Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

Achieving higher levels of proficiency in a foreign language depends on more than an extensive knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Evidence is mounting that true proficiency depends on cultural awareness about how and when language is used. This suggests that teachers in foreign language classrooms must incorporate explicit cultural lessons into their teaching plans. Yet, there remains a stubborn resistance to doing so. This paper outlines the main reasons in teaching culture and how cultural instruction and awareness lead to increased intercultural communicative competence (ICC). It addresses teachers’ concerns about teaching culture and outlines their roles. The paper provides a strategy for designing successful activities that will build intercultural communicative competence and critical thinking skills.

КУРИКУЛУМ СА ОТВОРЕНОМ АРХИТЕКТУРОМ ЗА УЧЕЊЕ СРПСКОГ И ДРУГИХ ЈЕЗИКА У САДКурикулум са отвореном архитектуром (ОА) је приступ организовању наставе страних језика, укључујући српски, који одговара на све комплексније схватање принципа ефективног и ефикасног учења језика.ОА функционише без уџбеника и често је модуларно организован.Користи аутентичне материјале на циљном језику, као и задатке, пројекте, и друге активности које се слободно смењују или премештају према потреби или прилици, тако да се настава континуирано прилагођава потребама ученика без поремећаја или напорних процеса адаптације.ОА дозвољава максимално учешће ученика у налажењу и селекцији аутентичног садржаја.У реферату се размтра развој ОА првенствено у САД

This study examined how L1 Mandarin L2 English learners with different L2 proficiency levels processed the syntactic structure of English sentences. Using a self-paced reading paradigm, this study investigated three issues: first, whether Mandarin learners of English were able to predict the syntactic structure, subject filled-gap, in online English sentence reading; second, whether the parser would commit more strongly to the subject gap analysis when there is a longer distance between the filler and the potential gap; third, how L2 proficiency levels would influence this process. The results showed that regardless of their English proficiency levels, Mandarin learners of English were capable to predict a subject filled-gap when processing English sentences. Besides, the subject filled-gap effect was not found in the sentences with adjuncts between the filler and the potential gap. This indicated that L2 learners' predictive ability in syntactic processing did not need to be activated by the increase of processing time or difficulty. Due to the efficiency of sentence processing, there is no need to increase the processing burden for L2 learners.

This study aimed to identify the level of achievement of Malaysian students in Arabic Morphology material on three areas, previous study period, gender, and student education specialization. This research was a field research conducted on Malaysian students studying Arabic, at the International Islamic University Matriculation Center (IIUMC) in Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia. This study concluded that previous study periods, gender, and education specialization had an important role in this identification that became a reference for the improvement of Arabic Morphology learning curriculum. Students who were first learning Arabic in IIUMC had a high success rate only in matching letters (Anita) with pronouns and fi'il al-madi Shahih, and Mahmuz, and pronouns fi'il al-mahi al-Mithal. As for those who have studied Arabic for 5 years, 6 years, and 7 years have a high level of ability also in matching letters (Anita) with the pronouns and fi'il al-madi al-ajwaf. The level of ability of male students was lower than female students in all aspects without exception in matching letters (Anita) with pronouns and verbs that begin with the letter Ta’. As for students specializing in Arabic, Sharia, and Humanities, Reveal Knowledge and the Qur'an, and Arabic had different levels of success in accordance with their specialization, such as students with Arabic specialization had a high level of success in all the discussions that had been mentioned, however, for students with other specialties not. From the findings, there are several suggestions, namely communicative approach, gradualism, adoption of the most frequent morphological positions, introduction of grammar through meaning, reconciliation of teaching methods, designing Morphology materials, and exchanging cognitive programs for teachers and students.

