This book is designed to help Peace Corps Volunteers figure out how they learn best and how they can capitalize on this to learn a new language. It teaches volunteers to identify and reflect on their learning style, attitudes, and motivation; organize their learning; and experiment with various strategies and tools for learning a language on their…

Analysis of error patterns in a test taken by 698 Finnish university students shows errors are made in this declining order of frequency: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and use. More talkative students were proportionately more proficient per utterance, and higher proficiency also correlated with sex (female) and high matriculation test…

Describes features of articulatory shortcuts discovered among middle class, educated native speakers of Spanish in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It is maintained that these features should be taught to students of Spanish in order that they may understand colloquial Spanish speech. (AM)

A study investigated attitudes of 132 Austrian university students of English toward three native English accents (standard British, near-standard British, American) and two Austrian non-native accents. Results confirm non-native accents' low status, and indicate personal preference for whichever accent is most familiar from overseas visits. Most…

An experiment in a grade 2 French immersion program compared performance of a group-taught music lessons totally integrated into classroom instruction and a group not given music instruction. Pre- and post-tests of tonal-rhythmic patterns and form that have commonalities with pronunciation, oral grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension found…

Encourages those whose use of technology now extends no further than the language laboratory to examine what can be done with some of the simpler computer-based technologies inside and outside the classroom. The article argues that the computer is the best tool available for taking tedious grammar drills out of the classroom while keeping them in…

A graduate level course offered to foreign medical graduates (FMGs) at Wayne State University in Michigan was developed after a needs assessment indicated the desirability of improving the speaking fluency, pronunciation, and cultural understanding of FMGs. It was found that weaknesses in those areas, which are not assessed in the Test of English…

Strategies are suggested that can be used by teachers who are trying to get Black Dialect speaking students to speak and write the General Dialect. The approach takes into account the fact that all speakers are not on the same level. The need for careful pre-testing and determination of class rank is suggested, as are various ways of evaluating…

This book describes the conception, implementation, teaching, and evaluation of an experimental course in corrective phonetics for students enrolled in the Certificate in French as a Second Language (FLS) at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (Canada) during the winter and summer sessions of 1992. It also discusses the principles of a proposed…

Intended for second language teachers and teacher trainees, the guide to linguistic concepts used in second language instruction outlines the applications of basic linguistic concepts to classroom practice and some classroom activities. Chapters address the following topics: (1) the relationship of language and linguistics; (2) human…

Teaching conversation will always pose a great challenge to the foreign language instructor. Even by the third year of language study, the typical time for this skill's development, students have neither the fluency nor the confidence necessary to speak easily. Also, since many are ill at ease in conversing in their native language, getting these…

Intended for practitioners in the field of behavior disorders, this monograph presents a measurement rather than method focus to reading and writing instruction that is heavily based on the premise of developing skills, practicing such skills, and measuring growth in such skills. Two measurement concepts--proficiency and learning measurement--are…

This collection of readings on the topic of teaching English as a second language (ESL) has a twofold purpose: to enlarge the ESL teacher's awareness of the field and to assist in the professional growth of the new teacher or teacher-trainee. Each of the book's nine sections deal with one area of ESL instruction. Section 1, "Trends and Practices,"…

This paper discusses the status of word-final "r" and elongated "es" plural forms in Old Provencal as witnessed in the medieval drama "Lo Jutgamen General." Evidence from rhyming is given for pronunciation in cases where the disappearance of word-final "r" would be feasible but where it is nevertheless…

This study identified two types of interference between Hungarian and English: phonetic and phonological interference. Four native speakers of Hungarian who are second language speakers of English read a passage containing a wide variety of sounds in different phonological environments. A set of rules mapping American English onto…