The standards and educational practices of all higher institutions are scrutinized now as never before in history. For the most part these examinations relate chiefly to undergraduate and professional schools and colleges. It is, however, important that the graduate divisions in universities should lead the way with superior requirements and…

Counseling pupils of high school age about foreign language programs fitted to their needs and abilities is somewhat more difficult than in the past, both because the objectives are different and because a thoroughgoing revision of language instruction is taking place at all levels of the school system. Guidance workers, teachers, principals, and…

Problems and issues encountered in adolescent West Indians' adjustment to living and learning in Canada are discussed, including parent-child separation, physical and social environment, home-school values conflicts, language habits and problems, rural-urban differences, and student reactions to these influences. Suggestions are made for assisting…

Describes the use of cooperative learning groups in junior high school French classes. Summarizes how cooperative learning affects: (1) student attitudes towards French, (2) student relationships with peers, and (3) student-perceived personal gains from this experience. (PMJ)

Presents a method for classifying errors of second language learners for the purpose of: (1) evaluating information in samples of students' communication, (2) diagnosing individual learner needs, (3) developing individualized instructional materials, and (4) deciding which errors to correct first. Suggests applications of the method in…

A study of teacher and student attitudes about instructional materials used in a university-level English-as-a-Second-Language course in South Korea found a low negative correlation between learner and teacher views on both the usefulness and the enjoyable quality of the materials incorporated into lessons. Questionnaires used for both teacher and…

Investigated the acquisition of narrow-range rules governing the dative alternation by adult learners of English as a Second Language, native English speakers, and Japanese and Chinese speakers. Suggests that the Japanese and Chinese learners' acquisition of the dative alternation in English is governed by the properties of an equivalent structure…

Examines the variable realization of the third person singular present tense by learners of English as a Second Language at elementary and intermediate levels of proficiency in unplanned discourse in South Africa. (35 references) (Author/CK)

Focuses on the application of the Null Subject Parameter. Data reveals that some second-language learners exhibit knowledge that English is morphologically nonuniform yet still accept English null subject sentences. Findings disprove the Morphological Uniformity Hypothesis, indicating that any reformulation of the Null Subject Parameter must…

Discusses the issue of language ecology, focusing on Polish language maintenance in Victoria, Australia, and reports on a study conducted with Polish students at a Saturday language school. Results indicate that the longer the period of residence in Australia, the less students use Polish. (25 references) (Author/CK)

Defends the full transfer/full access (FT/FA) model, which hypothesizes that the initial state of second-language (L2) acquisition is the final state of L1 acquisition (full transfer) and failure to assign a representation to input data will force subsequent restructuring. The article considers two other competing hypotheses as well as several…

Presents the findings of an informal poll of teachers over 25 years about their experiences in education school courses and their thoughts on the proper requirements for the education degree in foreign languages. (Three references) (CK)

Presents a replication of experiments which found that input practice is better than output practice for comprehension skills, and no worse than output practice for production skills in a second language (Spanish). Findings reveal that these patterns are obscured when the testing time and the morphosyntactic nature of the structure in question…

Explores the historical, political and socioeconomic contexts within which African children acquire their education in a major international language. Maintains that while such languages assist in the transfer of science and technology, compared to native languages, they are limited in their capacity to serve indigenous educational objectives.…

Examines the perceptions of European teenagers living in Europe regarding that continent. The study focuses on their declared knowledge sources, attitudes towards a European identity and second language learning and future aspirations. The article discusses the role of schools, the media, and the home environment in shaping the perceptions of…