Used a broadly focused learning style instrument to identify a combination of learning styles that might be correlated with foreign language achievement at the college level. Participants were 100 university students enrolled in French or Spanish first and second semester courses. (Author/VWL)

Reports results from two questionnaires given to third-year adult learners of Spanish, French, German on beliefs regarding idiomaticity. Analysis of data showed that learners want idioms to be part of their language learning; they can predict their performances on idiomatic tasks; and they have specific beliefs on the importance of learning…

Explores the potential of a neural network in language assessment. Nonnative speakers of French were asked to produce a short text in response to a picture stimulus. A neural network was trained to grade the text on the basis of codings. Results suggest that it may be possible to teach a neural network to mimic the judgments made by human markers.…

Explains unique features of a Branched Program Achievement Test for college French students, and presents data that validate the testing strategy and demonstrate the value of the test as a placement instrument. (JB)

Examines compensation strategies--techniques for dealing with knowledge gaps between learner and interlocutor--used by French learners of English and relates them to synoptic and ectenic learning. Suggests reasons that ectenic learners, who need conscious control of what they are learning, seem to communicate meanings of words to judges better…

Reports results of variety of validity analyses involving American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview as it was administered to 59 learners of English and 60 learners of French. Concludes that ACTFL guidelines can be useful as an assessment tool and offer advantages that warrant serious consideration in the…

Computer-assisted language-learning literature points to a need for experimentation with innovative learning structures to realize the full potential of recent technological developments. Reports on a research project that addresses these concerns by exploring the experiences of 23 French second-language learners as they worked independently with…

Two experimental bilingual classes in French begun in Somerset, Scotland, in September 1973 are described. Included in the course are the study of the language itself and of geography and French civilization through the French language. (RM)

An experiment in second language reading comprehension tested the hypothesis that similar surface and deep structures in L1 and L2 imply a similar means of passing from surface to deep structure. Dutch learners of French were the subjects. (CHK)

When teaching languages to technologists the subject should be neither entirely technological nor entirely alien to the technical discipline. At the University of Bath a B.Sc. degree can be obtained in engineering with French or German. Both languages are used as a medium of instruction for some engineering courses. (SC)

Focuses on how reading comprehension can be facilitated with a multimedia application for second language learning. Results indicate that a dynamic visual advance organizer does aid in overall comprehension and that annotations of individual vocabulary items consisting of both visual and verbal information help more than verbal information only.…

Reports on a project evaluating home-study foreign-language courses for beginners. The languages evaluated were French, Spanish, and German. Findings indicate that any one course in a series reflects all the courses in that series, seven of the eight courses were inspired by one method, and tapes were a vital component of all the series except…

Conducted a survey of college French as a foreign language students' reactions to narrow listening, the repeated listening of tape-recorded interviews of proficient speakers discussing a topic both familiar and interesting to the acquirers, and their assessment of its impact on their language development. Students found narrow listening to be…

Suggests that an analysis of spontaneous speech collected in a simulation can provide insight into the way messages are produced and understood. Describes an experiment which used this technique to study the linguistic performance and communication strategies in anglophone children learning French. (SED)

Looks at the large-scale experiments on the testing of oral proficiency in English, French, and German that have been carried out over the last five years in the Swedish gymnasium. Various kinds of tasks and different grading criteria have been used, and the practical problems of scheduling and of teacher training have been discussed. (nine…