Presents the latest hardware, and pedagogical and theoretical advances in computer-assisted language learning and describes an actual design implementation in a Spanish course. (Author/SED)

Describes the beliefs about how to learn a second language held by 34 adults studying English as a second language and how these beliefs may influence what they do to learn. Describes eight modules designed to help these learners discover their own beliefs and consider alternative views. (SED)

Describes a study of the effects on second language attrition of attitudes, motivations, and reported language use by learners during a six-month period after the completion of an intensive French course. (SED)

Examines three myths about bilingual education and issues related to them. Topic areas include: types of bilingual education; maintenance, enrichment, and transitional programs; language choice in the bilingual classroom; second language development; and criteria for mainstreaming, the goals of bilingual education, and the linguistic…

Examines the effect in the primary and secondary school levels of teaching through the medium of Welsh and the response of the University of Wales. The media and the educational system are two formal social organizations which help the threatened Welsh language to survive. Another would be the establishment of a Welsh-medium university. (SED)

Presents the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' provisional generic descriptions for nine levels (novice-low, novice-mid, novice-high, advanced, advanced plus, and superior) in the following areas: (1) speaking, (2) listening, (3) reading, (4) writing, and for six levels in culture. (SED)

Emphasizes the growing need for business school students and/or graduates to develop extensive knowledge of foreign cultures and languages. Since language is the primary carrier of culture, proficiency in a buyer's language achieves the double objective of a medium of communication and a medium of insights into cultural attributes which affect the…

Reports on a survey of modern languages students at one school in Great Britain. The responding students were doing at least one foreign language to A level and were applying for courses in universities, polytechnic or colleges of higher education that involved the study of foreign languages in their degree courses. (SED)

Describes a study done to test the hypothesis that factors that shape children's production of their native language (L1) will also influence adults' pronunciation of sounds in a foreign language (L2). Results confirmed the hypothesis that developmental processes are "reactivated" when adults attempt to produce L2 sounds not found in their L1.…

Describes several elicitation techniques used for speech act data collection and analysis and discusses their suitability in testing a learner's acquisition of the rules of language use. Argues that the development of testing instruments for communicative competence cannot be divorced from the field of cross-cultural pragmatics. (SED)

Discusses student cultural exchange programs in Canada, focusing on: (1) the value of cultural exchanges and (2) the findings of research studies on the effects of student exchanges on second-language proficiency and student attitudes toward the people they are visiting. A list of current exchange programs is appended. (SED)

Argues that the second language acquisition process involves two models, providing complementary accounts of different components which could be combined. An integrated model is proposed that would carry the acquisition-learning distinction of the Monitor Model while including the Neurofunctional Theory, which uses the distinction to describe the…

Questions whether observed differences in use of strategy of monitoring is related to the following cognitive styles: field independence, reflection, flexible control, and preference for processing information by the written word. Field independence was positively related to amount of monitoring on all written tasks, and reflection was weakly but…

Suggests that in certain regions of the country such as Iowa, two foreign language goals should take precedence over the goal of language proficiency in elementary schools: (1) to introduce children to other languages and cultures, and (2) to show that they can learn to communicate successfully in another language. (SED)

It is proposed that language acquisition improves if beginning students are allowed to experience three stages of acquisition: comprehension (preproduction), early speech production, and speech emergence. Each stage requires a different kind of activity building on the previous stage's development. (MSE)