Foreign Language Teaching Programs Research Articles

Reading in the Foreign Language Teaching Program

This article discusses the problem of the gap as it exists in Israel in the teaching of intermediate-level English to speakers of Hebrew. It is suggested that such procedures as reading aloud, focusing on the teaching of new words, and concentration on literal-type comprehension questions, though valid and necessary elements in foreign teaching, conflict with the learning strategies required in for meaning. A proposal is outlined for a dual approach to the reading program-reading for language coupled with for meaningand sample items are provided to demonstrate how this approach might be implemented. As a member of the team which plans the course of study in English

Jamestown's Promotional Program in Spanish

3 There were ten classes that met three times a week for thirty-minute periods. There are now (1953) nineteen classes in the fifth and sixth grades, two seventh-grade classes and one eighth-grade class. 4The Director is deeply grateful to Dr. George B. Smith, Dr. John Nelson, Dr. Paul B. Lawson, and Mr. Raymond Nichols, members of the Budget Committee of the University, for these grants. In 1951, a syllabus in two volumes: Spanish in the Grade Schools, was issued. In 1953, a book for children was prepared: Mi libro de espanol. The latter is being used by 650 children in Kansas, as their first textbook. 5 Briefly, the four-year curriculum prescribes twenty-two credit hours in Broad Training in Language Arts; twenty hours in Social Studies; twelve hours in Science and Mathematics; fourteen in Child Development, Health, and Physical Education; thirty in Professional Courses in Education, including Foreign Language Methods; and finally, a minimum of twenty-five hours in Spanish. Since a student frequently offers some high-school Spanish as entrance credit, he may have the equivalent of twenty-eight, thirty-one, or thirty-four hours. The Spanish courses that the student elects for this major must include several in conversation, civilization, culture, and literature. The Social Studies courses may include courses in Latin American geography and Latin American history. Practice teaching and observation will be done under the joint supervision of the Director of Elementary Education and the Director of Foreign Language Teaching Program; Experimentation in the Audio-Visual Laboratories and active participation in the Foreign Language clubs must also be done. 6 The Director of the Spanish program is grateful to Dean Kenneth Anderson, Dr. Karl Edwards, and Dr. Charles Johnson for their active participation in the planning of this course.

THE RUTGERS FOREIGN LANGUAGE SURVEY

Author's Summary— A middle‐sized university revaluates its modern foreign language teaching program; its plans for the future are progressive but not revolutionary.