Discusses a foreign-language-reading approach through which students are exposed to various books that they self-select and discuss in literature circles, noting 49 college students' reactions to the approach in a French language class. Student surveys indicated that the method had a positive impact on their reading comprehension and attitudes,…

Examines whether differences exist in the provision and use of negative feedback, according to the age of the learners and the context of the interaction. Data were collected from 20 classrooms (20 adult and 10 child English-as-Second-Language classes) and 32 native speaker-nonnative speaker dyads (16 adult and 16 child). (Author/VWL)

Reports the results of research investigating the effectiveness of three types of English-as-Second-Language (ESL) programs in Quebec. Equivalent ESL curricula were taught over the regular 10-month school year in "distributed" programs, over a 5-month period in "massed" programs, and over a 5-month period along with…

Tested the hypothesis that individual differences in immediate-verbal-memory span predict success in second-language vocabulary acquisition. In the two-session study, adult subjects learned 56 English-Finnish translations. Tested one week later, subjects were less likely to remember those words they had difficulty learning, even though they had…

Examines British national examination results and related trends in the declining level of performance in modern languages relative to other subjects, suggesting that this trend to underperform in modern languages may be due in part to the relative difficulty of the examinations. The paper proposes strategies to help teachers become more rigorous…

Describes the creation and use of Web sites developed by secondary school teachers of German and European history who participated in an NEH-sponsored summer institute titled "Post-Wall Germany: Integrating Post-Unification German Culture into the High School Curriculum. Teacher participants also offer suggestions for using sites they created…

Evaluated a restructured literacy methods course intended to empower teachers to teach linguistically diverse students, examining the impact of the course redesign and team teaching. Data from observations of student teachers and focus group interviews indicated that participants felt well-prepared to teach second language learners, though they…

Examines the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer as a possible basis for cultural stereotypes. Data from second language (L2) German learners of English are compared with data from native speakers of American English. Results suggest that the German English L2 speakers produced responses more in keeping with German rules of speaking and conventions…

Examines issues confronting English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students in mainstream content areas at the secondary school level. Research on the integration of language, content, literacy, and culture in courses is reconducted at a Canadian school with a concentration of Asian background students. Focuses on discourse contexts for mainstreamed…

Because most English language learners receive instruction in content-area classes, teachers of these classes need to understand the varying backgrounds of ELLs and their different levels of conversational and academic English skills. The authors have developed a research-based model for effectively delivering sheltered instruction to ELLs in…

With its focus on simplification universals, developmental orders, teachability, and functional-grammatical bases for acquisition, the well-known research on German (L2) language acquisition has contributed much to SLA research in general. At the same time, sociolinguistic investigations focus squarely on the difficult social conditions that…

Higher education in general and study abroad programming in particular are hardly strangers to stringent demands for accountability. What is new to higher education and to study abroad is the demand for accountability in terms of measurable student learning outcomes. This article is a first report from a system-wide initiative to document learning…

In this article, the authors describe the Georgetown University Consortium Project (GCP), a three-year assessment study designed to document the learning abroad of students from Georgetown University, The University of Minnesota, Rice University, and Dickinson College. Funded by two Department of Education Title VI grants, this ongoing three-year…

There are many untested, long-held assumptions within the field of study abroad concerning the impact of program elements such as study duration, language of instruction, program models, and student housing choices. One assumption embraced within the field is that direct enrollment (or full immersion) programs are more effective at achieving a…

In higher education circles, it has become commonplace to observe that global awareness must be an important educational goal if students are to cope successfully as citizens and professionals with the challenges of globalization. Yet despite the growing acknowledgment that international education must be a central priority, most indicators…