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Forty papers presented at the Japanese Association for Language Teaching (JALT) conference were selected for inclusion in this volume. JALT is a nonprofit professional organization of language teachers dedicated to the improvement of language learning and teaching in Japan. JALT's publications and events serve as vehicles for the exchange of new ideas and techniques, and a means of keeping abreast of new developments in a rapidly changing field. The theme of this conference was connecting research to the classroom. Papers for this volume were selected in part for attention to this larger current running through the second language learning and teaching field. Numerous references are cited in the papers selected for this volume. (KFT)

The conference proceedings include 62 papers on aspects of language teaching and learning, organized in seven sections: looking back, looking forward (history of language teaching, future directions); curriculum design (curriculum development, competency-based curricula, content-based instruction, global issues in curriculum and evaluation, instructional materials, business English); computers and language learning (creating and selecting software, learning strategies, language laboratory use, computer network use, scope and limitation of computer-assisted language learning); classrooms and culture (intercultural/interpersonal communication, student behavior norms, learning styles of Japanese, Japanese student nonverbal behavior, sociocultural patterns and change); bilingualism and children (nurture and nature, early English-as-a-Second-Language acquisition, age factors and language proficiency, K-12 Japanese second language instruction); in the classroom (fluency development, learner development, a survey about Japanese teachers and class activities, identity and beliefs in language learning, structured group encounters, self-evaluation videotaping, student journals, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, shared inquiry, literature appreciation, reading activities, peer journals, writing instruction, student publishing, oral history, drama, language rhythm, German instruction, class size); and testing and evaluation (English entrance examinations, questionnaire design, oral testing, listening comprehension, interpreting teacher and course evaluations). Individual papers contain references. (MSE)

This proceedings of the 1993 Asian Reading Conference contains the following 20 papers: "Adverse Effects of Lower Cognitive Processing Capacity on Achievement: What Can We Do?" (James M. Furukawa); "The Impact of Foreign Language Literacy on Higher Education in Thailand" (Uthai Piromruen); "Reading Achievement of Students in Selected Secondary Schools in Malaysia" (Safiah Osman); "Beginning Reading Instruction in India: An Appraisal" (Kuldeep Agarwal); "Literacy Instruction in Some Philippine Schools" (Patria Garcia-Aranas); "Why Do Japanese Children Read Books?: A Developmental Study of Conceptions on Book-Reading" (Kiyomi Akita and Takashi Muto); "Philosophy Is Also for Children: Teaching Reasoning Skills to Young Children" (Norma Lazaro-Jaramillo); "A Comparative Study of Opinions about Methods of Picture Book Reading in Japan and Taiwan" (Toshie Nakamura and Yasuchika Imai); "Implementing and Maintaining a Sustained Silent Reading Program in Secondary Classrooms" (Victoria Y. Hsui); "Confusion of Sounds" (Rajguru Rajendra Prasad); "Why Some Children Have Problems in Learning to Read and Spell in English" (Mary Rohl); "Support Teachers for Students with Reading Difficulties: Australian Research" (John Elkins); "Becoming Aware of World Cultures and Ways of Speaking through Literary Texts" (Maya Khemlani-David); "Response of Preschool Children to BAWAL as an 'Encouraging to Read Programme'" (Halimah Badioze Zaman); "Syntactic Awareness and Early Literacy" (Marion Milton); "The Language of Media: Student-Produced Films and Videos Stimulate Reading at All Levels" (Jeanne DeVaughn Dowd); "Characteristics of English Speaking Reading Instruction for the Visually Impaired on the College Level" (Yoshifumi Chijiiwa); "Teaching Reading in Refugee Camps on the Thai-Kampuchean Border" (Rita Yost Martin); "Differences in Kana and Kanji Processing by Native Japanese Speakers and Non-Native English-Speaking Learners of Japanese: A Summary of the Experiments" (Katsuo Tamaoka); and "Asian Conference on Reading: Closing Speech" (Donald A. Leton). (RS)