The Louisiana English language arts student standards were created by over one hundred Louisiana educators with input by thousands of parents and teachers from across the state. Educators envisioned what proficient students should know and be able to do to compete in our society and focused their efforts on creating standards that would allow them…

The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) fulfills federal requirements for assessing the English language proficiency of English language learners (ELLs) in kindergarten through grade 12 in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. TELPAS assesses students in alignment with the Texas English…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing model content frameworks for English language arts/literacy (ELA/Literacy) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessments. The Model Content…

The Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field continues to experience increased valuing of experiential practitioner knowledge. A welcome result of this evolution has been the broadening of research perspectives. The 16 practitioner narratives in "Insights on Teaching Speaking in TESOL" are written by…

Describes oral tests for different teaching levels that can be used by regular classroom teachers with normal size classes. At the beginning levels, oral assessment is done through role playing or "talk cards," and at the advanced levels, an oral interview is the major part of a mixed skill task. (EKN)

The lecturer's first job is to get the students' attention. Techniques to hold the students' interest include: adapting the lecture to the audience; covering a few topics in depth rather than many superficially; and putting variety in the format. Nonverbal communication is as important as the content of the lecture. (JN)

As part of the Speech Communication Association (SCA) 1990 Summer Conference on Communication Competency Assessment held in Denver, Colorado, one work group worked on the development of a speech performance evaluation form and/or process grounded in and driven by the competency paradigm. Prior to and during the conference, the group developed a…

Describes techniques which enable high school teachers to use German in their classes as a means of communication and not just as an abstract problem for students to master. Covers using different media techniques, students as teachers, different approaches to the textbook, culture materials, and oral interview tests. (EKN)

Intended to aid schools in designing a Literacy Profile (defined here as consisting of documented information from a variety of assessments of a student's performance over a range of items defined as the dimensions of language learning), this pamphlet presents an alternative to standard assessment techniques. In the form of data tables the…

Describes a unified reading/communication arts program in the Cincinnati Public School System which uses new basal texts, support materials, and a customized instructional system for each grade level, integrating listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking skills into a unified language approach. Discusses intervention strategies,…

Gifted/talented secondary-school students used the Students Questioning Students method in their mathematics classes. The method stimulated higher-order thinking, made students more attentive listeners, and improved their public speaking self-confidence. The paper offers suggestions for implementing the method and includes three pages of letters…

Describes a project of a Speech Communication Association Task Force that culminated in developing a list of major speaking and listening skills for elementary school students. Covers background, specific skills, their assessment, and ways to teach these skills. (PD)

Drama can act as a bridge between the classroom and the real world in teaching students to communicate in a second language. Teaching techniques using drama to help improve students' pronunciation of English as a second language are described, as they relate to articulation, pitch, volume, rate, and variety. (CB)

This paper provides activities and suggestions for foreign language teachers to use to enhance their students' self-esteem. Teachers should: (1) have students speak, write, and read the target language on the first day of class; (2) help students overcome test anxiety by focusing on what they did right, experimenting with different testing…