experiments explored monolingual and bilingual subjects' performances on measures of English and Spanish language ability and cognitive skills. Language ability measures were highly correlated with each other, and a comparison of monolingual and bilingual subgroups suggested that low bilinguals accounted for differences between monolinguals'…

Reports the results of a comparative evaluation of an early total immersion program, a delayed immersion program, and an all French program for English-speaking language majority students in Montreal, Canada. (33 references) (Author/OD)

Analysis of data derived from an earlier study of Japanese-English interlanguage shows that discourse-pragmatic markedness conditions on the subject position combine with central aspects of a configurational syntax in the generation of sentential forms, creating a module interface distinct from the native or second language. (38 references)…

Assessed native Brazilian students' affective reactions to different oral English-as-a-Foreign-Language achievement test formats. A multivariate analysis of variance based on the results of a factor analysis showed no significant difference among student reactions to the different test formats. (Author/CB)

Discusses the tendency in second-language (L2) pedagogy to make fallacious comparisons between multicompetent L2 learners and monoglot speakers of the target language. The article describes the principal elements of multicompetence and presents a number of their implications for the construction of syllabi and examinations and the development of…

Examines the methodology used in the teaching of foreign languages in the Anglophone Caribbean. Although the methodology most widely used has been the grammar-translation method, there has been a shift to a more communicative methodology based on a notional-functional approach. The language situation here reflects the social and political…

Discusses a study that was conducted to determine the effects of school affiliation on the level of language competency attained by Spanish 1 students. Competency in all four language skills was measured by a Spanish 1 exam, and the differences between the two groups in attitude toward foreign language learning were examined. (JL)

It is argued that the correct placement of sentential negation with respect to model auxiliaries in Swedish is an example of delayed acquisition resulting from a parametric preference in Universal Grammar. A syntactic analysis is proposed for four recognized stages in the acquisition of negative word order in Swedish. (Contains 41 references.)…