The communicative aspect of the reading skill resides in the ability to interpret culturally authentic messages in the foreign language environment. A task-analysis procedure is useful in identification of appropriate communicative materials, strategies effective for the decoding process, and evaluation techniques that capitalize on the…

Describes a method of using newspaper articles in the English-language classroom called Read-Ask-and-Tell. The place of authentic materials in the classroom, including some of the pitfalls, are discussed. The Reading, Asking, and Telling components are outlined, and activities for consolidation and reinforcement of skills are suggested. Appendices…

This paper consists of four sections, each dealing with the assessment of a single language skill: Writing, Speaking, Reading and Listening. While culture includes those "everyday aspects of life within a society" which are present but not necessarily overtly expressed, Culture embraces "those aspects and artifacts of society that represent what…

What lessons can be learned from relevant research in vocabulary- and language-learning strategy training as well as from comparative studies on learning Oriental languages, which could have helpful applications to language learners from Kanji-background countries? Could both mnemonic and semantic field keyword approaches help these learners by…

This book is based on a series of four lectures, presented at National Taipei University, Taiwan, which reviewed the fundamentals of second language acquisition theory, presented original research supporting the theory, offered counterarguments to criticisms, and explored new areas that appeared to have promise for progress in both theory and…

This book for beginning readers highlights Robert Mazibuko, the "Tree Man," who spent his life teaching people how to enrich the soil and plant vegetables and trees. Born in South Africa in 1904, he lived on a farm, learning to work with livestock, raise crops, and share with the community. In college, his professor of agriculture…

This project emphasized the writing-reading connection in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, noting the effects of integrating nonfiction reading about culture into writing tasks and investigating reading-for-writing activities that functioned as an extension from the EFL classrooms to the outside world. The project occurred in a…

Discusses a project to implement an alternative system for university admission based on clearly defined competencies in several subject areas, i.e., culture, writing, speaking, listening, reading and transferable skills (provisional). Developing national standards will inform this project, assisting in the creation of common goals in foreign…

Examination of the first language (Japanese or Chinese) and second-language reading and writing abilities of adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners indicated that literacy skills could transfer across the first and second languages, although the pattern of transfer varied for the subjects. Reading ability appeared to transfer more easily than…

Examines the emerging form of text on the World Wide Web and how it is influencing reading, in particular reading by non-native readers of English. Focus is on the visual representation of text structure. (Author/VWL)

The ongoing debate between advocates of bilingual education and advocates of English-only instruction often fails to acknowledge classroom realities. The author, who has taught native Spanish speaking students in a variety of settings, draws on her experience to explain that not all bilingual programs are the same and that no program will…

The role of grammatical knowledge in second language (L2) lexical processing is far from clear. Providing evidence from a recent introspective study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the significant contribution that such knowledge can make to inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words while reading, and to possible consequent acquisition of L2…

This study investigated the extent to which various factors play a part in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' ability to resolve pronoun-antecedent connections in reading. The subjects were 97 ESL learners with four different native languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish) enrolled in the University of Illinois's Intensive English…

A large-scale statistical study of the predictors of language gain during study abroad is reported. Subjects were 658 American college and graduate students in the Soviet Union between spring 1984 and spring 1990. Variables examined included student characteristics (age, gender, citizenship, country of birth, place and levels of formal education,…

A method for teaching French oral reading is presented. Prior to the actual oral reading, the student should: (1) read the text attentively for meaning and in order to decide on the appropriate tone; (2) determine the rhythm appropriate to the text; (3) indicate, by means of arrows, the general intonational curve; (4) indicate the "liaisons" to be…