Examines whether mnemonic strategies can be successfully applied to the learning of a non-Roman foreign-language alphabet. Students were given materials presenting Russian letters and their English sounds on each page. Beneath each letter was a mnemonic. Findings indicate that these strategies enhance the learning speed of non-Roman…

Discusses the focus of foreign-language graduate programs on preparing students for their careers. The article argues that the spread of teaching-methods courses and the interest in the utility of education has transformed these programs into hybrids that lack intellectual discipline. The article concludes graduate programs in foreign languages…

Spanish is the language recommended for "at-risk" students because of the correlation between the oral and written language. Students with dyslexia and other language problems can benefit from a suitable teaching method coupled with instructional materials and class activities that address their particular learning disorders. (four references)…

Examines the effect of test method on the reading performance of two levels of early-stage second-language (L2) readers of French. The study compares two global response modes, the summary and the recall protocol. Results indicate a significant qualitative difference in the performance on the two tasks. The summaries contained significantly more…

Examines the extent to which a highly motivated older adult can acquire a new language by focusing on a case study of a 57-year-old woman's endeavor to learn Spanish in an immersion setting. The learner's experiences, as recorded in diary entries, are examined in relation to the literature on cognitive aging. (Author/VWL)

Considers whether the development of reading skills in different orthographies varies primarily as a function of common underlying cognitive processes, or as a function of orthographic transparency. Concludes that when the script is less complex young children appear to develop their word recognition skills with relative ease, even in the absence…

Examines the role of cultural background knowledge on the reading comprehension of third graders acquiring literacy in Dutch as a first and second language while reading noncontrived texts from the reading curricula. Finds a facilitating effect of cultural familiarity for both reading comprehension and reading efficiency. Notes that this effect…

Provides an overview of issues in the literacy policy field from a social practices perspective. Outlines a central dilemma in both theory and practice in adult literacy work: that practice theory has not impacted on literacy policy in large parts of the world. Suggests there is an ever-widening gap between literacies of everyday life and the…

This paper addresses the theme of the special issue by looking at the development of student autonomy in learning in the French programme at the University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. The paper explains why a focus on autonomy is apt to meet both the programme's linguistic goals and its larger societal goal of preparing…

The author recounts his experience as a Fulbright Scholar in the Department of Special Education at National Changhua University of Education (NCUE) in Changhua, Taiwan, during the fall of 2003. Several aspects of his experience are highlighted, including teaching foreign college students, learning Mandarin, conducting workshops, and consulting…

Purpose: This study evaluates the extent to which bilingual children produce the same or overlapping responses on tasks assessing semantic skills in each of their languages and whether classification analysis based on monolingual or conceptual scoring can accurately classify the semantic development of typically developing (TD) bilingual children.…

This paper reports the results of a study comparing the interactional dynamics of face-to-face and on-line peer-tutoring in writing by university students in Hong Kong. Transcripts of face-to-face tutoring sessions, as well as logs of on-line sessions conducted by the same peer-tutors, were coded for speech functions using a system based on…

Dutch schools have to deal with policy programs that generally are aimed at the improvement of the cognitive and social functioning of 3 groups of disadvantaged students. These are (a) pupils with special educational needs, (b) pupils at risk, and (c) non-Dutch pupils. The Dutch Integrated School Policy Project examines the implementation and…

The next generation's enthusiasm for instant messaging, videogames, and peer-to-peer file swapping is likely to be dismissed by their elders as so many ways to waste time and avoid the real worlds of work or school. But these activities may not be quite as vapid as they may seem from the perspective of outsiders--or educators. Researchers point…

Due to an increase in enrollment in upper-level Spanish classes that posed staffing problems, the Spanish section of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Tennessee decided to combine three sections of Spanish 331, "Introduction to Hispanic Culture," into one large lecture course, which was…