Tertiary institutions increasingly offer language advisory sessions for second language students and staff. Advisers help students to identify language and learning needs, they recommend resources and strategies and they provide feedback and encouragement. Especially in the first few sessions, identifying and prioritising needs are arguably among…

There is an acknowledged difficulty in demonstrating that the standard of school exams remains constant over the years. It is a source of debate every summer when exam results come out. There is some evidence that foreign language exams, and French in particular, have declined in standard since the 1980s, but empirical measures to demonstrate this…

The use of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has been hailed as a solution to the problem of access to native speakers for language learners. This project was devised to investigate whether regular and structured use of email, here via a bulletin board, might enhance learners' study of French, with regard to developing learner autonomy and…

As teachers, people often dream of research results which will tell them, with scientific accuracy, what is going to work in their classroom. However, as researchers, people know how elusive such "recipes" or "best methods" are. Conventional quantitative research methods have been designed to identify the effect of "factor X" in a given context,…

In the following article the author presents a methodological framework for the teaching of intercomprehension. Competence in intercomprehension is seen as a realisation of the general human faculty for using and understanding language, which includes the ability to comprehend texts and utterances in "unfamiliar" languages. This competence can be…

Following the publication of the National Languages Strategy "Languages for All: Languages for life" (2002), the DfES commissioned research in the 2002-2003 academic year to investigate the extent and nature of the teaching of modern foreign languages at key stage 2 (KS2) in England. Three further research aims related to the effectiveness of…

Following publication of the National Languages Strategy on 18 December 2002 the teaching of foreign languages (FL) in the primary school is again high on the agenda in England as in other parts of Europe. Research has shown in the past (Burstall "et al.," 1974) that an early start in FL does not necessarily result in any long-term advantage in…

Describes the Americas Award for children's and young adult literature, designed to encourage and commend authors and publishers who produce quality children's and young adult books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States and to provide teachers with recommendations for classroom use. (Author/JL)

Provides excerpts from two thematic units, developed at the 1996 National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, that integrate language, culture, and content. (Author/JL)

Reports the results of a national survey on foreign language education in the United States. The survey focused on elementary and secondary schools and was conducted during the 1996-97 school year. The goal was to gain greater understanding of current patterns and shifts in enrollment, languages and programs offered, curriculum, teacher…

Describes successful techniques for teaching mathematics through a foreign language (in this case Spanish). These techniques include using calendar and graphing activities, incorporating mathematics into the morning message, using cloze patterns, solving word problems, using the language of metacognition, and finding math happenings in everyday…

Offers strategies to help elementary school foreign-language specialists become more effective in promoting early language learning. (VWL)

Highlights a national town meeting, sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University, on early language learning. Discussion focused on parental support, the need for funding, the need for qualified teachers, the benefits of early language learning, and the need for advocacy. (VWL)

Discusses Louisiana's linguistic history, focusing on periods when the state was predominantly French speaking, when it was officially bilingual, when French was threatened to become extinguished, and ultimately when the state decided to preserve its French-speaking heritage. (VWL)

Describes total physical response storytelling, which provides the critical vehicle--storytelling--for utilizing and expanding vocabulary. High-interest stories contextualize the vocabulary, enabling students to hear and see a story and then to act out, revise, and rewrite. A brief outline of the sequence of steps for using TPR storytelling in…