This article reports on some of the findings of the Foreign Language Teaching Survey (FLTS), which targeted foreign language teachers in secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. It provides a first look at the ensemble of professional and academic backgrounds of respondent teachers and speaks to the present FL classroom and the entities and issues that feed into it as the teacher sees it. The survey constitutes an attempt to construct an empirical picture of the institutionalized foreign language situation in Trinidad and Tobago as well as capture the teacher’s perspective.

This article gives a general presentation of the methodology and the selection criteria used to establish the French Learner Oral Corpus project that I developed between 2002 and 2004, while a lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.* This research project stems from my interest in understanding the acquisition of oral competence among students of French at this institution, and my dissatisfaction with a lack of objective data to characterize precisely the linguistic features of their oral inter language.

In the past 20 years there has been a change in the approach to the teaching of writing skills. Traditionally, teachers focused on the text produced by students on their own, that is, on the final product of their writing. The teacher’s main task was to evaluate this product. Now the focus has changed to the process of writing. Known as the process approach to writing, this approach can be defined as a multiple-draft process, which consists of generating ideas, writing a first draft with emphasis on content, with subsequent drafts to revise ideas and the way those ideas are expressed.

Classroom instruction has undergone dramatic changes with the increasing integration of technology and pedagogy. Currently instructors endeavour to unearth effective teaching strategies that capitalize on technology while utilizing both proven and innovative teaching strategies. Research has revealed that collaboration, games, and focused feedback are successful pedagogical approaches.

Seasoned teachers are sometimes reluctant to introduce new technology into their classroom. They usually see this as just a gadget or fad that does not necessarily enhance teaching and even sometimes disrupts the classroom. Technology that does not work is the worst foe of the foreign language teacher, even in ter- tiary education.While the radio-cassette/compact disc player has finally made its way into the classroom, computer technology is still at bay, for various reasons.

The cognitive, affective, and social challenges of language learning during study abroad have been well documented (Freed 1995a; Parker and Rouxeville 1995). Although young adult learners may be better at disguising their distress than my then 14-year-old son, quoted above, it seems that most learners experience a similar sense of dislocation in their new environment. This paper draws on journals and other qualitative data from undergraduate exchange students in the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean to explore how these challenges affect learners.

Globalisation, economic pressure on education, and the development of new communication technologies are forcing us to rethink the objectives and methodologies of foreign language education in the Caribbean.

President Mary Futrell, General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen, and distinguished colleagues all, it is with sincere gratitude and deep humility that I receive the Education International Albert Shanker Education Award for 2004. Lifetime awards for service cannot be attributed only to the individuals who receive them, for no one is an island or self-made. So tonight let me immediately acknowledge my family, represented here by my wife, Sharon, and daughter, Catherine, who nothing could keep from being present. Their love and support have been integral to any achievement of mine.

The invitation outlining my participation in this evening’s activity said: “You will be expected to give your views on the topics discussed in the book and comment on Professor Miller’s work.” As I looked at the time that accompanied the invitation I immediately experienced anxiety tremors at the formidable task I was required to undertake; but decided it could be done if I bit off only as much as I could manage to digest in the short period of time allotted.

This is an occasion for celebration!-the launch of a major scholarly work by Professor Errol Miller after 20 years of research in an attempt to explain masculine and feminine roots of teaching. It is cause to celebrate, as the book breaks new scholarly ground in its interdisciplinary perspectives, “historical sociology” of the teaching occupation.``