The use of speech or language produced by native speakers in real situations for teaching oral communication skills in the second language classroom is described. Three sample lessons, based on the author's teaching experience in Japan, are presented. All lessons used material called "The Bellcrest Story," produced by the British…

A functional approach to language teaching begins with knowing how students intend to use the foreign language for specific purposes and in specific situations. Instructors of medical Spanish can begin by determining the specific language functions that their students must be able to express when communicating with Hispanic patients, by means of a…

Alberta's teaching guide for upper-elementary French immersion instruction provides assistance in integrating notional program content with communicative language techniques. It does not provide content material, but focuses on techniques for enhancing instruction of both receptive (reading and listening) and productive (writing and speaking)…

The newsletter is devoted to description of a 5-day conference on "Teaching Spanish to Southwest Hispanic Students" funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and held at New Mexico State University on July 14-19, 1993. It lists the middle and high school teachers from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas who…

This paper focuses on the mechanism by which the successful learner acquires a second language. The author postulates a core language, the common core of the speaker's native and target languages, and states that the second language becomes an extension of this common core. Whatever language-specific features are added while acquiring the second…

The methodologies employed in the communication/language objectives-based system (C/LOBS), which supports the front-end analysis efforts of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, are examined. The C/LOBS project, which is described in 13 volumes and an executive summary, functions as a subsystem of the instructional systems…

Papers from the Proceedings of the 17th meeting of the AIMAV (Association internationale pour le developpement de la communication interculturelle) are collected in this volume. Conference papers appear either in English, in French, or in Russian. For purposes of this abstract, all titles below have been translated into English. The…

This classic study is one of a series of reports of investigations carried out during 1936 and 1937 under the "Project in Research in Universities" of the Office of Education. The report describes work done during a 6-year period (1930-36) in a school for Spanish-speaking children where English (language, spelling, writing, reading) was…

A collection of readings on communicative language teaching explains what communicative language teaching is and how the goal of communicative competence is being met by teachers. The following articles are included:"Functional Approaches to Language and Language Teaching: Another Look" (Margie S. Berns); "Contextual Considerations in…

A discussion linking theory and practice in second language instruction focuses on ways of providing opportunities for meaningful interaction in language classrooms. The first part lays a theoretical foundation, looking at: the variety and evolution of instructional approaches from grammar-based to communicative; the classroom as environment for…

Papers in this volume on individualized instruction in foreign languages include: (1) "Individualized Instruction and 'Back to Basics': Are They Compatible?" by Howard B. Altman; (2) "Individualized Instruction in French at Northwestern University" by Margaret Sinclair Breslin; (3) "An Individualized French Program for…