Describes the results of a national survey that was conducted to determine the current state of Spanish-language testing for placement and outcome assessments. The survey was undertaken in the United States in the departments of Spanish in B.A.-granting institutions. (Author/VWL)

Examination of the lexical compensatory strategies Dutch students of English used in a picture-naming task, a story retell task, and an oral interview showed that proficiency level was inversely related to the number of compensatory strategies the subjects used. The type of strategy was not related to proficiency level. (33 references) (Author/CB)

Briefly describes a four-semester Spanish language program focused on developing listening skills, and explains, in detail, the design of the final listening examination. The listening comprehension levels developed by 196 students in this program are evaluated. A sample student test and sample of level and complexity of language heard are…

Reports on an investigation into the reading proficiency of primary school children in two African countries and tests two hypotheses regarding the relative reading ability of the children in these countries. Test results reveal statistically significant differences in favor of Malawi for reading proficiency in the first language and no…

Investigates the empirical validity of the Monash-Melbourne computer adaptive test for French (French CAT). The article focuses on the accuracy of the French CAT as a tool for streaming incoming university students into three levels of a first-year (post-high school) French course. The test is demonstrated to be a good predictor of short-term…

Analysis of an adult's self-study of Hungarian pinpoints lexis as the major learning priority. Personalized, real-message practice tasks appeared vital for motivation and for input to become automatized. The crossing of two linguistic thresholds appeared crucial--the gaining of a large stock of word-roots and the ability to read authentic texts.…

Summarizes the ways in which community colleges serve their limited English proficient students and provides background on second-language teaching methods and course design. Offers examples of diverse language programs offered by colleges, highlighting cooperative arrangements between businesses, colleges, other educational institutions, and…

Reports results from the Nuffield Modern Language Inquiry, which surveyed 586 college language students about their experiences in year-abroad exchange programs. Questions focused on students perceived improvement in language and cultural knowledge and future employment prospects. (six references) (MDM)

This study compared the relative effects of traditional and processing instruction on the acquisition of Spanish past tense verb morphology among 61 college-level learners of Spanish. Results revealed significant gains in both comprehension and production for subjects in processing instruction, while subjects in traditional instruction had…

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…

Spanish-speaking preschoolers learning English in a bilingual preschool program were videotaped while working independently on tasks to examine their spontaneous private speech. Results show that the private speech of bilingual preschoolers appears to develop normally. Positive effects of second-language learning in a bilingual program on the…

Among six Mexican-American fifth graders who were native Spanish speakers and had varying levels of English proficiency, oral proficiency was related to reading comprehension within each language. Assisted line-by-line reading facilitated comprehension for low proficiency students, deficient in both English vocabulary and syntactic knowledge. (SV)

Discusses research regarding College of Liberal Arts students at the University of Minnesota where there are proficiency requirement-based second-language programs. Research results provide data that compare qualitative results on reading, listening, writing, and speaking proficiency tests of students from the proficiency requirement program at…

Studied the effect of grading classroom communicative activities on student performance at two different levels. Results indicated no significant difference in scores between the experimental and control groups at either level. (10 references) (VWL)

Discusses the practicalities associated with the introduction of proficiency-based instruction into university programs and courses that teach Arabic. Some of the additional responsibilities that such innovations place on the language teacher are identified, and issues for further discussion, research, and experimentation are raised. (19…