A study investigated the possible relationships among situation-specific affective variables, motivational-attitudinal variables, and level of language learning in 70 students who were enrolled in a series of beginning Japanese language courses at the university level. Variables investigated included language class risk-taking, language class…

Issues of the newsletter, "Dialogue," covering 7 years in the 1980s are compiled in this publication, which contains an introductory section that lists the articles published in each issue. The first issue of "Dialogue," which appeared in April, 1982, explains the Dialogue Journal Project at the Center for Applied Linguistics.…

The Polish instructional materials in this volume are designed to accompany the "Reading Authentic Polish" workbooks. Their purpose is to familiarize students, in the classroom or through independent study, with spoken Polish in real-life situations. All materials were taken from Polish radio and television in 1991-92, a period of rapid…

Three empirical studies concerning reflective and rote learning in Finnish schools are described. In the first, a questionnaire given to school beginners reveals that during their first 12 weeks of school the children's estimates of the excitement and pleasure of learning and their conception of the role of understanding in learning decrease. The…

The five papers in this collection include: "Apprendre a apprendre les langues: 'Mais je veux etre un handicape linguistique!'" (Learning To Learn Languages: But I Want To Be Linguistically Handicapped!) (Richard Duda); "Pedagogie integree des langues maternelle et seconde. La conscience des problemes chez les enseignants et chez les enseignes"…

A study investigated the instructional effectiveness of the Boswell English as a Second Language Program, a phonics-based language teaching program using interactive, multisensory (auditory, visual, tactile) computer technology. The program is a sequence of lessons designed to give non-native speakers an understanding of English phonological…

The Palm Beach County, Florida, Adult ESOL Curriculum Development Project, which was funded by a state Section 353 Demonstration Project grant, is described. The primary goal for this 2-year project was to develop a model adult English-for Speakers-of-Other-Languages (ESOL) curriculum for the state. A needs assessment was conducted statewide and a…

This book is designed to help second and foreign language teachers understand how languages are learned. Chapter 1 examines several theories on how young children acquire their first language, including behaviorist, innatist, and interactionist models. Chapter 2 presents and analyzes several theories on second language (SL) learning. Chapter 3…

This article is an exploration of differences among adults studying beginning English as a Second Language (ESL). Data was obtained through interviews with 20 Washington, DC-area Spanish-speaking adults enrolled in beginning ESL classes who had a range of different literacy levels in their first language. The interviews included two phases, one…

This annotated bibliography contains publication data and information on the content and availability of 58 resource materials that are recommended for use in vocational preparation programs for individuals with limited English proficiency. Descriptions of the resource materials are organized into sections on the following topics: English as a…

This article provides school council members in Texas public schools engaged in site-based decision-making (SBDM) with information about creating successful preschool programs for language minority children (LMC). It is intended to help the councils make decisions as to how they can: (1) ensure that language minority children have access equal to…

This work is one in a series that focuses on nine languages representing the bulk of the second language learning effort in Australian education (Arabic, Modern Standard Chinese, French, German, Modern Greek, Indonesian/Malay, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish). These languages were categorized as the Languages of Wider Teaching. This particular work…

This paper focuses on parents' attitudes about their children's maintenance of their native language (L1). It is part of an inter-nordic study of immigrant languages between generation one and generation two, that interviewed 276 parents of North American, Finnish, Turkish, and Vietnamese origin, residing in Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.…

A discussion of trends and progress in language testing looks at movement in the field since 1980, based on the themes and content of national and international conferences; trends in test content, method, and analysis; and work on the nature of proficiency and of language learning. It is proposed that movement evidenced by conferences is largely…

A review of recent literature on the whole language approach to second language teaching focuses on the value of the approach for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning. It examines research and theory dating back to 1977 on various aspects of the first- and second-language learning environment and process in children. Based on this review,…