Table of Contents Preface to the 3 rd Edition Anthony Mollica... ix 1. Language Learning: The Key to Understanding and Harmony Anthony Mollica... 1 2. Beyond the Classroom: Bilingualism, Cognitive Skills and Health Zofia Wodniecka and Nicholas J. Cepeda... 13 3. Motivating Parents to Support Second-Language Programs Edwin G. Ralph... 23 4. The Fundamentals of Second-Language Teaching J. Clarence LeBlanc... 35 5. Individual Differences in L2 Learning and the Good Language Teacher Christine Besnard... 47 6. The Good Language Learner and the Good Language Teacher: A Review of the Literature and Classroom Applications Anthony Mollica and Frank Nuessel... 63 7. Promoting the Development of Strategic Competence in the Language Classroom Peter J. Heffernan... 93 8. French Core Programs: How Can We Improve Them? H.H. Stern... 107 9. Study Skill Suggestions for Students of Foreign Language Classes Paul Cankar... 123 10. Language Anxiety and How to Manage It: What Educators Need to Know Philip Donley... 127 11. Ten Ways to Cope with Foreign Language Anxiety Philip Donley... 141
vi Table of Contents 12. Climate Setting in Second-Language Classrooms Cher Evans-Harvey... 143 13. Planning for Instruction Kenneth Chastain... 151 14. The Lesson Outline Anthony Mollica... 155 15. Classroom Expressions Anthony Mollica... 163 16. Questioning Strategies Anthony Mollica... 167 17. Classroom Settings Anthony Papalia... 175 18. A Letter to My Spanish Teacher Sandra J. Savignon... 179 19. The Challenge of Multilevel Classes Jill Bell... 185 20. Discipline in the Language Classroom Merle Richards... 193 21. Interactive Homework: Creating Connections Between Home and School Janis L. Antonek, G. Richard Tucker and Richard Donato... 199 22. Eight Approaches to Language Teaching Gina Doggett... 215 23. Conceptual Fluency Theory and Second-Language Teaching Marcel Danesi and Anthony Mollica... 229 24. What Visual Aids Can and Cannot Do in Second-Language Teaching Hector Hammerly... 251 25. A Picture is Worth... 1000 Words Creative Activities for the Language Classroom Anthony Mollica... 269 26. A Picture is Worth 1000 Words and A Word is Worth 1000 Pictures Hector Hammerly... 287 27. Mnemonic Acronyms: A Memory Aid for Teaching and Learning Spanish Grammar Frank Nuessel... 295
Table of Contents vii 28. Teaching French Using Mnemonic Devices John J. Janc... 303 29. Focus on Descriptive Adjectives: Creative Activities for the Language Classroom Anthony Mollica, Herbert Schutz and Karen Tessar... 315 30. Increasing the Students Basic Vocabulary in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish ` through English Cognates Anthony Mollica... 329 31. Games and Puzzles in the Second-Language Classroom: A Second Look Marcel Danesi and Anthony Mollica... 345 32. French, German, Italian and Spanish Tongue Twisters in the Classroom Anthony Mollica... 371 33. Talking off the Tops of Their Heads Wilga Rivers... 385 34. The Five-Step Performance-Based Model of Oral Proficiency Rebecca M. Valette... 399 35. Immersion: Why Not Try Free Voluntary Reading? Stephen Krashen... 407 36. Four Approaches to Authentic Reading Rebecca M. Valette... 411 37. Teaching Writing in Elementary and Intermediate Language Classes: Suggestions and Activities Frank Nuessel and Caterina Cicogna... 423 38. Students Empowerment: E-mail Exchange and the Development of Writing Skills Christine Besnard, Charles Elkabas and Sylvie Rosienski-Pellerin... 431 39. Dear Santa... Santa Claus Helps with Communicative Competence Carmela Colella and Anne Urbancic... 441 40. Gestures and Language: Fair and Foul in Other Cultures Joanne Wilcox... 451 41. Teaching to the Test: Principles of Authentic Assessment for Second-Language Education Edwin G. Ralph... 459
viii Table of Contents 42. The Problem of Passion and Culture Roseann Runte... 469 43. Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom Nelson Brooks... 475 44. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: An Introductory Note Anthony Mollica... 503 45. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Halloween Revisited Anthony Mollica, Marjolaine Séguin, Raffaella Maiguashca and Natalia Valenzuela... 507 46. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Thanksgiving Anthony Mollica... 519 47. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Hannukka Louise Lewin and Perla Riesenbach... 525 48. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: The Chinese New Year Cheng Luo.... 529 49. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Ukrainian Easter Tania Onyschuk... 537 50. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Valentine s Day Anthony Mollica, Marjolaine Séguin and Natalia Valenzuela... 543 51. Teaching Culture in a North American Context: Mother s Day/Father s Day Anthony Mollica and Tania Sterling... 553 Contributors... 557
