A study compared subjective and objective methods of evaluating college students' second-language communicative competence as expressed in their writing. (MSE)

It was found that the seemingly greatly increased oral fluency of Middlebury College seniors who had studied in college-sponsored junior year abroad programs did not carry over to written skills or to comprehensive grammatical knowledge. In the oral proficiency interview for Spanish, many returning students had no control of the subjunctive, a key…

A collection of papers on language testing addresses these topics: language tests seen from a communicative viewpoint; microcomputers and testing; productive second language skills; developing teachers' assessment skills; content validity of holistic tests; statistical regression in group conversation tests; reading comprehension; unique…

Papers in this volume include the following: "The Theoretical Framework of Jim Cummins: A Review and Critique"; "The Development of Bilingual Behavior"; "Effective Schools Research and Language Instruction Programs"; "Reading and Writing Instruction in Three Bilingual Education Programs in Connecticut";…