Describes an activity called warming-up for reading (WFR), which had been used in teaching reading to students at Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela. Special attention is focused on the role of the teacher and the students, and on how using WFR tackles skills, strategies, and other relevant aspects that are central to reading. (Author/VWL)

This digest looks at the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages. It is intended as an introduction to the communicative approach for teachers and teachers-in-training who want to provide opportunities in the classroom for their students to engage in real-life communication in the target language. Questions to be dealt with…

Attempts to identify those dimensions lacking in most adolescent/adult English-as-a-foreign-language coursebooks whose objectives are to foster developmental language learning in instructed social contexts and to assist students in communicating in and learning English. Findings indicate that most coursebooks fail in these objectives. (27…

Success in transaction and interaction in the foreign language classroom depends on teachers and students knowing the parts they have to play and how they relate to those that others have in learning encounters. Various roles of teachers and learners are defined. (CB)

Defines and discusses the operating principles of the Explorative-Creative Way of language teaching, an approach in which the teacher encourages the students to investigate the target language and to tap the linguistic resources available to them in order to produce a maximum number of new meaningful utterances. (SED)

The last few decades saw a dramatic progress in computer technology, which challenged many taken-for-granted assumptions about human communication. In terms of language classroom settings, integrating computers into teaching and learning brings certain communication patterns and, at the same time, poses the question about adaptation of classroom…

A discussion of the work of Lev Vygotsky in the field of cognitive development focuses on how the Vygotskian concepts of internalization and mediated knowledge are crucial to the development of both learner and teacher autonomy in second language instruction. Focus is on theory, with empirical studies used as illustration. First, the Vygotskian…

This article reports a study examining the use of group activities in English language coursebooks published since 1990. Ten coursebooks were randomly selected for examination. The number and percentage of group activities and of group activities rated as fostering cooperation were calculated. The results are discussed in light of theory and…

Addresses the help that heritage speakers and other native Spanish speaking students can provide in a Spanish phonetics class. These students can improve the pronunciation of Spanish learners while enhancing their own self esteem, and can also make learners aware of different dialects of Spanish. (Author/VWL)

Examines the use of computers in classroom research, particularly for second-language acquisition. Highlights include the research cycle; understanding second-language learning; the use of computers; learner research on developing language awareness; teacher research on understanding second-language classrooms; and the roles of learners and…

Ongoing evaluation occurs during the progression of an action and is widely used as a means of judging the progress and achievements of language programs. This article focuses on the ongoing evaluation of an English-as-a-Foreign-Language program in China and the roles of the teachers and learners in the process. (Author/VWL)

The social implications of evaluating the writing of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students are discussed in the context of the Hegemony Theory, a radical critical view of schooling, which identifies schools as an agency of socialization. This theory, based on ethnographic research that suggests students receive different kinds of education…

This book argues that the goal of foreign language education has to be expanded from communicative competence towards what might be called an intercultural action competence. This book explores and integrates the knowledge base and educational practices necessary in foreign language teaching for intercultural competence. This book shows that the…

The purpose of this study is to examine student perceptions of instructional techniques that promote language learning. The intent was to inform practice for current and future foreign language teachers. Eight major themes emerged from interviews with numerous advanced level foreign students from throughout central Indiana. These themes include…

This paper uses a language classroom role-playing scene from a Woody Allen movie to examine the language student who has traditionally been asked to emulate and copy the native speaker and to discuss roles that teachers ask students to play. It also presents the changing paradigm of the native speaker and his or her role inside and outside the…