While most foreign language programs list communicative language use as a primary goal, classroom tests seldom reflect this objective but rather focus on discrete-point linguistic competence. The authors present a model of the communication process and point to the main task in constructing tests of communicative competence: devising simulated…

A testing model is developed for teachers in multiracial classes in British schools who want to assess their pupils' proficiency in using English for learning, thinking, and communicating. The model serves as a framework for the design and administration of tests for communicative competence in foreign and second languages. (SCC)

Rejects the assumptions which underlie the audiolingual method and offers two alternative propositions: (1) successful use of language requires the acquisition of communicative as well as linguistic competence and (2) first and second language learning are analogous processes. (Author/FB)

This book is designed to assist those who work with non-English dominant students by providing resource information relevant to second language teaching and learning. The articles in the series encompass both theory and practical learning techniques in six general topics. The articles in the first text of the series, concerning background and…

In the first part of this paper several theories on the subject of communicative competence are examined. Part 2 is devoted to a discussion of how a teacher can test for communicative competence, and the practicality of this type of testing, in terms of class time, equipment required and objective grading, is emphasized. Part 3 summarizes a number…

This paper reviews the history of contrastive analysis (CA) against the background of its objectives and its present problems and presents an outline of procedures which seem to be necessary to make the methods meet the objectives of applied CA. CA in the United States was closely connected with structuralism, which was an obvious cause for later…

This book is designed to assist those who work with non-English dominant students by providing resource information relevant to second language teaching and learning. The articles in the series encompass both theory and practical learning techniques in six general topics. The third text of the series includes five articles on reading and writing.…

This book is designed to assist those who work with non-English dominant students by providing resource information relevant to second language teaching and learning. The articles in the series encompass both theory and practical learning techniques in six general topics. The articles in the second text of the series, concerning speaking and…

A norm-referenced evaluation system, which evaluates the student in comparison to his peers, is rejected in favor of a criterion-referenced system. The latter, which rates the performance of a student on an absolute standard, makes for an individualized approach. Two kinds of tests are distinguished, the formative, administered during the course…

Communicative competence, the ability to use a language effectively in unrehearsed transactions with native speakers, must be the ultimate goal of language teaching. Drills and repetition of patterned phrases do not, in and of themselves, lead to real language use. We should begin giving students opportunities to use language in unrehearsed,…

A young Spanish woman was given 82 hours of individual instruction in English. Her exposure to and use of English were confined to these lessons. The subject acquired adjective-noun ordering and regular plural relatively quickly; possessor-possessed ordering and genitive relatively slowly; the definite article all at once after a period of…

This paper presents historical information about language teaching methods and focuses on "formal" and "functional" strategies of teaching and learning. Particular attention is directed toward the immersion type of education. A table that lists developments in language teaching theory from 1840-1977 is presented. A table that summarizes…

The purpose of this paper is to review research in the general area of linguistic abilities that might have relevance to the selection and training of translators and interpreters. An important issue to be addressed is what is the criterion of success, that is, how can success in translation and interpretation be measured? The procedures used in…

This study focused on linguistic analyses used in the PIF Project (Project in Error Analysis, Interlanguage Studies and Contrastive Linguistics), an ongoing study of learner language and a project in foreign language pedagogy. For the project, 120 Danish learners of English were divided into 12 groups representing different Danish educational…

This study describes certain communication strategies used by Anglophone children learning French as a second language as well as by children whose mother tongue is French. Three groups of children in the third and fifth grades participated in the study: French native speakers, Anglophone children learning French in an immersion setting, and…