Surveys some of the principal theories and methodologies in second language instruction. (EKN)

Excerpts from a discussion session involving six panelists and 150 teachers of English in non-English-speaking countries range from the revolution in the communicative approach to the extent to which the mother tongue is taken into account, translation, grammatical correctness, teaching large classes, and textbook development. (MSE)

Attempts to demonstrate the strategies used by the second language learner in deciphering unfamiliar linguistic material. (AM)

Defines the concepts underlying the semiotics of written texts and emphasizes the distinction between literary production (discourse) and technical writing (message), the former stressing the poetic and expressive functions, the latter the referential function. Describes the language of "messages" as based on unambiguous terms that reflect the…

Focuses on the conflicts among written languages in the countries of West Africa, especially in the areas of education, mass communication, and creative writing. Points out that writing is done mostly in the language of the former colonizing country, which makes literature accessible only to the elite. Advocates translation and native languages…

Synonyms within languages were compared with exact repetition of words as aids to recall. Interlingual synonyms had effects identical to those of exact repetition, whereas intralingual synonyms were less effective than exact repetition. Bilingual equivalence of words does not appear to be due to common underlying semantic structures. (Author/RD)

Performance was better for children above six years of age and better in Spanish than English. It is suggested that the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test never be used to assess the general intelligence of Mexican American children, because it likely underestimates their ability. (Author)

Discusses the steadily declining enrollment in classical languages programs at college level and explores ways of making curricula more viable. Describes alternatives based on the introduction of a single-subject scheme in classical studies and debates the pros and cons of reading the classics in translation. (MES)

The French language article analyzes the Test of Science Processes and describes other measurements of the investigative skills of secondary students. It defines problem solving, scientific method, investigation (the preferred strategy for teaching high school science curricula), and two fundamental investigative abilities: observation and…

Innovations in the German program at this college include (1) an emphasis on Junior Year Abroad for all majors; (2) courses in German literature in English offered to non-German students; (3) a course in translating skills, from German to English, for advanced students. (CHK)

Focuses on the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan and describes Charles Fries' influence in the field, the teaching methods used, and the preservice and continuing education of EFL teachers there. The article expresses the hope that this experience will improve cross-cultural understanding between Australian educators and…

The applicability of a Chinese translation of the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) (H. W. Marsh, 1982 and later) and the generality of findings based on North American research were studied with 844 students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Results support the use of the SEEQ in this Chinese setting. (SLD)

Presents a study based on the analysis of contrastive Swedish-English data on modal particles. The article maintains that the meaning of modal particles requires an analysis of their pragmatic aspects such as the relation between the interlocutors. The analysis most accurately accounting for the multifunctionality of the particles is based on a…

Discusses issues related to natural language processing, including theoretical developments; natural language understanding; tools and techniques; natural language text processing systems; abstracting; information extraction; information retrieval; interfaces; software; Internet, Web, and digital library applications; machine translation for…