Showing papers in "The Modern Language Journal in 1987"

Bilingualism and special education : issues in assessment and pedagogy

Abstract: Referral and assessment of minority students the origins of bias in IQ tests the construct of "learning disability" underachievement among minority children language proficiency, bilingualism and academic achievement learning difficulties in "immersion" programmes assessment of bilingual exceptional students pedagogical assumptions underlying special education from research and theory to policy and practice.

The sounds of French : an introduction

Abstract: This introductory textbook is principally addressed to English speakers who want systematically to improve their pronunciation of French - whether relative beginners or more advanced students. It describes the difficulties typically encountered, explains why they occur. and suggests ways to resolve them. It also explains how certain properties of the French sound system came about as the language changed over time, and it includes an examination of the relationship between French spelling and French pronunciation. Although focusing on the pronunciation of standard French, different pronunciations in other varieties of French (Quebec French, Southern French, etc.) are also considered. In addition, from a more theoretical perspective, the book provides readers with a fundamental understanding of the way French sounds are produced and how they behave according to general linguistic principles. Overall the book stands as a multifaceted introduction to French sounds, drawing for its account on contrastive analysis, general phonetics, traditional knowledge and modern developments in phonology, historical linguistics, and orthography. Teachers of French will welcome Bernard Tranel's wide scholarship and firm grasp of teaching principles, while students will welcome the refreshing clarity of style and organization.

A Decade of Research in Foreign Language Teacher Education

Abstract: all authored position papers calling for a renewed interest in and a revitalized perspective on foreign language learning in the United States. Yet these agencies have not addressed, in any depth, issues concerning the teaching of foreign language as they relate to teachers of foreign languages. Granted, many of these commissions have recommended that foreign language teachers be given opportunities for professional development through overseas experiences or through additional courses. The commissions have not, however, addressed the preprofessional development of these teachers. Specifically, they have failed to address the types of educational experience both in terms of language and pedagogical content--these individuals receive as part of their teacher education programs. THE PROBLEM

The Immersion Approach: Litmus Test of Second Language Acquisition through Classroom Communication

Abstract: language acquisition through "immersion" has gained widespread acceptance, first in Canada (Lambert & Tucker) and then in at least one pilot project in the United States (Politzer, p. 293). The immersion approach involves exposing students to instruction through the target language, and communicative interaction in it, for many years, 100 percent of the school day during the first two or three years. In its longest form, early immersion, this method exposes children to the second language from kindergarten on, though in a slowly decreasing percentage of time after grade two. By the end of secondary school, young people in full-fledged immersion programs should have been exposed to the second language for thirteen years (about 7,000 hours). Immersion programs as just described are the most highly developed form of Second Language Acquisition through Classroom Communication (SLACC) and closely follow its tenets. SLACC advocates have long pointed to the success of the immersion approach as a manifestation of the validity of their theories. Krashen, for example, has referred to the immersion approach as one of the methods that agree with his theory and has said (p. 61) that ". it may be the most successful programme ever recorded in the professional languageteaching literature. . . . He adds that ". .. no programme, to my knowledge, has done as well."

Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores.

Abstract: the notion that numerous spinoff benefits accrue from their courses. For example, students develop a better understanding of English grammar; they add to their store of abstract vocabulary items; and they improve their reading and writing skills. We also maintain that foreign language study is a good way for students to improve their scores on the verbal sections of standardized exams such as the Scho-

Comprehending the Spanish Subjunctive: An Information Processing Perspective

Abstract: Ratliff (p. viii) "has a twofold purpose: (1) to develop reading skills through the use of carefully graded selections that present themes of human and cultural interest, and (2) to develop communication skills through activities that focus on meaningful personal communication. . . . There are 18 chapters in Cara a cara, second edition, arranged in three levels. Level I employs the present tense and commands. Level II adds the preterite, imperfect, and progressive tenses. Level III includes the present perfect and past perfect tenses." The grading of the selections quite evidently refers to controlling the use of verb tenses. Others, such as Wegman (p. 5), make additional claims about sources of difficulty. "Because the verb tenses are the most difficult aspect of Spanish, the chapters of Ocho mundos are organized around the stepby-step introduction of the Spanish verb tenses. The first two chapters use only the present tense; the third present and preterite; the fourth present, preterite, and imperfect; and so on. ... A glance at the Table of

Listening to the News in Spanish.

