The responses of 938 first year Spanish students at 2 major midwestern universities to a survey regarding their motivation and strategies for learning Spanish identified several affective factors that were associated with students' reactions to the use of authentic instructional materials. (28 references) (CB)

This article discusses the advantages of experience in volunteer work camps for second language learning, and describes one such work-study experience in France. (CLK)

The 'Association Linguistique Franco-Europeenne' analyzed 1600 questionnaires completed by French students to find out the motives for choosing the languages they study versus which languages they would like to study. The results are tabulated. The general conclusion is that multilingualism is beneficial to world peace and should be encouraged.…

This Middlebury College summer 1974 commencement address is an informal presentation of the author's experiences as a language learner. The effectiveness of such pedagogical methods as the grammar-translation, audio-lingual, and "balanced" approaches, and of language learning with the aid of an informant, is discussed. It is concluded that, given…

A description of French Nights held in an Australian secondary school. These were educational experiences which enlisted the service and cooperation of other departments in the school, aroused and sustained the enthusiasm of the students and proved to be important in maintaining good public relations. (AMH)

Educators are urged to encourage gifted/talented students to teach themselves foreign languages. This essay discusses the lack of language requirements in schools, linguistic insensitivity or laziness shown by Americans, individuals' linguistic potential, goals of multilingual development, the appropriate time to introduce foreign languages, and…

Spion, an adventure game for intermediate and advanced college German students, requires players to communicate with a fictitious agent in complete, correct German sentences. The spy game was written in PROLOG, runs on an IBM-PC, and is available at no cost for noncommercial purposes. (Author/CB)

Describes workshops in which French and German youth spend three weeks together during the summer vacation learning each other's language and becoming acquainted with the other culture. Questions concerning teaching materials, instructors, methods, group dynamics, and incentives to learn another language are discussed. (AMH)

Novice second-language learners can understand and benefit from authentic reading and listening language texts that are not typically introduced until students have intermediate or advanced language skills. Early exposure to such texts can help learners develop useful listening strategies for more complex tasks. (Author/CB)

Discusses the role of picture storybooks in developmental education, indicating that these deceptively simple books can provide interest and variety to the classroom, offer self-confidence to hesitant and language-diverse students, and easily remedy gaps in background knowledge for many different content areas. Includes possible example…

Describes an experiment with a second-year class of about 35 pupils in teaching English, French and Indonesian in an interconnected way, involving art and social studies as well as language and literature. Although the experiment is as yet unevaluated, the general effect was considered encouraging. (KM)

Makes the point that literature should be an integral part of programs that teach English as a second language by considering six reasons for studying poetry in language classes. Illustrates those reasons with poetic works from around the world. (RL)

Foreign language teachers need a reservoir of techniques designed to dispel misconceptions students may have about poetry and to lead them step-by-step into its study. This article presents learning experiences of such a nature and illustrations for teachers to help them devise activities. (Author/SW)

Presents a model of second language acquisition based on the social-psychology of acculturation, including factors in social, affective, personality, cognitive, biological, aptitude, personal, input, and instructional areas. Studies which test this model are reviewed and evaluated. (Author/CB)