Bouquets of Bitterroots; Or How to Get Just About Anyone to Do Just About Anything for You-and Feel Good About It
Betty Lou Leaver

The delicate bitterroot flower brings color and warmth to all who see it. By surviving freezing winters, it attests to the great enduring strength of gentleness. Metaphorically, in this book, the bitterroot is a "warm fuzzy" that can be shared with friends and strangers alike. Learn how to get what you want and need and make others and yourself happy as you do so.

Developing Professional-Level Language Proficiency

Betty Lou Leaver & Boris Shekhtman

This book examines approaches to teaching students who aim to make the leap from "advanced" or "superior" proficiency in a foreign language to "near-native" ability. While there are an abundance of publications on classroom techniques and methods for lower levels of instruction, almost nothing exists about the transition, which is vital for those who intend to use foreign languages in high-level arenas. Compiled by leading practitioners in this area of foreign language teaching, the book fills the gap for those developing programs at the "advanced to distinguished" level.

This book offers concrete and practical ideas for implementing content-based instruction - using subject matter rather than grammar - through eleven case studies of cutting-edge models in a broad variety of languages, academic settings, and levels of proficiency. The highly innovative models illustrate content-based instruction programs for both commonly and less-commonly taught languages - Arabic, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish - and for proficiency levels ranging from beginners to fluent speakers. They include single-teacher and multi-teacher contexts and such settings as typical language department classrooms, specialty schools, intensive language programs, and university programs in foreign languages across the curriculum.

Wendy W. Allen, St. Olaf College)
Review in Modern Language Journal, 83.2 (Summer, 1999) (excerpt):
Although intended primarily for those who teach foreign languages to adult learners, this volume, compiled by two veterans in the field of content-based instruction (CBI), is also of potential interest to teachers working in English as a Second Language and bilingual education. It is particularly well suited to teachers who have already considered the potential of CBI and who may be familiar with some of the literature in the field, but who are unsure of how to proceed toward implementation. What differentiates this volume from its predecessors, all of which rely heavily on theoretical and linguistic arguments in support of CBI, broad policy issues, and some program description, is its central focus on the pedagogical concerns of CBI. The authors intend to give language educators practical models and specific methods for implementing CBI. To that end, they present 11 case studies of successfully implemented models of CBI. ... This is a very impressive and useful volume. A variety of CBl courses and programs are described in a format that lends itself to a wide range of readers. What sets the individual case studies apart from previous published program descriptions, however, is their conceptual and methodological sophistication. Individual authors are well versed in the theory and practice of second language acquisition, and carefully and convincingly integrate the two as they document the processes of conceptualization, evaluation, and modification in which they engaged. Such an approach not only gives readers an insider's view of the development of each course or program described, but also helps them acquire the ability to reflect similarly about courses they are currently teaching or intend one day to teach. Appendixes provide a wealth of practical information of potential interest and use to language educators currently engaged in CBI or interested in exploring this possibility. ...This volume belongs on the frequently consulted shelf in the professional libraries of language educators in the 21st century. (Wendy W. Allen, St. Olaf College)

Comments from students of French in Vincent Morrissette's classes, Santa Catalina School, Monterey:
"I think that this is very well written and easy to understand."
"This is a very good way to explain how to learn a foreign language. The text is very clear because it took the situations in normal life and offers a solution."
"This was very good and true! I love it! Thanks! From a former non-French speaker and hater."

Comment from Melissa T. Smith, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Youngstown University:
"When your students 'just don't get it,' refer them to this book. It has all the answers you may have come up with in 20-odd years of studying/teaching foreign languages, and then some!"

Teaching the Whole Class
by Betty Lou Leaver

Contents:
Learning styles and strategies for the classroom teacher. This book helps teachers teach all students in classes where learning styles may vary considerably from one student to another. The system described has been successfully used in more than 15 countries.

Review:
The latest edition of what has become a classic manual for teachers over the past decade. Explains that different students have different styles of learning, how to recognize the varieties, how to expand a teaching style so that no student or group of students is handicapped with someone else's way of learning, and how to help students expand their learning styles in case they run into a teacher who has not read the book. Revised from the 1994 edition. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Interpersonal Dynamics in Second Language Education : The Visible and Invisible Classroom
Madeline E. Ehrman & Zoltan Dornyei

"This on-going twelve-year exchange of ideas and opinions on the teaching and acquisition of Russian has had an influence on the field as a whole. Apparently, this type of exchange is not ubiquitous in the foreign language fields. Occasionally, we hear a comment from our colleagues in other foreign language fields, who tell us that they are envious of our dialogue and idea sharing."

The volume includes articles by Christine Campbell, Patricia Chaput, Charles Cole, Andrew Corin, Constance Curtin, Beth Dryer, Sharon Flank, Maurice Funke, Thomas Garza, Serafima Gettys, Kira Gor, Natalia Goroshko, Neil Granoien, Betty Lou Leaver, Echo Leaver, Natalie Marchenko-Fryberger, Andrea Nelson, Valerie Pellegrino, Rodmonga Potapova, Liudmila Pruner, Benjamin Rifkin, Richard Robin, Leonid Slutsky, Robert Smith, Valentina Soboleva, Matt Tittle, John Watzke, Linda Woodward

Mentoring Foreign Language TA's, Lecturers, and Adjunct Faculty: AAUSC 2000 Volume
Benjamin Rifkin (Editor)