bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Beyond Prescription: The Student Teacher as Investigator
Authors: Gebhard Jerry G. , Gaitan Sergio , Oprandy Robert 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  In preservice foreign/second language teacher preparation programs, prescriptions about how to teach have certain limitations. The most outstanding is that direct transfer of information does not necessarily afford student teachers chances to gain insight into how they can investigate their teaching processes and make decisions about what they can do in classrooms after the teacher preparation program has ended.In this paper we present a multiple‐activities approach to teacher preparation through which student teachers are provided with opportunities to investigate their teaching and to make decisions about what and how to teach. In this approach student teachers experience classroom teaching, observe other teachers, conduct investigative projects of their teaching and its consequences, and discuss teaching in several contexts.A multiple‐activities approach has been shown to provide student teachers with opportunities to develop their decision‐making skills. However, communication within these activities is complex and opportunities for student teachers to develop decisionmaking skills can be blocked as well as facilitated through the type of interaction which goes on within and across each activity. Thus, in our discussion we are sensitive to interaction within each activity and to the connections which can be made between them.
Reading Strategies for the Business Foreign Language Class
Authors: Rusterholz Barbara Lomas 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRECT Explicit instruction in reading comprehension has not been an important element of the Business Foreign Language course. This paper argues that teaching students how to read newspapers and magazines in the target language can prepare them to make an important contribution to their future employers.Current principles of reading pedagogy are examined, including pre‐reading activities, schema theory, the importance of background knowledge, and post‐reading activities. Concrete examples are provided of how those ideas can be applied in the Business Foreign Language classroom.
The Making of a Foreign Language Teacher — Regina Style
Authors: Moeller Paulette C. 
Published: January 2009

It is the purpose of this paper to explore a specialist conceptualization of a teacher education program leading to certification as a foreign language teacher. The particular program under examination is the four year Bachelor of Education (R Ed.) program that offers a specialization in secondary French teacher education at the University of Regina's Faculty of Education.The first part of the article focuses on the four basic components that comprise the program: a) the pedagogical component, b) the generic teacher education component, c) the foreign language and communication component, and d) the meta‐linguistic and meta‐cogmtive componentThe second part explains how these elements of the program have been structured in a way that allows both formal and experiental learning, thereby contributing to the personal and professional development of future language teachers. The ACTFL provisional program guidelines for foreign language teacher education are examined and lead the discussion on the merits of the Regina model
Grading Classroom Oral Activities: Effects on Motivation and Proficiency
Authors: Hahn Sidney L. , Stassen Tamara , Reschke Claus 
Published: January 2009

The purpose of this pilot study was to gather initial information on the effects of grading on oral production and attitude of high school students in firstyear German classes. The following questions were addmsed in the study: Are structured situational practice activities sufficient, or will students who are graded during situational practice activities be better able to communicate orally than students who are not graded? Is gmding in the form of points counted in the student's final evaluation a motivator or incentive to work harder during such activities?Two groups of beginning German students were studied, one graded, one not graded on their oral perforrnance over the first srjc months of the school term. Each student was then rated in an oral proficiency interview administered by a certified Oral Proficiency Interviewer (OPI), and each student completed an attitude survey. Results indicated that there were differences in proficiency as related to grading for individual students, but no significant difference was found between the two groups, nor again when interaction effects of age, ability, achievement, and learning style were considered. Constrasting attitudes toward grading were expressed by the two groups. The non‐graded group would like to have been graded; the graded group considered grading stressful and nonproductive. The results have interesting implications for teachers and indicate a need for further investigation of the effects of grading with larger numbers than we were able to use in the pilot study.
Teaching Advanced Level Students to Hypothesize: Proceeding One Step at a Time1
Authors: Kline Rebecca R. 
Published: January 2009

Most textbook approaches to the linguistic function of hypothesizing rely heavily on presentation of the conditional mood, thus neglecting simpler structum, lexical items, and strategies used by native speakers as they proceed incrementally through the “cognitive/emotional mnge” representative of the hypothetical mood. Furthermore, in the majority of cases, intermediate‐ and advanced‐level textbooks fail to lead students beyond the sentence‐length utterance. This effective& limits their ability to develop a number of linguistic functions, not the least of which is hypothesizing.In this article, I propose to describe and discuss incrementally‐organized instructional strategies for teaching students of French how to hypothesize. The organization is based on the naturally‐occurring phenomenon present in a French short story by Michelle Maurois, titled “La Vie Conjugale.” Instructional activities designed to aid students in developing their own mastery of this function will be described.
