Second Life is one of the many three-dimensional virtual environments accessible through a computer and a fast broadband connection. Thousands of participants connect to this platform to interact virtually with the world, join international communities of practice and, for some, role play groups. Unlike online role play games however, Second Life…

The Summer Language Houses (SLH) in French, German, and Spanish at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have been extremely effective in teaching language skills and encouraging students to continue language study. The five-week intensive language programs at the second-year level emphasize oral communication but provide practice in all language…

The foreign language faculty at College of Saint Scholastica Minnesota) developed and implemented 10-day Spanish and French immersion programs based on Peace Corps methodology as a means of affording students time for intensive study of those languages, improving students' fluency, and instituting a change in teaching methodology. The first…

Two programs at the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) in Spanish and Cultural Sensitivity are reported, one at the UCSD Medical Center and the other at the School of Medicine. These programs illustrate the power of culturally sensitive medical care versus a medical practice with non cross-cultural awareness that could result in patient…

In a 3-year, federally-funded program, faculty at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) have developed a series of behavioral and natural science courses in which students with at least the fourth semester of foreign language do a portion of the course readings in the second language and meet once a week to discuss them in that language with the regular…

Describes a university's pilot immersion and multiliteracy program, in which first-year language students used Spanish language newspapers and texts to study Latin American history, geography, and current affairs. Students in the pilot program developed skills similar to those of students in traditional content courses. Sample quizzes are…

In response to rapidly falling foreign language enrollments, the State University of New York College at New Paltz designed and actively promoted a language immersion program in the summer of 1981. The program consisted of instruction in twelve languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian,…

The development and coordination of interdisciplinary immersion programs in French and Spanish at Boston College are chronicled, and some issues of federal grant support are discussed. The programs, currently involving the history, theology, philosophy, fine arts, management, and sociology departments and soon including political science, consist…