Preface The first issue of the journal Mosaic appeared in the Fall of 1993. It was meant be an unpretentious reader frtiendly publication devoted to the professional development of teachers of Heritage/International languages languages taught in elementary schools, after school hours, or on Saturday mornings. It immediately became evident, however, that all language teachers were interested in a reader-friendly publication which combined both theory and practice. We did a massive mailing publishing some 25,000 copies of the first issue reaching selected teachers, consultants, and supervisors in both Canada and the United States. Frankly, we were surprised at the enthusiasm which the journal generated. We are fortunate to have had and we hope that the trend will continue! authors who successfully combine theory and practice and who write articles readily accessible to all readers. The request to put a number of selected articles from Mosaic in book form came from two colleagues from the University of Toronto at Mississauga, Professors Charles Elkabas and Michael Lettieri, who were teaching a course on Introduction to Second-Language Teaching. They felt that in the absence of a specific textbook, many articles would serve their purpose and form the basis for the course. As Editor, I was delighted to accede to their request and hence the first edition (1996) of 160 pages of Teaching Languages. Selected Readings from Mosaic was published. The book was enthusiastically received and a handful of Canadian and American Faculties of Education adopted it as a basic textbook for their teacher-education courses. It soon became apparent that several other excellent articles which subsequently appeared in Mosaic should be included in any future edition of Teaching Languages. It also occurred to us that the readings provided in the first edition focused not only on teaching but also on learning. Hence, the new title, and an expanded edition (1998) 480 pages of Teaching and Learning Languages. Selected Readings from Mosaic. This third, revised and expanded edition (2009, 576 pages) published by Guerra edizioni is meant to bring to the European readership articles of authors already familiar to them but also to provide information about language teaching on the other side of the Atlantic. The volume contains articles from the first nine volumes of the journal. Selecting the articles to be included has been a painful embarras du choix. We regret that several other excellent contributions had to be omitted because of space restrictions. Their absence from the current Table of Contents does not diminish their value and their contribution to language teaching and learning.
x Table of Contents These fifty-one practical and theoretical chapters, written by distinguished North American second-language scholars, are invaluable professional readings for both beginning and seasoned teachers. Our purpose with this third edition is to make Teaching and Learning Languages, the basic textbook for language teaching and learning. Of great interest to researchers are not only the intersting and helpful articles but also the copious bibliographical references at the end of each chapter. These are invaluable to the readers who wish to expand their knowledge on the topic. The selections in Teaching and Learning Languages recognize the importance and benefits of language teaching and learning (Mollica, Language Learning: The Key to Understanding and Harmony ; Wodniecka and Cepeda, Beyond the Classroom: Bilingualism, Cognitive Skills and Health ; Savignon, A Letter to My Spanish Teacher ), acknowledge the important role of the student, the teacher and the parent (Mollica and Nuessel, The Good Language Learner and the Good Language Teacher: A Review of the Literature and Classroom Applications ; Besnard, Individual Differences in L2 Learning and the Good Language Teacher ; Ralph, Motivating Parents to Support Second-Language Programs ), identify students anxiety and offer practical suggestions for studying (Donley, Language Anxiety and How to Manage It: What Educatiors Need to Know ; Ten Ways to Cope with Foreign Language Anxiety and Cankar, Study Skill Suggestions for Students of Foreign Language Classes ), discuss classroom environment (Evans-Harvey, Climate Setting in Second-Language Classrooms ; Heffernan, Promoting the Development of Strategic Competence in the Language Classroom ), provide practical teaching techniques which will assist teachers in their day-to-day teaching activity (Chastain, Planning for Instruction ; Mollica, The Lesson Outline, Classroom Expressions, Questioning Strategies ; Richards, Discipline in the Language Class ; Papalia, Classroom Settings ; Bell, The Challenge of Multilevel Classes ), highlight the partnership between home and school (Antonek, Tucker and Donato, Interactive Homework: Creating Connections Between Home and School ), identify the fundamentals of second-language teaching (LeBlanc, The Fundamentals of Second-Language Teaching ), propose ways of improving our teaching
Table of Contents xi (Stern, French Core Programs: How Can We Improve Them? ), focus on mnemonic devices to teaching of a specific point of grammar (Nuessel, Mnemonic Acronyms: A Memory Aid for Teaching and Learning Spanish Grammar ; Janc, Teaching French Using Mnemonic Devices ), propose vocabulary expansion (Mollica, Schutz and Tessar, Focus on Descriptive Adjectives: Creative Activities for the Language Classroom ; Mollica, Increasing the Students Basic Vocabulary in French, Italian and Spanish through English Cognates ), emphasize the fun element in language teaching (Danesi and Mollica, Games and Puzzles in the Second-Language Classroom: A Second Look ), identify methods and approaches to language teaching (Doggett, Eight Approaches to Language Teaching ; Danesi and Mollica, Conceptual Fluency Theory and Second-Language Teaching ), suggest caveats with print and non-print materials (Hammerly, What Visual Aids Can and Cannot Do in Second-Language Teaching ), evaluate visuals in the classroom (Hammerly, A Picture is Worth 1000 Words and A Word is Worth 1000 Pictures ), offer suggestions for creative activities (Mollica, A Picture is worth 1000 words Creative Activities for the Language Classroom ), discuss the importance of evaluation (Ralph, Teaching to the Test: Principles of Authentic Assessment for Second-Language Education ), focus on three of the language skills: speaking (Rivers, Talking Off the Top of Their Heads ; Valette, The Five- Step Performance-Based Model of Oral Proficiency ; Mollica, French, Italian and Spanish Tongue Twisters in the Classroom ), reading (Krashen, Immersion: Why Not Try Free Voluntary Reading? ; Valette, Four Approaches to Authentic Reading ), writing ( Nuessel and Cicogna, Teaching Writing in Elementary and Intermediate Language Classes: Suggestions and Activities ; Besnard, Elkabas and Rosienski-Pellerin, Students Empowerment: E-mail Exchange and the Development of Writing Skills ; Colella and Urbancic, Dear Santa... : Santa Claus Helps with Communicative Competence ),
xii Table of Contents as well as on culture and body language (Runte, The Problem of Passion and Culture ; Brooks, Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom ; Wilcox, Gestures and Language: Fair and Foul in Other Cultures ), and conclude with background information on North American cultural festivities (Mollica, Teaching Culture in a North American Context: An Introductory Note, Thanksgiving ; Mollica, Séguin, Maiguashca and Valenzuela, Halloween ; Lewin and Riesenbach, Hannukka ; Onyschuk, Ukrainian Easter ; Luo, The Chinese New Year ; Mollica, Séguin and Valenzuela, Valentine s Day ; Mollica and Sterling, Mother s Day/Father s Day ). I should like to express my gratitude to the above colleagues for permission to reproduce the articles included in this anthology. Whatever success these readings will enjoy belongs to them. It is with sadness that we announce that several colleagues passed away since permission was given to reprint some of the articles: Nelson Brooks, Philip Donley, Raffaella Maiguashca, Anthony Papalia, Wilga Rivers and H. H. Stern. I would like to thank Maureen Smith, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario and René-Etienne Bellavance, Université d Ottawa for their suggestions in the selection of some chapters and Virginia Plante and José Cortés for the preparation of this edition for press. Anthony Mollica