The emergence of communicative language teaching as the dominant paradigm in foreign language pedagogy cast "communication" in a central role in language acquisition, both as an aim and as a medium of instruction. Despite its centrality, the concept of "communication" is generally taken as widely understood and is seldom defined. This paper…

This article discusses the use of ethnographic interviews as a resource for developing intercultural understanding by students of French. Language teaching has traditionally viewed languages as discrete systems disconnected from the speakers' understanding of themselves and from native speakers of the target language. This poses a problem for…

Intercultural language learning gives a place to the use of both the target language and the learners' first and/or other language(s). There is a need to develop a balance, however, as each language contributes differently to learning. The purpose of thinking about language use in the classroom is to develop an informed approach to using as much…

Drawing on two major developments in languages education, namely communicative language teaching and frameworks of outcomes and standards, this address presents a reflection on "words" as the most basic resource of language teachers, and the way in which they are always open to interpretation and reinterpretation over time. With both developments,…

This paper considers communicative language teaching in relation to what Coyle (2005) describes as the "legacy" of the communicative approach--the dissolution of clearly defined parameters that frame and structure how individuals understand, discuss, and research language teaching in the context of the "communicative classroom." As Johnson (1995)…

How speaking turns are taken and allocated in the language classroom, who takes them, and in what sequence (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974), allows mundane talk to be heard as "intellectual quality" and "connectedness" within the "productive pedagogies" framework adopted over the past five years by Education Queensland (2001). This paper…

Reviews the success of communicative language teaching in the context of language acquisition theory and research findings. Argues that a fairly limited use of communicative principles has been evident in popular treatments of lesson structure, content, and syllabus design. (Author/VWL)

Compares Queensland teachers' conceptions of communicative language teaching with those held by 11 Japanese junior high school teachers of English, interviewed in 1997 as part of a s part study on the development of language teaching in Japan. (Author/VWL)

Describes a project that aimed to provide target language experiences for second and third year Spanish as a foreign language learners in Australia. The project involved exposing students to native Spanish speakers. Findings show that students made a noticeable improvement in communicative competence, and they became more knowledgeable about…

Challenges an earlier article that suggests replacing secondary level language learning with a general linguistics course. (Author/VWL)

This article deals with part of a project set up to investigate the assumptions and beliefs about communicative language teaching of a group of primary language teachers in the Darling Downs Region of Queensland, Australia. The project was conducted by a questionnaire, interviewing six randomly-selected teachers, and videotaping the six teachers'…

This is the second part of a two-part article. The first part looked at the learning-acquiring distinction put forward and subsequently developed by Krashen in the 1980s. The article examined the consequences of teaching at either end of the learning-acquiring continuum. Part two picks up the notion that spontaneous communication is not possible…

Describes the German partial immersion program at St. Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane, Australia. The study confirms that content-based partial immersion teaching produces effective, communicative production in the language of immersion, and confident, competent language speakers even when the learners are quite young. (Author/VWL)

This first of a two-part article looks at the language learning-acquiring distinction, discussing the consequences of teaching at either end of the learning-acquiring continuum. Describes the distinction between the two, discusses the learning versus acquiring of grammar, and compares the two. The second part of the article will focus on memory…

A major change in British language teaching is in emphasizing the use of language; knowledge of rules and vocabulary is insufficient if a student cannot communicate. This paper discusses five ways in which this idea is being introduced: in language functions, discourse, testing, reading and teaching in the foreign language. (CHK)