In its life-time, the profession of language teaching has undergone many changes. Early attempts at language teaching almost entirely lacked a theory base. In the 20th century, however, two sets of language teaching methods emerged; the first set borrowed theories from psychology, linguistics, and sociolinguistics whereas the second set was based…

This study explores how social pressure and identity construction patterns interact with the oral performance of secondary and post-secondary learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Data derive from 268 questionnaires probing students' perceptions of Spanish, Spanish speakers, their peers, and their instructors. Ethnographic interviews…

This study analyzes the types and frequencies of hedges and intensifiers employed in NS and NNS academic essays included in a corpus of L1 and L2 student academic texts (745 essays/220,747 words). The overarching goal of this investigation is to focus on these lexical and syntactic features of written discourse because they effectively lend…

Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) is the flagship research journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in the United States. It is a broad-based, multidisciplinary journal composed of original research articles and short scholarly essays on a wide range of topics significant to those concerned with the teaching and…

In recent years, the range and complexity of both language learning technology and the environments in which learners utilize it have become more central factors in language education. Given the already stunning--and growing--number of technological options for language learning, teachers working with both established and emerging applications…

In this fifth Report on Teaching compiled by Change Magazine, focus is on anthropology, foreign languages, and physics. Articles dealing with teaching competence at the higher education level in anthropology deal with both classroom and field instruction, written by: Francis L K. Hsu, Nathaniel Sheppard, Jr., Ronald Henkoff, Evan Jenkins, Liva…

This pamphlet, provided in both English and Spanish, presents a brief overview of Situational Reinforcement (SR), a teaching methodology used in the materials published by the Institute of Modern Languages. Explanations are given concerning its theoretical basis, its practical applications, the history of its development, and the support it finds…

The attention brought by Marshall McLuhan to our environment is perhaps his most general contribution to the language teacher. McLuhan often supports specific innovations in language instruction, including: (1) the emphasis on the spoken and heard aspects of a language; (2) the need for active student participation in learning; and (3) electronic…

This classified, annotated bibliography of recent works on multicultural education was compiled from an ERIC computer search and from manual searches at various university libraries. Each reference is listed in one of eight topical areas. These include: bibliographies on multicultural education; rationale and theory; program strategies; models;…

This paper presents a brief overview of the functioning of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics: how documents are acquired and processed, how the microfiche collection is formed, and what services are available to language teachers. Two topics where ERIC has materials to offer classroom language instructors are discussed: career…

This illustrated reader contains ten one-page stories written in Chinese (Cantonese). The titles in English are: (1) "The Dictionary"; (2) "Come, Have Some Rice Noodles"; (3) "Where Shall We Go"; (4) "Beautiful Day"; (5) "The Little Dog's Wish"; (6) Let's Go to the Movies"; (7) "Going to…

French was added to the early childhood curriculum at the New School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, after a review of the literature on the subject indicated potential beneficial effects of teaching foreign languages to young children. Some of the advantages to be gained by the children were greater readiness for school work in general, greater…

This text consists of 89 lessons in Hindustani. Each lesson is divided into four parts. The first section lists the grammatical objectives of the lesson. A brief dialogue follows which deals with an everyday situation. The notes clarify certain grammatical points of the dialogue. The lesson ends with repetition, transformation, and substitution…

This language textbook is designed for beginning students of Tagalog, the principal language spoken on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The introduction discusses the history of Tagalog and certain features of the language. An explanation of the text is given, along with notes for the teacher. The text itself is divided into nine sections:…

This article discusses the deficiencies of the Audiolingual method and provides examples of ways to combine grammar and context in drills, in order to enable students to communicate. A practical application of the theory is described through the Hue University program. (AM)