Abstract In this article, I read Rifāʿah al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801-1873) in an Islamicate, Ottoman context by comparing him to eighteenth and nineteenth-century authors who engaged Ibn Khaldūn’s ideas as transmitted by his Ottoman interpreters. Reading al-Ṭahṭāwī in light of Ibn Khaldūn’s political theories from the Muqaddimah, reveals that al-Ṭahṭāwī’s work constitutes a continuation of eighteenth-century intellectual history, as it shares the same conception of state, geography, and civilizational history found in Ottoman, Mughal, and Mamluk texts. Thus, taking into consideration his Ottoman context is important for helping us understand the intellectual development of Nahḍah authors, like al-Ṭahṭāwī.

This field study investigated the current use of multimedia technology in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Northern California, as well as the barriers and challenges that TCFL teachers have encountered in their practice. An online survey was developed to collect data from 75 local TCFL teachers in Northern California. Findings indicated that most teachers felt they were competent enough in using multimedia technology. About half of the TCFL teachers had never received formal training on multimedia skills, even though they did not view a lack of training opportunities as a major barrier to multimedia use. The lack of school funding was the most critical factor in hindering teachers’ use of multimedia. The study argues for the need to provide more support to TCFL teachers at the institutional level. More training programs are also needed to prepare teachers for a shift of role from traditional sources of knowledge to facilitators of technology-mediated learning.

ABSTRACTTypically, young children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI; also called Developmental language disorder, DLD) have been found to show weakness in narrative development, and such weakness has been judged to be unlikely to resolve over time. However, developmental outcomes for adolescents with a prior SLI diagnosis have not been thoroughly studied. In particular, studies on the evaluative aspects of narratives of such persons are almost non-existent. Here we examine the question whether narrative evaluation of adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI remains problematic into adolescence or comes to resemble more typical narrative performance. We compare the use of evaluative expressions in the narratives of 19 adolescents diagnosed with SLI against 19 typically language developing (TLD) peers. Spoken narratives by the SLI group (Mean age = 14.3; SD = 0.64) and TLD group (Mean age = 14.5; SD = 0.84) using the wordless picture storybook “Frog, where are you?” (https://childes.talkbank.org/access/Clinical-MOR/Conti/Conti4.html) were analysed. Each narrative was coded for evaluative clauses, types of evaluative devices (frames of mind, character speech, hedges, negatives, and causal connectives), as well as evaluative perspectives (global vs. local). Although the quantitative analysis did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, the qualitative analysis showed certain notable strengths in the narrative skills of the focal group of SLI adolescents. Results suggest that adolescents with a history of SLI may approximate TLD narrative skill in evaluating their own narratives, but additional work with more sensitive measures applied at intervals are needed to illuminate developmental pathways of narrative production and of evaluative capacities in adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI.

From the ashes of total destruction at Stunde Null, or the moment of the unconditional surrender that brought an end to the Nazi era on May 8 th , 1945, Germany has made a remarkable recovery. 1 In just about every aspect -political, economic, social, intellectual, and moral -Germany has completed a thorough rehabilitation worthy of acclaim, having transformed itself into a state and society that upholds liberal democratic values and provides an exemplary model in historical reconciliation. 2 Its postwar trajectory has transitioned from an economic revival in the 1950s to a peaceful reunification in 1990, before emerging as the strongest economy within the European Union (EU) in the 21 st century.Its reputation as the leading European economy and a social democracy par excellence is rooted in its extensive and effective social programs, such as a universal

This paper details the experiences of a group of Timorese English language teachers from Lorosa’e English Language Institute (LELI) in Dili, Timor-Leste, who participated in a professional development MOOC entitled Teaching for Success: Lessons and Teaching between March and April 2017. Drawing on the pedagogical principles of blended learning; participants engaged with online course content, and once a week met as a study group to view some video content together and discuss issues arising from it. The authors draw on participant observation, individual and focus group interviews and post-course author reflections to outline the benefits and challenges of doing blended MOOCs in Dili, and propose that they can provide local English language teachers opportunities for subject area knowledge building, language literacy development and more general lifelong learning.