Abstract: gogical direction to facilitate the comprehension of Spanish-language newscasts for second language learners. It assumes that listening skills are best facilitated if comprehension strategies and how they interact with the target register are adequately understood. Essential to the understanding of this interaction are the following issues: 1) a discussion of the role that listening comprehension plays in language skill formation and, in particular, the need to teach comprehension of the news; 2) a description of the relevant linguistic properties of the broadcast register in Spanish; 3) a discussion of the listening task in general and how it pertains to the news in particular. Although I do not give suggestions for specific classroom strategies, I do outline a framework, based on that of Oller and Oller, within which classroom techniques can be elaborated. My conclusions are based on the Spanish language alone, although parallels to other languages are easily drawn.

The Effect of Computer‐Assisted Instruction on ESL Reading Achievement

Abstract: ducted on computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in reading has focused on the elementary school setting.' Results have been anything but uniform. In a well-designed early CAI reading study, Fletcher and Atkinson tested a CAI curriculum which emphasized decoding skills. In their program, which served as a supplement to normal classroom instruction, they found that the CAI method of instruction produced significant gains in reading over what would be expected from classroom instruction alone. Several scholars (Edwards, Thomas, Kulik) confirmed the efficacy of CAI as a supplement to regular instruction but not as a substitute. However, Edwards found the effect of CAI could not be distinguished from other non-traditional, supplementary instructional modes, which were found to be equally effective. As a predictive measure of reading achievement, Campbell, Lindsay, and Atkinson found students' CAI performance correlated positively with post-test reading achievement on a variety of standardized instruments administered to lower income black children in the second

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Ethnic Groups in First-Year College-Level Spanish Textbooks.

Abstract: present aspects of these groups' culture appropriately. The impetus for our work is that cultural awareness has unquestionably assumed a very important role in the teaching of foreign languages. A number of articles and books on how to teach culture (Kramsch; Lafayette; Morain; Seelye; Wilkens) and present cultural materials in textbooks (Cowles; Garcia, 1980; Joiner) have been published. As Levno and Pfister (p. 48), among others, have stated, "there is an urgent need for an evaluation of the cultural content in the foreign language textbooks used in the universities today." We are particularly interested in studying this issue as it pertains to United States Hispanic ethnic groups, the second largest minority in this country.

Proficiency as a Framework for Research in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract: appropriateness and even the meaning of a proficiency orientation in second/foreign language (SL) teaching suggest the need for a critical look at some concepts inherent in the notion of proficiency, particularly as it has been explicated in conjunction with the ACTFL/ETS Provisional Proficiency Guidelines.1 Although proficiency achieved prominence as the conceptual framework for measuring a learner's speaking abilities, current interest centers on applications of knowledge gained from oral proficiency testing to curricular sequencing and syllabus design, to the development of materials, to methodologies, and to classroom procedures.2 The following discussion addresses the issue of implications and applications of proficiency under two rubrics: 1) it relates the construct of proficiency as well as the procedure for assessing oral proficiency to prominent concerns of second language acquisition (SLA) research by identifying some underlying assumptions about language and language use, and, by extension, judgments about that use; 2) it extends the notion of a connection between proficiency testing and SLA research by suggesting that the assessment procedure can become a source of data for future SLA research, potentially clarifying a number of outstanding issues.

On Babies and Bathwater: Input in Foreign Language Learning

Abstract: In January 1983, following a visit to the campus by Stephen Krashen, the faculty and staff of the Spanish division began to consider developing a comprehension based approach to the teaching of Spanish to non-native speakers. The initial phase of the program involved four members of the faculty and three key decisions: 1) the decision to abandon the direct teaching of grammar as a primary focus of instruction; 2) the decision to use a large portion of classroom time to provide the student with comprehensible input; 3) the decision to allow the students to produce oral Spanish at their own rate [sic]. (Long, Pino & Valdes: 414-15)

