This article discusses the first draft of three objective tests given to students of English as a foreign language in a high school in Rome, Italy. Students' answers on the tests (Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Grammatical Structures) are analyzed. The tests will be rewritten, based on these observations. (Text is in Italian.)…

The experimental test measures the ability of a subject to reconstruct obscured words by means of sentence analysis, carried out not as a separate academic task, but in the normal procedure of understanding what the sentence says. It is a task built on the assumption that the ability to handle reduced redundancy is a valid measure of linguistic…

This paper presents arguments in favor of using partial dictation as a test of foreign language proficiency. In this kind of test, subjects listen to recordings of material in the foreign language and are required to fill in missing words in a written version of the recordings. Partial dictation is preferable to ordinary dictation in that: (1) it…

A modified version of the traditional dictation exercise is recommended in order to answer two unmet needs which caused such exercises to fall into disfavor: the systematic teaching of specific points, and the use of authentic linguistic samples. (JB)

Conclusion of a two-part series on language laboratories. Part I appeared in the June 1971 issue of "Modern Languages." (DS)

Paper delivered at the annual meeting of ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) on November 27, 1971, in Chicago, Illinois. (DS)

Speech presented at the Sixth Annual Whitewater Language Conference, Whitewater, Wisconsin, March 1970. Many of the ideas presented have more relevance for the United States than Canada. (DS)

Stresses the values of dictation exercises in learning the sounds and spelling of French words. (DS)

In Beginning English classes for adults, to develop auditory and reading understanding, frequently occurring grammatical problems should be emphasized, such as simple present and simple past tenses of verbs (5 teaching units are presented). At first, less frequent grammatical problems should only be identified by name. (IFS/WGA)