This manual was developed by the Project Capacity Building for States (CBS), a national bilingual vocational instructor training project authorized under Title 1, Part B, Bilingual Vocational Instructor Training of the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act as an aid for individuals conducting in-service training related to serving the Limited…

One teacher's experience with peer critique in a college-level composition course in English as a second language (ESL) suggests that it can be an effective classroom technique. If students are given very specific guidelines to follow, they often do a very credible job of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their peers' writing. Indiana…

A workshop supported by the Council of Europe's Project No. 7 for representatives of supervisory staff for the teaching of languages and culture of origin from Algeria, Italy, and Portugal focused on cultural diversity as contributed by migrants' children in day-to-day classroom work and in the curricula and subject-matter of primary teaching as a…

A study to find patterns of cohesion and rhetorical structure that distinguish good from weak English essay writing is described. The corpus consisted of ten Swedish college essays written as part of the final exam in a first-year English course. Methodological problems encountered included the delimitation of units for the analysis of cohesive…

The University of Illinois' Language Learning Laboratory began the process of developing its own videotape materials in 1979 with limited resources. Interest grew gradually among faculty and the graduate teaching staff, who generally designed and produced their own materials and then shared them with colleagues. A wide variety of tapes has been…

The validity of the theory of crucial similarity in language interference is investigated. The theory proposes that when a first and a second language are structurally similar in some aspects, the second language learner will assume similarity in other aspects, causing interference. In this study, the German of first grade students whose teacher…

All teachers are teachers of language, whether they recognize it or not, but the importance of language for learning, training, and vocational competence is underemphasized in much postsecondary education. As a result, performance in language for specialized purposes is declining and employers are dissatisfied. An adequate education in language…

This collection of conference papers includes: "When Does Teacher Talk Work as Input?"; "Cultural Input in Second Language Learning"; "Skilled Variation in a Kindergarten Teacher's Use of Foreigner Talk"; "Teacher-Pupil Interaction in Second Language Development"; "Foreigner Talk in the University…

The assessment reported in this paper represents the first attempt by British Columbia to use the Canadian Ministry of Education's assessment program model with special programs; in this case, the French immersion program was chosen. Objectives of the assessment were as follows: (1) examination of the extent to which students are achieving…

A literature survey of more than 800 sources, approximately 140 of which were judged to be relevant, assessed problems Alaska Natives and American Indians experience in learning English language skills required for survival and success in a modern, technological culture. Since the survey was to guide the adaptation and development of instructional…

A study of a two-way bilingual program in the Port Chester, NY Public Schools examined the relationship between classroom environment, and the language proficiency levels and second language learning outcomes of bilingual and monolingual pupils participating in the program. Pupils were second- through fifth-graders, including…

A survey of students in the school of economics in an Italian university investigated the following: (1) students' attitudes toward and interest in learning English as a second language; (2) their perceived need for using the language personally, academically, and professionally; (3) their assessment of their own second language proficiency; and…

Three research-based theoretical frameworks on which educational programs for language minority students might be based are discussed, along with a composite framework. The frameworks, which coincide with California's frameworks (described in "Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework," 1981), are as follows: (1) a…

A study investigated the hypothesis that during the "silent" period of second language learning, in which there is a dramatic drop in language directed to speakers of the second language, children not only passively assimilate second language input but also use private speech to actively integrate it. The study examined the learning…

The A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University has developed an intensive, five-week orientation program based on weekly videotaping to help foreign graduate students confront problems of language orientation and build the confidence necessary to become successful students. The course covers a review of grammar rules, spelling rules,…