Discusses the establishment of World Post Day and the objectives of its observance. Provides guidelines for upper elementary and lower secondary teachers to encourage observance of World Post Day across all disciplines. Includes language exercises in Maltese, English, French, and Italian as well as objectives for home economics, history, music,…

Answers 20 frequently asked questions regarding implementation of elementary school foreign language immersion programs, including consideration of program goals, staffing, total versus partial immersion, student participation, effects on other programs and learning, and parent involvement. (CB)

Comparison of verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and California Achievement Test (CAT) scores of high school students who had (N=1,333) or had not (N=445) taken at least one year of foreign language study supported the conclusion that length of foreign language study was positively related to high SAT verbal scores. (CB)

Summarizes information on learning disabilities and foreign language learning and details the University of Pennsylvania's policy on exempting learning disabled students from foreign language requirements. The policy for exemption involves the review of students' case histories, evidence of effort made, and satisfactory performance in other…

Presents the latest hardware, and pedagogical and theoretical advances in computer-assisted language learning and describes an actual design implementation in a Spanish course. (Author/SED)

Emphasizes the growing need for business school students and/or graduates to develop extensive knowledge of foreign cultures and languages. Since language is the primary carrier of culture, proficiency in a buyer's language achieves the double objective of a medium of communication and a medium of insights into cultural attributes which affect the…

Discusses student cultural exchange programs in Canada, focusing on: (1) the value of cultural exchanges and (2) the findings of research studies on the effects of student exchanges on second-language proficiency and student attitudes toward the people they are visiting. A list of current exchange programs is appended. (SED)

Fifty-one adult second-language learners were interviewed, and their answers relating to objectives and psychological conditions were found to cluster around affective factors. Effective conditions included relationship between learner and resource person, self-esteem, friendships with native speakers, and learning in an occupational/vocational…

Developing intercultural competence within the context of the foreign language learning experience can help students acquire the ability to understand and adapt to difference as well as the ability to be flexible and open when facing new experiences. Although commonly assumed to be dependent on an international experience or encounters with…

This study examined the construct validity of the Motivation Orientation and Language Learning Strategy Scales: For Spanish as a Foreign Language (MOLLS). The MOLLS is a Likert-type scale, that has 20 items in 5 broad categories in the motivation orientation scale (MOS) and 18 items in 3 broad categories in the language learning strategies scale…

Although Montessori parents recognize the importance of early second-language acquisition and would like to help their children obtain these skills, they often lack the knowledge that would enable them to take an active role in supporting such learning. The staff of the Montessori Center of Nyack, New York, devised three simple ways to bring…

This paper examines the assimilation of immigrant families in the United States. Chapter 1, "Introduction," reviews basic issues. Chapter 2, "Why Discuss the Integration of Immigrant Families?" examines such issues as continuing mismatches between immigration and immigrant policies, population dispersal, the shifting political…

This study examined why preschool, kindergarten, and 4th grade students had poor comprehension of a second language. The reasons for this were threefold: learning a second language is not essential to a child's life at these ages; they are not motivated to learn a second language on their own; and it was widely thought that learning a second…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to investigate the effects of visual information, background knowledge, and academic reading experience, and (2) to identify the non-native readers' problems in comprehending Japanese academic texts. Sixty-three foreign students studying at universities and graduate schools in Japan participated in this…

This paper first gives a brief chronological overview of reading theory development and a short introduction to schema theory, and then comprehensively reviews, comments, and synthesizes research-based studies, published between 1980 and 2002, that examined the effect of text structure (reader effect and text effect) on L1 and L2 reading…