Recommends the use of recorded passages in the source language, English, for translation into the target language, Spanish. Oral comments about linguistic difficulties are in Spanish. (MLA)

A technique is outlined which simultaneously checks students' aural and oral control of sounds and prosodies. Intended for intermediate and advanced students, the test consists of a number of minimal pairs which are read by different people while the others listen and note which of the alternatives they hear. (SW)

Presents research rating the speaking proficiency on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language Oral Proficiency Interview of 40 college French students at four different levels of study. The data show a significant, positive relationship between level of proficiency and level of study. (Author/CB)

Describes an in-house French language training program for U.S. employees at the New York City branch of the Credit Lyonnais. The program was developed to provide American bankers, traders, and other commercial staff with instruction in basic through advanced oral and written communication skills, French banking history, semantics, and literature.…

Offers suggestions toward making the conversational language course more valuable, with particular reference to Spanish. (AM)

To study the adequacy of the brief oral examination format as a basis for assessing oral skills, the study compared samples of 15-minute oral exams with 3-hour written exam results by the same students. The resultant average size of oral samples was about 77% of that of written samples, with good comparability, leading to useful conclusions about…

The oral performance of a sample of 87 undergraduates was evaluated first in a face-to-face setting and then through audio recordings of that same performance. Results confirm that effectiveness in oral communication clearly is not dependent on words and sounds alone but that paralinguistic and extralinguistic data also play a significant role.…

The oral proficiency interview should be administered infrequently, but there are other measures than can be used between interviews to maintain oral proficiency and achievement as the organizing principles of instruction while placing fewer demands on the teacher/tester. One such measure is a semi-direct procedure that has two steps. First,…

A study examined the effects of visual-verbal redundancy and recaps on learning from television news. Two factors were used: redundancy between the visual and audio channels, and the presence or absence of a recap. Manipulation of these factors created four conditions: (1) redundant pictures and words plus recap, (2) redundant pictures and words…

Problems encountered by one small liberal arts college foreign language department in gaining and maintaining academic acceptance and support for business/foreign language courses are discussed. The initial challenge was to persuade the administration of the suitability of specialized business courses in a subject field (languages) viewed largely…

APPLIED LINGUISTICS CAN ASSIST TEACHERS OF FRENCH AND SPANISH IN DETECTING ERRORS IN PITCH, INTONATION, RHYTHM, WORD COMBINATION, AND SOUND REPRODUCTION, AS WELL AS IN ENABLING THEM TO DO A PROFESSIONAL JOB OF TEACHING STUDENTS MORE ACCURATE SPEECH HABITS. AS THE TEACHER CONCENTRATES ON THE SOUND OF THE LANGUAGE, HE MUST VALUE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF…

TO ENCOURAGE UTILIZATION OF THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY AS A TEACHING TECHNIQUE, THIS BULLETIN DESCRIBES SUCH POSSIBLE USES OF THE LABORATORY AS PROGRAMING LESSONS, RECORDING, AND TESTING LANGUAGE SKILL DEVELOPMENT. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS OF THE LABORATORY IS THE PATTERN DRILL, DESCRIBED HERE FOR FRENCH, GERMAN, AND SPANISH. EXAMPLES ARE…

A 10-WEEK INTENSIVE COURSE IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE WAS DEVELOPED AT MISSISSIPPI SOUTHERN COLLEGE AND CONSIDERABLE EXPERIMENTING WAS DONE WITH DIFFERENT METHODS, MATERIALS, AND TECHNIQUES. THE GOVERNING ASSUMPTIONS WERE THAT LANGUAGE BASICALLY CONSISTS OF SPEECH OR SOUND, AND THAT THE MASTERY OF A SOUND SYSTEM INVOLVES THE MASTERY OF THE…