Conversion of a Teacher‐Delivered Course into an Interactive Videodisc‐Delivered Program
Authors: Hughes Helena 
Published: January 2009

In 1982, the Central Intelligence Agency started a Spanish language course to teach adults to survive in a Spanish‐speaking country in a two‐week full‐time course. The course was extremely successful and has been copied in several other languages as well as in other government language programs. It takes students with no knowledge of the Ianguage to a 0 + or I level (ILR scale) within two weeks.We finished converting the classroom course in December 1988 into an interactive videodisc course that permits students to learn the same amount (or more) working three to five hours per day at the workstation, with only one additional hour of instruction with a teacher.This paper describes how the project was designed and produced; how it integrates strategies from the Natural Approach and Total Physical Response into an interactive videodisc. The reader will get a good picture of what an interactive videodisc language course actually entails.
Ease and Difficulty in Vocabulary Learning: Some Teaching Implications
Authors: Laufer Batia 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the relationship between ease/difficulty in learning particular words and some issues in the teaching of vocabulary.Some factors that interfere with learning a word are claimed to be the following: similarity of form between the word and other words (embrace/embarrass, price/prize); morphological similarity between it and other words (industrial/industrious, respectable/respective); deceptive morphological structure (infallible); different syntactic patterning in L1; differences in the classification of experience between L1 and L2 (one‐to‐many correspondence, partial overlap in meaning, metaphorical extension, lexical voids, multiplicity of meaning); abstractness; specificity; negative value; connotations nonexistent in L1; differences in the pragmatic meaning of near synonyms and of L1 translation equivalents; the learning burden of synonyms; the apparent rulelessness of collocations.It is argued that word learnability (ease/difficulty in learning a particular word) can serve as a guideline to the following: the selection of words to be taught; their presentation (quantity, grouping, language of presentation, isolation/ context issue); the facilitation of long‐term memorization (meaningful tasks, mnemonic techniques, rote learning, reactivation); the development of strategies for self‐learning; and the assessment of vocabulary knowledge.
An Investigation of Students' Perspectives on Anxiety and Speaking
Authors: Young Dolly Jesusita 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Language anxiety is becoming an important area of research in our profession. Debilitating language anxiety can have profound consequences on the language learning process. The purpose of this study is to examine anxiety and speaking from the students' perspective. Do speaking activities indeed make students nervous? If so, what is it about speaking that makes students anxious? Which speaking activities make students particularly uncomfortable? Can instructors do anything to reduce anxiety, particularly speaking anxiety, in the classroom?A questionnaire designed to identify sources of anxiety over speaking in the foreign language was administered to 135 university‐level beginning Spanish students and 109 high school students. The questionnaire had three sections: the first one asked students to agree or disagree with twenty‐four items related to language anxiety; the second section asked students to indicate their level of anxiety regarding certain in‐class practices; the third section asked learners to identify instructor characteristics and instructor practices that helped reduce language anxiety. Results of the analysis of data suggest, among other things, that speaking in the foreign language in not exclusively the source of student anxiety, but that speaking in front of the class is. Furthermore, the instructor's relaxed and positive error‐correction attitude can greatly reduce language anxiety. Additional suggestions for reducing language anxiety are offered
Foreign Language Teachers' Demographic Characteristics, In‐Service Training Needs, and Attitudes Toward Teaching
Authors: Wolf W. C. , Riordan Kathleen M. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT A report prepared by Jamie B. Draper (1)for the Joint National Committee/or Languages revealed that 55% of the responding state supervisors neither maintained nor had access to information of importance to foreign language teaching. Thisstudy was designed to fill part of the information gap in one of the inactive states identified by Draper.The study draws upon survey data to describe demographic characteristics and attitudes of a random sample of foreign language teachers who are affiliated with a statewide professional association. Analyses of data obtained brought into focus four problems that need to be addressed by local and state level officials held accountable for foreign language programs.
