This study investigated the elicited imitation task (EIT) as a tool for measuring linguistic proficiency in a second/foreign (L2) language, focusing on French. Nonnative French speakers (n = 94) and native French speakers (n = 6) completed an EIT that included 50 sentences varying in length and complexity. Three raters evaluated productions on…

This study investigated the effects of teaching English prepositions using schematic diagrams inspired by cognitive linguistics in a computer-based tutorial system called the English Preposition Tutor. Training was designed based on the theoretical framework of the Competition Model and a cognitive linguistic analysis of prepositions. Sixty-four…

To date, there has been little empirical research exploring the relationship between implicit and explicit lexical knowledge (of collocations). As a first step in addressing this gap, two laboratory experiments were conducted that evaluate different conditions (enriched, enhanced, and decontextualized) under which both adult native speakers…

Reports on an experiment designed to test the reliability of the cloze procedure in second language testing, specifically as a measure of overall language proficiency, and as a measure whose results are independent of style. (AM)

Reexamines the construct of field independence/dependence and its measurement in second-language acquisition research, focusing on its role in language testing and good language-learner theories. (68 references) (Author/CB)

Considers whether scores on cloze items are generally sensitive to amounts of context in excess of 10 words on either side of them and, if not, when they are sensitive to long-range constraints. Concludes that some are sensitive to constraints that reach beyond 50 words on either side of a blank. (SED)

Presents findings from an experiment that sought to determine the minimal number of blanks required to ensure parallelism in cloze tests, differing only in the point at which deletion starts. Results showed the required minimum depended on the scoring methods used, with exact-word tests requiring about 100 blanks and acceptable-word tests…

Describes a study of the intelligibility of three dialects--standard English, New Yorkese, and Black English--for working-class adult English learners. Results showed that comprehension was significantly affected by dialect and that learner judgments of the speakers in terms of job status, friendliness, and appearance paralleled the…

Describes a study which investigated the intersentential sensitivity of the rational deletion cloze procedure. Eighty-four college-level students of German were divided into two sub-groups; one group completed a sequential cloze task, the other completed a scrambled cloze task. There were not significant differences in performance on the two…

This study found that reliable, accurate, time-saving placement information for English as a Second Language students can be derived from a procedure whereby an open-ended cloze is truncated and remodeled into a multiple-choice format. (Author/POP)

Reports on research into the interactive roles played in the verbal comprehension processes by the sequence of textual elements, text-specific prior knowledge, and levels of language proficiency. Four cloze tests were administered to undergraduate and graduate native speakers of English and to undergraduate non-native speakers of English at three…

Presents one solution to the problem of eliciting, classifying, and measuring language learning errors in a longitudinal study, and, in addition, seeks to isloate particular difficulties of adult Iranian learners of English. (AM)

Analysis of responses to two cloze tests administered to native and non-native speakers of English revealed that non-natives were far less capable of coping with the loss of redundant cohesive data than were natives. Nonnatives were more reliant on text in comprehension process than were native speakers. (Author/CB)

Presents the results of two studies intended to determine: (1) whether psycholinguistics can explain the reading behaviors of adult Spanish speakers reading in English and Spanish, and (2) whether these readers transferred their Spanish reading skills to English. (Author/AM)