I define the "literacy autobiography" as a reflective, first-person account of one's development as a writing being. In this article I share a classroom practice that invited language learners to consider and compose their literacy autobiographies (LA). The context was a university credit English as a second language (ESL) classroom. The purposes…

An examination of "de facto" and "de jure" bilingualism in Canadian universities looks at the phenomenon of French immersion programs, discusses the steps universities can take to prepare for bilingual college students, and uses the case of Franco-Ontarians to demonstrate the importance of developing individual rather than…

French immersion teacher training should have its own structure, philosophy, and criteria, and should not be confused with or diluted by other types of teacher training. At Simon Fraser University, French immersion teachers spend twelve months specializing in immersion, with six months spent in classroom practice. (MSE)

The status and future of commercial French, widely used in Canada but not widely taught, are discussed and the relevance of Canadian commercial French textbooks for instruction is examined. (MSE)

A specialist conceptualization of French-language teacher education is proposed for Western Canada where French is a minority language. The discussion addresses the philosophical basis for this approach, the three forms of French language schooling, contributions of bilingual educational methods, and program design. (MSE)

A discussion of the role of goals and objectives in proficiency-oriented second language instruction looks at goals and objectives within audiolingual language learning, a procedure for goal design, the close link between goals, objectives, and classroom objectives, and several activities derived from objectives. (MSE)

To avoid teaching only the sociocultural views and values of the dominant social class of a language group, second language teachers should include dialectal variation in the curriculum from the outset, exposing students to authentic language use and the views and values of non-dominant, ethnic minority, and other speakers. (MSE)

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' Provisional Proficiency Guidelines are criticized for their narrow view of language use and the inadequacy of their construct of "proficiency." The appropriateness of the guidelines as a basis for developing a syllabus or designing a curriculum is questioned. (MSE)

The relationship between the teaching of grammar and the acquisition of communicative competence is examined, and it is concluded that, contrary to some arguments, there is a definite correlation between grammatical accuracy and efficient communication. (MSE)

Discusses the functions of English and native languages in northern Ontario native communities and argues that native children's greatest need for English is in an anglophone classroom environment. Discusses three types of curriculum design and suggests ways to develop content area reading and writing curricula for Canada native children. (SED)

Outlines ways for postsecondary institutions to adapt entry requirements and develop new courses to meet the needs of two target groups with different language learning needs: functionally bilingual secondary immersion graduates and graduates of secondary foreign language programs who show interest in increasing proficiency in French. (MSE)

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)

Body language is inseparable from spoken language, and may reflect universal behavior or be culture-specific. Photographs and videotape recordings can help the French instructor illustrate the richness of facial and body mannerisms. (MSE)

Reviews literature on cross-cultural reading, interlanguage, and story grammar against the theory of contrastive rhetoric, and considers implications for teaching reading to advanced second language students. The conclusion is that comparative rhetoric demands levels of cultural sensitivity in teachers that transcend any one theory or approach.…

It is argued that second-language classroom communication is often limited by the lack of instructor use of tonic pronouns. Two uses of the pronoun form that should be used from the beginning of the second-language program to promote authentic communication are described. (MSE)