Reconceptualizes a cognitive apprenticeship method to provide foreign language teachers in charge of beginning language levels with the knowledge necessary to acquire the strategies of reciprocal teaching. The article gives teachers an example of a set of lesson plans that embeds the teaching of prerequisite declarative and procedural knowledge…

Reports on a project evaluating home-study foreign-language courses for beginners. The languages evaluated were French, Spanish, and German. Findings indicate that any one course in a series reflects all the courses in that series, seven of the eight courses were inspired by one method, and tapes were a vital component of all the series except…

Derivations of the term "gerund" are examined as they pertain to native English speakers learning French, Italian, and/or Spanish. The form's etymology is chronicled from Latin, and its current usage in student textbooks in the three languages is examined. A solution to the terminological confusion surrounding the term is proposed. (41…

Secondary school teachers invented a context for Louisiana's Eighth Grade French and Spanish Proficiency/Credit Exams based on real-life situations students would encounter on class trips to Disney's EPCOT Center. Test activities assess performance in four language skills areas: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Students' reaction to this…

Reports on the Minnesota Articulation Project, providing an overview of the projects' three principal working groups: political action, curriculum, and assessment. The article then outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the proficiency-based assessment instruments developed in French, German, and Spanish and describes in detail the content and…

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited Proceedings of each year's conference. "From Practice to Profession" was the announced theme of the annual conference of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT), held March 1-3, 2007, at the Atlanta (GA) Renaissance Hotel, in partnership…

In its first year, the 1987 Bilingual Program for Eleventh and Twelfth Graders provided mostly over-age, limited-English-speaking students with an opportunity for more timely graduation through instruction in English as a second language (ESL) and content-area instruction in the summer. Eligibility requirements included limited English proficiency…

This edited volume of conference papers contains the following titles: "Presentation: Realism and Idealism in Language Conflict and Their Resolution" (Douglas A. Kibbee); "Legal and Linguistic Perspectives on Language Legislation" (Douglas A. Kibbee); "The Linguistic Rights of Non-English Speaking Suspects, Witnesses,…

This paper investigates the beliefs about language learning held by 53 first-month university students enrolled in Swahili compared to those of 113 students of French and Spanish. Based in part upon the research design and instrument of Elaine Horwitz (University of Texas-Austin), this paper isolates the results from a larger study of eight…

An individualized, interdisciplinary approach to French second language instruction is discussed in the context of Argentina's secondary education system. An introductory section briefly reviews general problems associated with the compartmentalization of subjects in education and proposes a re-integration of the objectives of French second…

A presentation on maximizing the use of video in the business language classroom looks at why video pedagogy can be effective and outlines a variety of classroom viewing strategies aimed at different learner levels and instructional objectives. These strategies involve using the visual only or focusing on certain aspects of the sound track, and…

Presentations from a colloquium on applications of research on natural languages to computer science address the following topics: (1) analysis of complex adverbs; (2) parser use in computerized text analysis; (3) French language utilities; (4) lexicographic mapping of official language notices; (5) phonographic codification of Spanish; (6)…

The two most commonly used language proficiency tests offered in the United States by foreign countries' chambers of commerce are those of Spain and France. The Spanish test has been introduced recently and has no rigorous and uniform set of rules governing its administration at all centers. Issues arising from the administration of this exam…

Nineteen individuals with outstanding potential as teachers participated in an innovative alternative certification program in Colorado. The project united school districts, a major teacher training institution, and a state education agency in an intensive collaboration to develop new methods of teacher certification while maintaining traditional…

The summary of the 1983 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages includes these papers: "A Look at Our Profession: Common Concerns, Common Dreams" (Mary Finocchiaro's keynote address to the 1982 Central States Conference); "Traversing the Language 'Gateway': The Passport Lesson" (Dana Carton);…