This study describes how oral language was assessed in an advanced-level college foreign language (FL) conversation course. Learners used the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines to guide self-analyses of their oral production at intervals throughout the course. The intent was to provide opportunities for…

Tasks can vary in terms of difficulty and implementation conditions, and these in turn may affect the nature of the language produced by the learner. There have been a large number of studies which have investigated the effects of these task properties and implementation conditions on the language the learner produces. To date, results have been…

Foreign language (FL) teachers and students may have very similar or disparate notions of effective teaching, and the intersection of the two sets of beliefs has ramifications for language learning and the effectiveness of instruction. Horwitz (1990), Kern (1995), and Schulz (1996) have argued that mismatches between FL students' and teachers'…

Describes and gives examples of "chatter chain," a method of teaching pupils to develop their French oral skills from a single question and answer that lead to a short conversation. This method combines the main linguistic structures to be learned with enought new grammar to allow a fair degree of pupil choice. (SED)

Reasons are given for restoring grammatical study to a more central place in second language study. One reason given is the limitations inherent in the objectives of an audiolingual approach; another is the indirect impact of the enormous advances being made in modern linguistics. (RM)

Examines the differences between explicit and implicit methods of teaching grammar in a university's advanced French conversation classes. Students taught explicitly performed better overall (in writing and orally) than students who were exposed to an implicit presentation of the same grammar content. (CB)

This report, a follow up to H. McKaughan's article "Language Materials Development" (Philippine Journal for Language Teaching; v2 n1-2 1969), reports on a project at the Pacific and Asian Linguistic Institute (PALI) of the University of Hawaii to develop a set of materials for seven Philippine languages: Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon,…

A collection of four short articles giving detailed lesson plans using magazines, editorials and recipes to teach grammar. "A" is used as the example in these lesson plans. The first article deals with avoir and the past participle. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

This article compares first and second language acquisition and applies conclusions pertaining to first language acquisition to second language learning, specifically that a command of grammar is essential and this grammar is independent of that associated with the written language. (CLK)

Instructional objectives of the Dade County Public Schools Quinmester Program in German for use with "Lernen Wir Deutsch: Part 1" focus on the development of basic skills through the use of short dialogues and structured exercises. The contents of this guide focus on: (1) course description, (2) broad goals and performance objectives,…

Instructional objectives of the Dade County Public Schools Quinmester Program in German for use with "Lernen Wir Deutsch: Part 2" focus on development of basic skills through the use of short dialogues and structured exercises. The grammar of the course includes the study of nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Possessive determiners are…