A Study of Foreign Language Proficiency‐Based Testing in Secondary Schools
Authors: Huebner Thom , Jensen Anne 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT As foreign language education moves toward proficiency‐based teaching and testing, few studies have looked systematically at its effects on student performance, classroom methods and materials, teacher expectations, and program administration, particularly at the secondary level.The study reported here examines the effects of district‐wide ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) testing. Specifically, the study asks, “Do students who perform well on the OPI also perform well on more traditional measures of student success?” and “What other effects, if any, does oral proficiency testing have on a foreign language program?” Multivariate analyses of variance were performed on scores from the OPI and the subscales of the College Board Foreign Language Achievement Test from 492 third, fourth, and fifth year high school foreign language students. Qualitative data include information from interviews, observations, and a questionnaire distributed to administrators, teachers and students. Significant correlations were found between student performance at the higher levels of the OPI and on the achievement tests. Furthermore, the benefits of the oral proficiency testing program extended beyond student performance to the sense of common direction it provided to teachers and programs.
Development and Implementation of FLES Summer Institutes in Florida: A Functional‐Collaborative Effort
Authors: Hallman Clemens L. , Campbell Anne E. , Ernst Gisela 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  This article1 describes the University of Florida (UF) Functional‐Collaborative Model used to develop a FLES Methods Course Syllabus for pre‐ and inservice teacher training in Florida and to develop Summer Institutes to train FLES teachers. The UF Model is process‐oriented and utilizes a collaborative approach based on function, expertise and knowledge of participants, whereby decision‐making and power are shared equally among individuals during all phases—design, implementation, and evaluation.Also described is the FLES Methods Course Syllabus and the Summer FLES Institutes that were the products of four functional‐collaborative meetings held during a two‐year period which brought together foreign language educators from seven state universities, the state foreign language consultant, fifteen district foreign language supervisors, and ten practicing FLES teachers. The Institutes were given in 1989 at six state universities to 72 teachers. Two additional Institutes were given in Spanish to an additional 75 inservice teachers in two Florida counties. The Institute Syllabus and Institute pre‐ and post‐test scores are presented. Implications of using intensive training institutes to meet statewide demands for FLES teachers are discussed.
Assessing Literary Interpretation Skills
Authors: Henning Sylvie Debevec 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Along with other foreign language colleagues, the author has been participating in a comprehensive assessment project. Having accepted the principle of assessment based on proficiency rather than fact‐acquisition for the four language skills, the group tried to apply the same principle to literary interpretation. ACTFL has no rating scale in this area, so the author undertook to elaborate one.The four levels of the author's scale are based on a graduated arrangement of interpretive activities, each composed of an action and a textual or contextual component. Since literary interpretation requires strong reading comprehension, the novice level presupposes an intermediate‐high level of reading comprehension. The notional components are sequenced from the specific and concrete to the general and abstract (e.g., from plot events to temporal structures). They are also arranged to move readers out of a self‐oriented (biographical) perspective into a more world‐oriented one (e.g., from character description to the work's relation to its socio‐cultural or historical contexts). Finally, the components are increasingly self‐conscious. The functions progress from recognizing and distinguishing through describing to understanding and finally to analyzing critically. The same textual/contextual component may appear at several levels, each time, however, matched with a different action.The group is here concerned with the assessment of interpretive proficiency, not coverage. Consequently, the focus is on literary components that can be used to interpret any work, both as a coherent textual structure and as an element in larger contextual frameworks.
Reading “Inside” the Lines: An Adventure in Developing Cultural Understanding
Authors: Evans Gilda Alvarez , González Olgalucía G 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  One of the major concerns of the foreign language profession today is to find a way to promote better cross‐cultural understanding while continuing to develop linguistic skills. This paper presents a series of oral and written tasks based on authentic written texts.In this case, the texts, taken from magazines for Hispanic waders, clearly reflect the traditional Hispanic cultural value placed on close ties among Family and friends. A series of activities grouped into prereading, reading, and postreading tasks is provided along with some student responses to them. After locating appropriate authentic tests, activities can of course be designed for any language.The authors argue in favor of such task progressions for authentic texts. Reading “inside” the lines can be a motivating and enjoyable adventure for the students, and developing the tasks can be a similar challenge for the teacher.
Teacher Training with a Twist: A Collaborative Project in North Carolina1
Authors: Rhodes Nancy C. , Heining‐Boynton Audrey L. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  With the growing demand across the country for foreign language instruction in the elementary school, there is an urgent and increasing need for qualified teachers. One of the reasons for the current shortage of trained elementary school foreign language teachers is the serious shortage of qualified teacher educators.This article describes a three‐year teacher training project that aimed to improve the training of elementary school foreign language teachers at institutions of higher education. The components of the training model were based on the principle that, in order to be successful, teacher trainers should have experience observing and teaching at the level for which they will be training others.The training model paired North Carolina teacher trainers with experienced elementary school teachers who served as their mentors. The teacher trainers participated in the following activities: 1) an intensive four‐day seminar on elementary school foreign language methodology (also attended by their elementary school colleagues), 2) observations of their partners'elementary school language classes, 3) teaching of their partners'elementary school classes, 4) collaboration with the elementary school language teachers in the development of a teacher education curriculum, and 5) peer coaching with a new group of teacher trainers. These teacher educators were then responsible for incorporating the new material and methodologies into their universities' curricula and providing elementary school language instruction to undergraduate foreign language students preparing to become teachers.
