This study of immigrant language skills used data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, which followed a cohort of settler arrivals for the first 3.5 years of their residence in Australia, surveying them at three points in time. The survey examined determinants of improvement in English language skills with time among immigrants…

This study evaluated the impact of an urban school district's English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program on 317 participating K-12 language minority students. The study used the Language Assessment Scale (LAS) to examine students' English proficiency after participating in the yearlong program. The LAS measures language skills necessary to succeed…

Germany and Canada are at opposite ends of the debate over language integration and ascension to citizenship. German naturalization contains an explicit language criterion for naturalization. The first German immigration act will not only concentrate on control aspects but also focus on language as a criterion for legal immigration. Canada does…

These two volumes of a newsletter on English as A Second Language (ESL) literacy education provide articles on: "Health Literacy: Recognizing its Importance in ESL Instruction" (Kate Singleton) and "English That Works" (Brigitte Marshall). Both volumes offer interviews (one with an ESL teacher and one with an author who write…

This study researched the relationship between patterns of language learning strategy used by speakers of other languages and language proficiency. Participants were 348 students of English aged 14-64 years from 21 countries enrolled in a private language school in Auckland, New Zealand. Proficiency levels varied from elementary to advanced.…

Revised version of a report presented at the conference on American study-abroad programs in Tokyo, Japan, March 1973. (DD)

Abridged version of the original Swedish article. (DD)

Reports on a survey of ACTFL members' opinions on proficiency goals and tests for foreign language learning. The survey, sponsored by ACTFL and conducted by Policy Studies for Education, polled 400 elementary and secondary school teachers and local/state coordinators, receiving responses from 35 percent of them. (Author/MES)

Ten 1975-80 surveys and studies of FLES programs reported: Americans approve of FLES programs; children profit from FLES programs which stress interpersonal communication skills; and children develop increased interest in academic programs. Positive correlation exists between practice and proficiency in second language acquisition. Different…

A requirement for all college professors to learn to speak a second language is advocated. Educators at a Wingspread Conference on International Education encouraged institutions to provide more travel and rewards for faculty to encourage them to become more competent in foreign languages. (MLW)

Presents study conducted using high school Spanish students to demonstrate that either a cloze test or a redundancy test could be used in place of either the MLA total score or an interview test. (Author/BK)

Discusses and compares the relative effects of a French immersion program in two different settings: a French-speaking setting in Quebec and an English setting in British Columbia. No clear-cut differences in favor of either setting were found, although students in the French setting reacted more favorably to their program. (PJM)

On tests of English proficiency, 55 Iranian students studying in the United States scored between levels achieved by Fourth- through seventh-grade native speakers. The subjects indicated that association with Americans and time spent in the United States rather than studying English in Iran contributed to their success in English. (PMJ)

Suggests that creating a second-language semantic network can be conceived as developing a plan for retrieving second-language word forms. Characteristics of linguistic performance which will promote fluency are discussed in light of the distinction between episodic and semantic memory. (AMH)