Nonverbal behavior can impact language proficiency scores in speaking tests, but there is little empirical information of the size or consistency of its effects or whether language proficiency may be a moderating variable. In this study, 100 novice raters watched and scored 30 recordings of test takers taking an international, high stakes…

This paper reports a study of perceptions and attitudes relating to regional varieties of Polish. The methodology followed folk linguistic approaches to attitudes research. Respondents in two Polish provinces were asked to draw on a map of Poland where they thought the main regional varieties of Polish were spoken, and then to name and…

Reports on an experiment conducted on 23 Israeli kindergarteners and 16 Israeli college students, which used a variant of a semantic differential test in order to test the hypothesis that young Israeli children, like adults, ascribe sexual meanings to words without regard to grammatical gender. (Author/AM)