Cites a typical classroom "pseudo-conversation," showing how German students of English sound stiff and clumsy when conversing with English-speaking partners. This is blamed partly on the teacher's behavior. The example is then expanded into a "communicative exchange." In teaching conversation, manner is seen as more important…

English language study should be introduced into the social work curriculum since various social judgments people make about each other on the basis of dialectal differences may interfere with communication between social workers and their clients, coworkers, or the general community. (Author/LBH)

Study is made of five problem categories arising from use of national languages in training or education: linguistic, technical, educational, economic, and political. Conditions which appear necessary for the success of such changes involve planning, flexible rate of introduction, and synthesis of linguistic reform with other educational reforms.…

Responds to an article by S. Alan Cohen on oral language deficiency and its relation to reading failure, and concludes that reading achievement and reading failure are largely determined by cognitive and communicative strategies that may be socialized differently in diverse social and ethnic groups. (JM)

Before asking how to teach French, one should ask what French to teach. It is suggested that everyday French, "la langue usuelle," should be the norm for American teachers and textbook writers and editers. Greater utilization of film scenarios and songs of good quality are among the means suggested. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

This article discusses the goal of the French class, communicative competence, and the best method to use to achieve this goal, simulation. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

Discusses nonstandard forms of English and asks teachers not to emphasize the propriety of standardized English but to extend the student's range of language types. (RL)

This article examines the relationship between linguistic analysis and the psychology of language acquisition in current language teaching practice and illustrates how an awareness of this relationship may lead to new classroom approaches and techniques. (CHK)

Listening comprehension of foreign languages is receiving increasing emphasis in language instruction. It is important therefore to consider some divergences between spoken and written language, together with their implications for language learning and teaching. This article analyzes some such differences in French. (CHK)

Outlines major publishing houses' solutions to the common-gender singular pronoun problem. Maintains that the American English-speaking world employs different standards for speaking and writing, even in educated ranks. Argues that changing spoken language is probably hopeless. Proposes seven tactics through which to counter written grammar and…

The analysis of questionnaire responses of 888 teachers of the hearing impaired found that deaf teachers, teachers with less than six years of experience, and junior high and high school teachers reported incorporating fewer English grammatical features in their sign communication than other teachers. (Author/DB)

Summarizes contact-linguistic research on the Samis and Finns, the northernmost minorities in Scandinavia. The monolingual view of northern Scandinavian languages in the past is complemented with a multilingual perspective of the interaction between minority and larger languages. Among contact patterns discussed are North Germanic-Sami,…

Discusses the concept of politeness in language and its importance and implications in the foreign language classroom, covering interactional rules and competence, politeness as a social-psychological phenomenon, politeness as a learning goal and subject matter, and politeness in discourse. (CB)

Considers previous research and data regarding the relative frequencies of a wide variety of lexical items expressing doubt and certainty in written and spoken corpuses and uses the data to evaluate the adequacy of some well-known English as a second language textbooks. (Author/CB)

Examines the language used by native English speakers in business meetings and compares it with the language taught in English textbooks for use in such meetings, demonstrating that there is almost no correspondence between the two and raising questions regarding the usefulness of such textbooks. (Author/CB)