Children and ESL : integrating perspectives

Abstract: U Lindfors (1984) has pointed out a serious misperception concerning first language learning. Teachers, researchers, parents, and even children confuse how language is taught with how it is learned. Lindfors cites Shuy (1981) as one leading researcher who confuses language learning with language teaching. Shuy presents the child as beginning with "accesses to reading" (letter-sound correspondences, word parts, etc.) and "moving toward meaning," which is actually the sequence of much teaching of reading. Research on children learning to read, however, shows them focusing on larger "units"-genre, function, intention, and meaning-right from the start. Such a confusion is not unknown in relation to second language considerations. In Children and ESL: Integrating Perspectives, the editors work against this common confusion-not by separating teaching from learning (indeed, they deliberately weave these into one fabric), but by choosing contributions that are deliberate and self-conscious when shifting focus from teaching to learning. Although the editors have tried to appeal to an audience of both ESL researchers and teachers of students of any age, they have not attempted to offer something for everybody. They maintain definite positions: Language cannot be divided into skills or divorced from context; language learning requires real use of language for users' own purposes rather than exercises with fragments displayed for the teacher's purposes. The volume, comprised of papers that were presented at TESOL '85, contains introductory and closing framing sections by the editors, Cazden's plenary address, a trilogy of different treatments of data from the same subjects, and a report of research on and with an exceptional beginning ESL teacher. In calling for teachers to be language advocates for ESL children outside the classroom, Cazden enumerates certain barriers that teachers as advocates could work to eliminate: reductionist conceptions of language and learning as well as the behaviorist pedagogy accompanying such conceptions. She provides a much needed presentation of "the real test bias"-the pressure that makes curricula conform to tests in both format (multiple choice) and substance (fragmented, unrelated bits of content rather than logical arguments in extended prose about interrelated topics). However, Cazden's inclusion, with no dissociating comment, of

Welsh phonology : selected readings

Abstract: This work brings together in one volume the results of existing studies on the speech sounds of Welsh. It includes dialect studies of the Welsh of different districts, some of them dating back to the second half of the 19th century, while others adopt more structuralist and generative approaches.

Pedagogical Wishes for a Machine Dictionary: An Example from Russian

Abstract: dividual points of grammar and the vocabulary lists of each lesson. As students progress through the first year they realize that they will have an exposure to glossed readers for an additional semester or two, and then they will be on their own in terms of the range and variety of L2 language texts. In Russian the major grammatical rules are normally covered in two years, and the student's frustration is greatest when he/she sees that his/her passive store of words is still small typically 1500 compared with the complete vocabulary inventory of the Russian language. Enormous vocabulary lists are one contributing factor to the large attrition in second and third semester enrollments. Indeed, students often visualize a personal "worst-case" scenario of reading a Russian novel and looking up every fifth word in the dictionary. A companion to this frustration is that retention of each word

Intelligence, Reasoning, and Language Proficiency.

Abstract: opinion which has been persistently advocated by Oller is that intelligence and language proficiency are virtually equivalent.1 Others, like Carroll, while supporting a very close connection between intelligence and language proficiency, deny their equivalence.2 The nature of the connection between intelligence and language proficiency can perhaps best be examined through the intermediary of reasoning, which has strong affiliation with both intelligence and language proficiency. Experimental research in this area is limited, especially when the language concerned is a second or foreign language. Part of the problem with experimental investigation of intelligence is finding an acceptable test of it. IQ testing has been vilified by its detractors, while even its supporters admit its limitations. However, increasing agreement exists that intelligence testing can be usefully approached through tests of inductive reasoning, which is acknowledged as being a central element in intelligence. If this central aspect of intelligence, inductive reasoning, can be demonstrated to be clearly distinguishable from language proficiency, then the hypothesis that language proficiency and intelligence are virtually equivalent cannot be sustained. This article first briefly reviews different opinions on the connection between intelligence and language proficiency; then, some of the recognized deficiencies of traditional IQ testing are outlined; next, reasoning is examined in its connection with both intelligence and language comprehension; suggestions are then made for tests of inductive reasoning, suitable or nclusion in a battery of tests to measure the place of reasoning in language proficiency; finally, an experiment is described investigating whether inductive reasoning, and hence intelligence, can justifiably be distinguished from general language proficiency.

Liberating the Foreign Language Syllabus

Abstract: provement in the quality of foreign language textbooks. In particular, the practice component of texts has become increasingly more innovative, relevant, motivating, and more naturally contextualized than that of predecessors. The vocabulary content has also improved substantially. However, the standard grammatical base which provides the dominant organizational theme of texts has changed very little over the years. The base has remained constant despite a substantial literature claiming that major changes in core content are necessary if language instruction is to have a maximum impact on the language proficiency of students.'