KeywordsForeign language proficiency; foreign language learning disability; disability; foreign language waiver; foreign language acquisition; academic advising
The Study of Foreign Languages as Part of a Global EducationWith globalization as a driving force, foreign language study has become an increasingly essential component of education. Multilingual and intercultural skills and the appreciation of different cultures are important to enhance global understanding. Knowledge of a foreign language has long been
Fifteen years after the ‘peaceful revolutions’ brought about the collapse of communism and the reunification of East and West Germany, a heated debate rages over the legacy of communism and the continuing impact of 1989. This paper describes a new course that explores the contentious issues in this debate through the innovative use of the course management system Blackboard. The paper describes how using Internet technology (video and audio links to archival and documentary footage, historic recordings, web linked academic articles, newspaper reports, internet sites, on‐line quizzes and virtual discussions) has brought today's undergraduates into the current debate and engaged them technologically in ways that deviate from more traditional teaching models. Such a course is not as prevalent as one would expect, least of all in undergraduate curricula in Germany and the United States.
When and to what extent one should teach grammar to language learners has been discussed extensively in theoretical and pedagogical literature. Even though grammar continues to hold an important place in language teaching, there is still much controversy with regard to what works best. This article looks at the question of computer-mediated grammar teaching and its effect on language acquisition over time. In particular, it reports the results of a year-long empirical study of the effectiveness of extended online practice of L2 grammar on the overall development of L2 in learners of German. The results of the study suggest that prolonged online grammar practice translated into higher scores on chapter exams. However, no effect was found with regard to written work or oral chats and we concluded that prolonged online grammar practice did not have an effect on the quality of open-ended tasks such as these over the course of a year. Implications for language learning are discussed, exploring possible explanations on the short-term effect of online grammar instruction and the apparent lack of cumulative effect on more open-ended tasks.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.