Describes the use of computer pen pals to offer foreign language students who are at different levels of instruction to participate in activities that involve real life situations. Designed to develop writing skills, these activities help students review vocabulary and to practice verb forms and grammatical structures. (Author/VWL)

Seeks to guide language program coordinators in the creation of a teaching assistant (TA) handbook on logistics and administrative duties in second and foreign language programs at the university level. (Author/VWL)

This study identified the learning styles of 44 second-language teacher trainees at the University of Ottawa (Ontario) and explored the relevance of learning-style awareness in the context of teacher education. Results show a predominance of the "reflector" mode in this population, suggesting a pedagogical approach that allows…

A study of features of men's and women's English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) compositions (linguistic accuracy, readability, conformity to assignment guidelines) among a group of junior college students in Quebec found the two groups' writing of comparable linguistic quality. Superior marks received by women were found attributable to the way they…

Through interviews and direct observation, examined how 120 Toronto (Ontario) children understand and experience kindergarten in ten English first-language (L1) and ten French immersion second-language (L2) classes. Results indicate the similarities between the groups were greater than the differences, contradicting suggestions that L2 immersion…

A study analyzed the second-language essays of seven anglophone and one French-speaking Quebec university students enrolled in a literature course by using a cognitive-metacognitive framework developed for mathematical problem-solving and a think-aloud protocol. Results indicate the framework, with some adjustments, is a reliable tool for…

Describes a technique for teaching the French prepositions "a and de" by explaining the syntactic process implicit in verbs that are followed by those prepositions. Outlines sentence structure based on several verb types. (MSE)

Provides longitudinal insights into a pattern of drop-out that had previously been identified by tracking educational outcomes among English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) youth in a single, urban school. A comparison of two cohorts suggests that accelerated integration into academic mainstream courses has had a detrimental impact on the educational…

Reviews research that addresses the issue of transfers that take place in writing from the first to second language. Suggests that positive transfers appear more clearly in the process than in the product, in which they depend on the relative closeness of languages. (Author/VWL)

Investigates a pedagogical approach to identifying and bridging the gap between cultural prototypes in second language lexical meaning acquisition. Within the framework of prototype theory and a sociocultural perspective,argues that lexical meaning is culturally situated and the teaching and learning of a culturally loaded word may be achieved by…

Spelling errors of 215 Grade 6 English-as-a-Second-Language learners were examined with a view to gaining an understanding of how these children construe and misconstrue the structure of their second language. It was found that unstressed grammatical function words proved particularly difficult for the learners to render in writing. They had…

Examines verbal auxiliary selection in the speech of French immersion students. Examines variation in auxiliary selection in the oral discourse to determine to what extent it resembles that of native speakers. (Author/VWL)

Compares immersion and non-immersion students' results on provincial Grade 3 tests in Ottawa in 1998-99. Explores the results by immersion type--according to the grade at which English literacy instruction is introduced, and the proportion of instructional time in English. Results corroborate those of large-scale evaluation studies of French…

Examines the effect of teaching mathematics in French on mathematics achievement evaluated in English. Analyzes the effect of increased intensity of bilingual education on mathematics achievement and the effects of language of testing in the context of French immersion at the intermediate level. (Author/VWL)

Offers immersion classroom data focusing on the use of collaborative tasks related to the content to be learned that draw learners attention to formal properties of French. Such tasks provide both oral practice and lead to more accurate language use. (Author/VWL)