Tuning in on ‘Prime Time’: Channel Effects in L2 Grammaticality Judgment Tasks
Authors: Hedgcock John , Lefkowitz Natalie 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Formerly held distinctions which opposed “conscious” to “unconscious” learning, “controlled” to “automatic” processing, and “learning” to “acquisition“have eroded as tenable models of L2 learning processes. Recent formulations of L2 development instead favor an approach which integrates linguistic theory with the information‐processing models advanced in cognitive psychology. Rather than relying on binary distinctions, processing‐oriented, task‐centered research features continua which accommodate the overlapping, interdependent dimensions of explicit and implicit knowledge, as well as learning with and without awareness.In this study, learners performed metalingual and preference tasks requiring them to utilize L2 knowledge brought to mind under one of two conditions: 1)byan aural “priming” activity (a listening exercise) designed to tap into memory without recourse to explicit rules, or 2) by a written task (a multiple‐choice grammar exercise) aimed specifically at invoking explicit L2 rules. Francophone secondary students of English as a foreign language (N=169) took a 50‐item aural test involving judgments of well‐formed and ill‐formed English syntactic structures, and a parallel written multiple choice test containing corresponding strings. The “primed” group, which took the written test before the aural test, significantly outperformed the “unprimed” group (p ≤ .01), which took the aural test first; performance levels on the written tests were statistically comparable. Two‐way ANOVA results indicate important differences between recall with awareness and recall without awareness, strongly suggesting a positive role for “priming” via the written channel in foreign language learning. That is, completion of the written task prior to the listening task appeared to enhance learners performance significantly on the latter, possibly because of the explicit character of the former.
Coming to Grips with The Culture: Another Use of Dialogue Journals in Teacher Education
Authors: Bacon Susan M. 
Published: January 2009

1The Ohio State University is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.ABSTRACT  The article describes using dialogue journals as part of a teaching‐methods course in a summer program in Spain. Participants were teachers of Spanish with a range of experience and language proficiency. The dialogue journal‐writing activity complemented class discussion and research into cultural phenomena. During the course, participants recorded their impressions of and adjustment to Spanish culture. The instructor responded to entries by encouraging writers to clarify and expand ideas. Journal writing appeared to help participants put experiences into an appropriate perspective, thus giving them insight into how to represent Spanish culture to their American students. The article describes the program, course, and journals. The author suggests that this kind of process writing has use in other phases of teacher education.
An Exploration of Reading Comprehension, Oral Reading Errors, and Written Errors by Subjects Labeled Learning Disabled
Authors: Mabbott Ann Sax 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  There is a significant number of people labeled learning disabled (LD) who have extreme difficulty learning a second language. Although a large amount of research deals with learning disabilities, very little of it addresses the second language learning situation. The purpose of this research is to explore whether, and how, decoding and encoding problems with a first language acquisition carry over into the second language acquisition of five LD‐labeled students and what the consequences are for comprehensionThis research consists of case studies of LD‐labeled subjects who have gained a degree of proficiency in a second language. The subjects' performance on written dictations, oral readings, and comprehension after oral and silent reading are compared qualitatively between their first and second languages. In general, it was found that the subjects had the same kinds of problems and made the same kinds of errors in both the first and second languages. By administering these tests and interviewing the subjects about their language learning experiences, the researcher also gained useful information about classroom practices and learning strategies that may help students labeled LD learn a second language.All of these subjects (all adults) reported having extreme difficulty in the foreign language classroom as well as with English reading and writing skills. In spite of these problems with language, four out of five gained a high degree of fluency in their second language outside the classroom in immersion settings (as foreign exchange students, by marrying a native speaker, by working with migrant laborers). The fifth subject has been able to survive traditional university foreign language classes by working extremely hard and being very aggressive about seeking help. The paper discusses why these learners succeeded in learning a second language while many of their counterparts labeled LD fail.