Document Type

Graduate Project

Date of Degree Completion

Summer 2005

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

Committee Chair

Don B. Woodcock

Second Committee Member

Steven A. Schmitz

Third Committee Member

Bobby Jean Cummings

Abstract

Second language practitioners share the goal that their students reach communicative competence in the target language. Recent research findings regarding learning, however, have spawned a debate that has driven teachers to rethink the efficacy of the traditional practice of direct instruction of language usage. The Standards for Foreign Language Learning, as well as research that examines second language acquisition, support content-based instructional strategies that employ sustained language use, cultural infusion, and contextual grammar instruction in a constructivist classroom. This project reviews that research, then synthesizes and applies the findings of the research through the development of units that implement strategies that include storytelling, reading, scenarios, music, art, and video.

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