Since 2012 an interdisciplinary and culturally heterogeneous team composed of more than 30 people has been engaged in the complex process of conceiving, designing and validating an online placement test with formative orientation called SELF (Système d'Evaluation en Langues à visée Formative), developed and already deployed in six different…

While there are many difficulties faced by world language educators, both teachers and students of certain languages--languages commonly identified with countries and cultures deemed to be hostile to the United States--often find themselves in uniquely paradoxical situations. This article begins with a brief anecdotal description of the personal…

At a time when language programs around the United States are in crisis--the University of Rhode Island's Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures is realigning its curriculum to emphasize proficiency and intercultural competence within a strong liberal arts context. The result of the department's recent initiatives? More than…

This article describes the development process of a project for heritage language speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese at a high-enrollment community college in the northeast United States. This pilot project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, aimed to empower minority group students through active reinforcement of students'…

As the employment of graduates appears among the performance indicators of institutions in higher education, universities are focussing more and more upon the development of employability related skills to enhance students' prospects in the job market. All UK universities are measured on the first jobs that their students acquire after graduation.…

This article explores citizenship's multiple meanings in Los Angeles by describing five different types of Americanization, or immigrant education, in the city of angels from 1910 to 1940. The federal racialization of access to citizenship influenced these alternative approaches to Americanization at a local level. In the context of Supreme Court…

The purpose of the maps was to show the density and distribution of students enrolled in foreign language courses in Austin Independent School District (AISD) high schools and middle schools and to show the distribution of student enrollment in Spanish-language courses, as well as the density of Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in…

This book contains contributions by scholars working on diverse aspects of speech who bring their findings to bear on the practical issue of how to treat stuttering in different language groups and in multilingual speakers. The book considers classic issues in speech production research, as well as whether regions of the brain that are affected in…

This book provides a unique and accessible account of current research on reading and dyslexia in different orthographies. While most research has been conducted in English, this text presents cross-language comparisons to provide insights into universal aspects of reading development and developmental dyslexia in alphabetic and non-alphabetic…

A description of the Kluckhohn model for analyzing cultural value systems, based on such cultural orientations as human nature, man-nature, time, activity, and relation, demonstrates its applicability to teaching the cultural components of elementary and intermediate foreign language courses. (11 references) (CB)

Analyzes critical incidents provided by professional interpreters. Findings indicate three major roles interpreters play: editor, cultural coach, and monitor/checker. The article discusses the implications of these roles in order to make the international executive an informed consumer of interpretation services. (13 references) (Author/CK)

ALICE, a multimedia framework for intelligent computer-assisted language instruction (ICALI) at Carnegie Mellon University (PA), consists of a set of tools for building a number of different types of ICALI programs in any language. Its Natural Language Processing tools for syntactic error detection, morphological analysis, and generation of…

Describes courses that were developed for travel industry management degree programs to teach French, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin. Discusses the development of these programs, focusing on the Japanese courses. Explains the type of background information that was collected prior to developing materials for the first- and second-year Japanese…

Describes the "International Potpourri" two-week residential summer enrichment program for gifted and talented ninth and tenth grade students. The program combined the best elements of foreign language camps and international festivals through a variety of activities including beginning conversation, songs, dances, crafts and food…

Results of a national survey on foreign language enrollments in United States public secondary schools are summarized. Aggregate data are provided for fall 1989, and more detailed data are included for fall 1990. Data indicate a 4.5% increase in secondary school language enrollments nationally since 1985. The increase for high schools alone was…