Language teaching approaches, methods and procedures are constantly undergoing reassessment. New ideas keep emerging as the growing complexity of the means of communication and the opportunities created by technology put language skills to new uses. In addition, the political, social and economic impact of globalisation, the new demands of the labour market that result from it, the pursuit of competitiveness, the challenges of intercultural communication and the diversification of culture have opened new perspectives on the central role that foreign languages have come to play in the development of contemporary societies. This book provides an insight into the latest developments in the field and discusses the new trends in foreign language teaching in four major areas, namely methods and approaches, teacher training, innovation in the classroom, and evaluation and assessment.

This book provides a unique set of tools designed to enhance an individual's success in communicati0n in a foreign language environment. The devices presented allow the speaker of a foreign language to demonstrate the level of his/her language more impressively. These techniques were developed and tested by the author with adult professionals in such varied fields as journalism, diplomacy, government, and international business.

Want a quick way to get your students happily conversing more in the target language? This practical book shows you how to use formative assessments to gain immediate and lasting improvement in your students’ fluency. You’ll learn how to: Imbed the 3-minute formative assessment into every lesson with ease Engage students in peer formative assessment successfully Teach students to give each other formative feedback Help struggling students make significant gains Create and coach small groups for differentiated speaking practice Assist students in incorporating current grammar lesson into meaningful conversations Analyze your own use of language in the classroom to avoid vague feedback that can stifle student conversations Grade oral improvement positively The authors provide formative assessments for 17 language functions with step-by-step lesson plans, aligned to ACTFL guidelines. Each plan includes a wealth of conversation and extension activities. There are ready-to-use checklists including the "I Can" log that helps students plot their own progress. Research has confirmed that when teachers use formative assessment, students can learn in six to seven months what would normally take a school year to learn. You’ll find yourself using this book every day because of the gains your students will achieve in foreign language fluency.

Improving Foreign Language Teaching provides teachers and teacher trainers with a research-based structure for the effective teaching and assessment of second languages. As well as outlining a model for teacher development, the book identifies and exemplifies eight key principles for effective language learning, which can be used to guide curriculum design and decisions about classroom pedagogy. Improving Foreign Language Teaching also presents practical activities, related materials, and guidance on how student progress can be monitored and recorded. Based on the research of the authors and other international experts, together with the work of a consortium established by the authors and teachers in a range of secondary schools, the book focusses on the development of language skills and communicative competence. It also proposes an assessment system which better reflects how learners progress in language learning than current models. Taking as its starting point the challenge of a curriculum in flux and complex pedagogical approaches, this book offers clear research-informed guidance for effective planning, teaching and learning. It will be essential reading for all those concerned with the improvement of language learning and teaching in the secondary classroom.

KAT LOMB (1909-2003) was one of the great polyglots of the 20th century. A translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, Lomb worked in 16 languages for state and business concerns in her native Hungary. She achieved further fame by writing books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots. Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.

Forget everything you’ve heard about adult language learning: evidence from cognitive science and psychology prove we can learn foreign languages just as easily as children. An eye-opening study on how adult learners can master a foreign lanugage by drawing on skills and knowledge honed over a lifetime. Adults who want to learn a foreign language are often discouraged because they believe they cannot acquire a language as easily as children. Once they begin to learn a language, adults may be further discouraged when they find the methods used to teach children don't seem to work for them. What is an adult language learner to do? In this book, Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz draw on insights from psychology and cognitive science to show that adults can master a foreign language if they bring to bear the skills and knowledge they have honed over a lifetime. Adults shouldn't try to learn as children do; they should learn like adults. Roberts and Kreuz report evidence that adults can learn new languages even more easily than children. Children appear to have only two advantages over adults in learning a language: they acquire a native accent more easily, and they do not suffer from self-defeating anxiety about learning a language. Adults, on the other hand, have the greater advantages—gained from experience—of an understanding of their own mental processes and knowing how to use language to do things. Adults have an especially advantageous grasp of pragmatics, the social use of language, and Roberts and Kreuz show how to leverage this metalinguistic ability in learning a new language. Learning a language takes effort. But if adult learners apply the tools acquired over a lifetime, it can be enjoyable and rewarding.

When the first edition of CALL Environments was published in 1999 (Alexandria, VA: TESOL), it filled a distinct need for a computer assisted language learning (CALL) text focused specifically on second language acquisition (SLA). Much has happened in the world of technology since then, but the need to maintain this connectionbetween research on both CALL and SLA still exists. This second edition continues to meet that need by highlighting new tools, discussing new research, and proposing new practical applications. And many of the chapters, which discuss topics such as visual literacy, critical thinking, and creativity, address content from the revised National Education Technology Standards for Students. As Egbert and Hanson-Smith point out, although technology presents a whole new language, the language of technology is not the most crucial information that educators need in order to use computers and the Internet effectively in their language classrooms. More important is an understanding of good pedagogy and the relationships among teaching, learning, and technological environments. This volume builds on the structure of the first edition, based on the eight conditions for optimal learning environments, by adding suggestions for projects and questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, as well as an index of terms used throughout the book.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

A book for the curious and passionate 21st century language teachers and teacher trainers. Tired of reading about the wonders of technology enhanced project-based learning but not knowing where to seek inspiration to start to adopt this teaching approach? A team of in-service teachers, teacher trainers, pre-service teachers and researchers have worked together to present a simple, engaging and practical book to offer fellow education professionals stimulating ideas for their teaching practice. Joint efforts for innovation: Working together to improve foreign language teaching in the 21st century offers: Inspiring classroom projects and innovative teaching experiences. A compilation of digital tools and resources for the foreign language classroom. Pioneering proposals to open up the classroom doors. Problem-solving and inquiry-based tasks that promote team work. Honest reflections from practitioners on their classroom practices. This book includes accessible examples of teacher-led classroom research small-scale studies. calls for teachers to do research in their classrooms. personal accounts on the importance of school internships for pre-service teachers. This book is an invitation for practicing teachers and teacher trainers to be creative and to develop learning skills, literacy skills and life skills. Are you ready to become an innovative 21st century educator?

The Practice of Foreign Language Teaching: Theories and Applications is a collection of essays which will appeal to teachers of modern languages no matter the level of instruction. The volume analyzes the concepts of foreign language education and multicultural competence, including the notion of the intercultural speaker. It also discusses the ways in which language education policy develops, by comparing the theories and purposes of foreign language education. The essays collected here highlight the various different methods and approaches in language teaching, and introduce more experienced teachers to new approaches and teaching ideas. The book will also provide language instructors with the theoretical background and practical solutions they need to decide which approaches, materials, and resources can and should be used in their L2 classrooms.