Criteria for developing an advanced conversation course for second language learners are examined. It is suggested that the teacher needs to approach the development of the course with an awareness that most students enrolled will probably be suffering from an acute lack of self-confidence when conversing in the target language. The proposed…

American working class organizations' efforts since World War I to establish and control their own educational programs flourished during the 1920s and 1930s with the appearance of over 300 worker controlled colleges. An important forerunner of this movement was the Work People's College, created by socialist Finnish immigrants in Duluth,…

The purpose of this investigation was to design and test an information-eliciting question instrument in order to determine whether the structures in the verbal responses of young Mexican-American, bilingual children entering school would reveal the covert mental operations, concepts and oral language skills elicited. The basic objective was to…

This annotated bibliography of English as a second language (ESL) materials for grades 4-12 is divided into the following parts: ESL texts, ESL readers, writing texts, supplementary materials, tests, student references, and aids for the ESL teacher. The supplementary materials include grammar practice, pronunciation and fluency, vocabulary and…

Book four, part two, of an intermediate-advanced level German refresher course for college students is presented. The volume consists of 25 lessons of text material and 50 prerecorded tapes. A typical lesson with its two accompanying tapes is made up of interrogation, military terminology drill, and a comprehension test. The materials of the first…

This paper presents historical information about language teaching methods and focuses on "formal" and "functional" strategies of teaching and learning. Particular attention is directed toward the immersion type of education. A table that lists developments in language teaching theory from 1840-1977 is presented. A table that summarizes…

THIS BOOK IS AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASSIMILATION AND RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION PATTERNS OF TEN EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT GROUPS (FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION) IN TEN MAJOR AMERICAN CITIES FROM 1910 TO 1950. DATA WERE GATHERED FROM THE DECENNIAL UNITED STATES CENSUSES. IN EACH CITY GROUPS WERE SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF THEIR RELATIVE NUMERICAL IMPORTANCE THEREIN.…

Features of Peace Corps language training programs are described with special emphasis on new approaches. The structure of a typical, minimal 300-hour program (4-6 hours per day) is contrasted with a new and very intensive program of instruction 8 hours a day. The increased need for two-language programs is explained. All programs require…

The purpose of this public school bilingual census was to identify the attendance centers in the state of Illinois which had students in need of bilingual education. According to an Illinois state law, any attendance center with 20 or more students of limited English language proficiency of the same non-English language must provide a bilingual…

This paper presents a discussion of the theory of bilingual education, including ideas developed by several linguistic researchers. Various aspects of bilingual education are discussed including objectives, definition, raison d'etre, dominance and balance, learning, types, and barriers. Second language learning is considered along with reasons for…

The aim of this study is to assess the degree to which sentence imitations of Negro and Mexican-American children (grades K-2) could be used as a basis for language evaluation. Tapes of 10 Negro and 10 Mexican-American children who had responded to a set of commercially available test materials were evaluated by panels of experts. Evaluations for…

This report presents a description of a seminar in American culture and English-as-a-second-language which allows the students to learn what they want, at their own rate. The teacher serves as a guide and helps the student plan and evaluate his studies. Students may also assume the function of communicating knowledge or ability to each other.…

An alternative assessment instrument developed to assess oral language skills of students in Spanish immersion programs in the United States is described. Originally developed by the Center for Applied Linguistic to evaluate 6-year-old immersion students' speaking and listening skills in a school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Student Oral…

This guide describes 94 classroom games designed to teach communicative skills in English as a second language, allowing students to use communication strategies in English in realistic situations similar to those in which they would use their native language. An introductory section outlines the rationale for the use of games in communicative…

Discusses the need to polish the foreign language skills of second-language teachers during their professional training. This training should concentrate primarily on the improvement of confidence in spontaneous target language use and grammatical accuracy and should also emphasize pedagogical development and reflection. (one reference) (CK)