While multilingualism itself is a widely analyzed topic, a study about multilingualism at German schools abroad is so far unique. This quantitative study investigates the differences in the size of German expressive and receptive vocabulary between monolingual and multilingual students, aged between 5 and 11 years. A cohort of 65 multilingual…

Reports the outcomes of two English-as-Foreign-Language assessments for Dutch primary school students with regard to listening, reading, and word knowledge. The assessments have provided important insights into the possibilities and limitations of foreign language teaching and learning. (Author/VWL)

The concept of washback, or backwash, defined as the influence of testing on instruction, is discussed with relation to second language teaching and testing. While the literature of second language testing suggests that tests are commonly considered to be powerful determiners of what happens in the classroom, the concept of washback is not well…

Treatment of some issues in a new Dutch plan for foreign language instruction is compared to treatment of similar issues in the United States. The Dutch plan assumes that centralized, national planning is essential, with the various segments of the foreign language instructional system being assigned interlocking roles and responsibilities.…

Tests the hypothesis that, owing to sex differences in prior knowledge and interests, the topic of a text is an important factor explaining sex-based differences in student scores on foreign-language tests. Results indicate that differences between the sexes in prior knowledge contribute to sex differences in foreign-language reading…

Since the mid-1960s, the use of objective testing in education, and multiple-choice tests in particular, has increased dramatically in the Netherlands. Since the founding of the Dutch National Institute for Educational Measurement in 1968, the construction of many achievement tests has been concentrated there. This general changeover from…

Criteria for placement tests on math skills of adult basic education (ABE) students are needed to develop tests that are not too "school-like" because the ABE students are often blocked by math anxiety due to past negative school experiences, students may encounter language problems that affect their math skills, simple math problems do…

This document consists of the three issues of the serial "VOX" published in 1989-1991. Major articles in these issues include: "The Original Languages of Australia"; "UNESCO and Universal Literacy"; "Language Shift and Maintenance in Torres Strait"; "Maintaining and Developing Italian in…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…