Examined the oral performance of midcourse and endcourse adult American learners of Russian to determine the accuracy order of Russian cases and demonstrated an order of accuracy common to both groups. According to decreasing accuracy, the Russian cases cluster in three rank orders: (1) prepositional and accusative; (2) genitive and instrumental;…

This paper attempts to integrate several different theories of the second-language learning process into a general theory of the human learners. Includes references. (JL)

Presents a repetition test that was found to be suited in measuring English language proficiency by German students. The construction and administration of the test are explained, and an analysis of its effectiveness is provided. (23 references) (GLR)

Reports on an experiment undertaken to explore further whether language proficiency is divisible or unitary, using the principal factor analysis, and to identify the factors involved with the scores of 58 subjects of similar language and cultural backgrounds. (Author/CB)

Discusses the treatment of idioms in language learning, specifically questions that need to be addressed when decisions are made on the role of idioms in language-learning programs. Particular emphasis is on the extent to which idioms present a particular source of misunderstanding and confusion for learners. (Author/VWL)

Investigated pragmatic declarative and procedural knowledge as realized by routine formulas and conversational strategies with 19 American college students learning German as a Second Language. The results suggest that language instruction that has the goal of developing metapragmatic declarative and procedural knowledge results in real progress…

An attempt to demonstrate the erroneousness of the principle that language teaching materials must be based on a detailed analysis of various parameters of texts of the target language, such as frequency, usefulness, basicness, or productiveness of lexical or structural items. (Author/FWB)

This study compared the exam performance of 65 foreign students of Dutch whose homework had been regularly checked by a computer program with 62 students whose homework had been randomly checked. On a 100-item proficiency test the former group obtained an average score of 77.2, while the latter group obtained an average score of 65.4. (Contains 21…

Examined how well first-year English majors at the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, performed on a relative clause test, with students retested after receiving instruction in relative clauses. Results found that 78% of the students scored better on the second test. The results are discussed in relation to accessibility hierarchy and the…

To study the adequacy of the brief oral examination format as a basis for assessing oral skills, the study compared samples of 15-minute oral exams with 3-hour written exam results by the same students. The resultant average size of oral samples was about 77% of that of written samples, with good comparability, leading to useful conclusions about…

A study of adults learning French as a second language showed that enhancing the pedagogical environment through development of a French phonetic training program resulted in improved discrimination and production ability among the students. (39 references) (LB)

A longitudinal study of four West German university students during their six-month stay at a university in Great Britain found that their oral English-as-a-Second-Language performance improved under initial exposure to the English-speaking community, with the motor for linguistic performance appearing to be learner experimentation in production.…

Reports on a process/product study undertaken to increase understanding of the nature of language instruction and its effect on language proficiency. Also discussed are a number of pedagogical issues arising from the study. (30 references)

Discusses how second-language learners whose first languages contain an article system differ in their acquisition of English articles from learners whose first languages do not contain such a system. Reviews the approach of Mizuno's (1988) interlanguage analysis for uncovering the process in second-language acquisition, and summarizes findings of…

Examined the discourse patterns used by a native speaker of English while explaining the rules and playing the board game Monopoly with three college students of varying levels of English proficiency (low nonnative, good nonnative, and native). It found that the "teacher" must modify her speech to enable the nonnative speakers to…