Discusses the effectiveness of Kuwait University Language Center Placement Tests in promoting homogeneity of class ability levels. Looks at the appropriateness of multiple-choice tests of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension for placement and diagnostic purposes in large programs. Concludes that carefully designed and written…

Outlines a fourth-grade geography and social studies unit adopted by the London, Ontario, Canada, school system to help Ontario schoolchildren develop positive views of the people of Quebec and their environment. The unit stresses the inherent beauty of human heterogeneity and the advantage of learning more than one language. (RM)

Environmental awareness language exchange occurred between four English and four French schools. Comparative studies on shopping patterns/consumerism, leisure/recreation, and management of resources provided motivation for learning and using the second language. Advantages for this approach include new dimensions on traditional language exchanges,…

Describes strategies for using story reading to help language minority students in grades one through six acquire language proficiency. Discusses ways to make story reading effective, including frequent reading, the use of cueing strategies, and the use of follow-up activities. (FL)

Describes a study which investigated and described the linguistic input and conversational interaction found in English as a second language classrooms when small groups of students work together. The results are compared with classroom activities in which the students participate as a class in teacher-directed lessons. (SED)

Describes the language development of two children, now aged 5 and 8, who acquired two languages--Spanish and German--simultaneously from birth and a third--English--when very young. Focuses on the following factors: patterns of interference, code switching, language dominance, the role of parents, the social environment, and the child's…

The communicative approach has brought second language instruction a long way from strict grammar-oriented pedagogy, carrying with it a return to meaning, less repetition, emphasis on the learner, and attention to the social and pragmatic aspects of communication. (MSE)

Describes a software package for computer-assisted language learning, designed to put the text handling and "number crunching" capabilities of the microcomputer to use in the foreign language classroom. Done in ways compatible with the learner's own natural needs and strategies, it also gives the classroom teacher a significant degree of control…

An attitude survey of 12-year-old students in the United Kingdom studying French or German showed that girls are more likely to favor languages than boys. However, both sexes rejected the idea that one sex is better at learning a foreign language that the other. (Author/RM)

Describes two experiments which assessed the ability of adult second language (L2) learners to produce and comprehend real, unreal, and past unreal English conditional sentences. Developmental differences are analyzed in relation to distinctive features. The analyses lend support to the explanatory power of markedness theory in explaining L2…

Discusses problems with the ACTFL/ETS Oral Proficiency Guidelines and examines inconsistencies relating to three assumptions of oral proficiency (OPT)--hours of study, accuracy/interest, and errors. Further, it is argued that the main problems with OPT arise from an analytic approach and the native speaker yardstick. (SED)

A study of dictionary usage strategies used by 89 college students of Spanish indicated that beginning and intermediate students favored a search strategy based on lexical form, while advanced students used a more successful semantic-based strategy. The data are analyzed against the Vygotskyan theory of human development and self-actualization.…

Describes a study which attempts to place the problem of second language learning and use by bilingual children into a framework of double socialization through the analysis of mother-child and peer group interaction. Ukrainian and Greek second generation mothers and their children aged 5-6 years were observed in four sessions. (SED)

Describes a project that consisted of a school and a community working together to compile a "trictionary," a Chinese, Spanish, and English dictionary. (DF)

Provisions for multicultural education in Australia include expanded ESL and foreign language offerings, various bilingual and bicultural curriculum projects for ethnic schools, and revamping of social studies programs to educate all students and teachers about Australia's ethnic minorities. While such programs should enhance mutual respect and…