Foreign summer language programs offer many advantages to students, but students may only receive superficial contact with the host culture and language and may be motivated only by their wish to have a memorable experience abroad. Suggestions are presented to ensure academic validity of such programs in the areas of motivation, academic credit,…

Individuals interested in becoming translators should pursue a generalist arts and science background as undergraduates and begin professional study to become translators in graduate programs. Prospective translators first need the skills and knowledge learned in a good liberal arts education before acquiring skills necessary for accurate,…

Describes a pilot program designed to offer a curriculum for students interested in beginning the study of a foreign language as part of their preparation for international professions (engineering, business, sciences, etc.). Through interviews with representatives of international business, banking, and government agencies who have served abroad,…

A study investigated the relationships among vocabulary size, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension in English as a second language (ESL). Subjects were 74 native Chinese- and Korean-speaking students in intensive academic ESL courses in two Ontario universities. They were administered questionnaires to gather demographic and…

One of the challenges facing many foreign language programs today is maintaining high quality instruction despite increased enrollments and teacher shortages. One strategy for meeting this challenge is collaborative teaching. Collaborative teaching can occur in various settings and for different purposes. Studies of team-teaching have shown its…

Glendale Community College's (AZ) Spanish-language education program includes priorities in the following areas: four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and culture; counseling students; and use of technology for teaching and assessing language use and for professional development. (LB)

Australia's Griffith University introduced computer assisted language learning (CALL) to existing language curricula in the Department of Asian and International Studies, offering professional development to support the faculty. Evaluation of faculty and student attitudes and program outcomes indicated that with appropriate support, CALL had a…

Five brief essays are presented in response to an earlier article on leadership in college foreign-language departments. They address issues of curriculum redesign, pedagogical change, the nature of language teaching, the professional identity of language teachers, the role of professional organizations, and the traditional departmental model. A…

This paper presents a field study carried out with learners who used a grammar checker in real writing tasks in an advanced course at a Swedish university. The objective of the study was to investigate how students made use of the grammar checker in their writing while learning Swedish as a second language. Sixteen students with different…

An informal guide to the self-evaluation of school and college foreign language programs is presented. Its purpose is to suggest guidelines to departments that have not yet developed their own full evaluative procedures. Questions relate to: (1) philosophy and goals; (2) curriculum, methods, materials, and facilities; (3) faculty training and…

The questions investigated in this study concern the adequacy of the current comprehensive English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, the need for a separate but complementary reading program, the relative merits of a classroom-based or an independent reading laboratory method, and the relationship between native language reading proficiency and…

Throughout Finland the different centers for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), along with diverse interests of LSP instructors, account for a wide range of LSP curricula in Finland. This paper examines the situation in two centers and argues that any LSP program for postsecondary students who are likely to have professional contact with…

A foreign language curriculum is described that was designed especially for students enrolled in a master's in business education program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The program's goals are for students: (1) to attain a high-intermediate level of proficiency in speaking, listening, and reading in the target language; and…

The language laboratory could make a larger impact than it does on undergraduate language study. The growth of attractive new technology makes even more important the careful evaluation and exploitation of existing technology. A major obstacle in doing this is the lack of careful and rigorous research about the effectiveness of the language…

A self-instructional program in German for undergraduate students of engineering at Trinity College, Dublin, was developed based on a questionnaire of student needs, language experience, and preferred instructional methods. The course design and instructional materials for the program emphasized oral/aural skills; moreover, counseling and academic…