The sensitive period as a developmental concept is discussed. Observations are made on various problems involved in attempting to explain adult difficulties with second language acquisition by invoking motivational and input factors. (Author/ NQ)

A group of 18 children from 5 to 12 years old in a FLES course in Mandarin Chinese were graded by three native speakers on their ability to repeat Mandarin Chinese sentences with which they were already familiar and on their ability to produce appropriate sentences to describe posters used in the Chinese class. These grades in Chinese were…

Reports on an experiment, conducted on 63 students of English, which sought to determine whether certain students within heterogeneous population groups can be expected to make significantly more rapid gains than others, and whether scores on a standardized proficiency test can identify students who will make greater or lesser gains. (Author/AM)

Examines the linguistic awareness of the translation process by analyzing the self-corrections made by native speakers and matching subjects' self-perception of what they had done with what they actually did in order to establish a set of parameters of linguistic awareness. Contains extensive bibliographic references. (PMJ)

The purpose of the report is to explain why so many different types of people in so many different parts of the country need languages in their work, and why students planning their education in preparation for certain kinds of careers should be aware of these needs. The focus is mainly on language as an auxiliary skill, on the careers in which…

Early language aptitude tests were generally tests of ability in English or work-sample tests in the target language or an artificial language. Recent work has involved various correlational studies and factor analyses to determine what factors correlate most with success in foreign language learning. Approaches include: (1) correlations of…

This paper investigates the influence childhood bilingualism has on adult foreign language learning ability. Early research exploring the influence of bilingualism on general intelligence is mentioned as well as recent studies that present more favorable results. It is hypothesized that childhood bilingualism will have a positive effect on adult…

Three groups of subjects were tested in an elicited imitation study. These were 8-year-old, 11-year-old and adult native speakers of Arabic who were learning English as a second language. The subjects were asked to repeat sentences of seven different grammatical structure types. Previous research with 4-year-old native speakers of English (Smith,…

This study of the foreign language requirements of U.S. corporations doing business abroad examines characteristics of corporate language training programs and policies with regard both to U.S. national employees going outside the United States to work and to non-U.S. national employees, generally working in their own countries. The role of…

Three methods for second language data collection are compared: free composition, picture description and translation. The comparison is based on percentage of errors in a grammatical category and in a source category. Most results obtained from the free compositions and picture descriptions tended to be similar. Greater variation was found for…

The report reviews recent arguments for directing attention to suitability for a linguistic course of study. A first step in that direction, a Verbal Reasoning Test composed and tried out in the 1975 student selection for English, is described, and the results of this experiment, involving 1046 candidates, are given. The Verbal Reasoning Test is…

This survey is a replication of a November 1974 survey undertaken to determine the number of children in Vancouver schools for whom English is a second language, the extent of their English language handicaps, and their placement needs. The same questionnaire used in the earlier survey was directed to Vancouver school principals. This…

The present study offers a model of second language learning and examines aspects of the model in two experiments with high school students learning French. The model describes learning in terms of three parameters - learning processes, learning strategies, and learner characteristics. These three parameters together may be used to explain both…

This address to school counselors discusses the role of aptitude and attitudes in learning French as a second language with attention to the senior elementary and high school levels. The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) and the Attitude Motivation Inventory (ATI) were administered to students. The MLAT and abilities it is designed to assess…

This study was performed on a sample of 1,276 part-time (PT) and full-time (FT) Language Learning Center (LLC) students enrolled in French, Spanish, German and Russian during FY67-74. The study sought to: (1) develop a statistical data base for use in future curriculum and testing studies; (2) examine factors affecting language learning success;…