This is a presentation of the results of a factor analysis of a battery of tests intended to measure listening and reading comprehension in English as a second language. The analysis sought to answer the following questions: (1) whether the factor analysis method yields results when applied to tests which are not specifically designed for this…

There have been four major court decisions affecting bilingual education: Lau v. Nichols, Serna v. Portales, Aspira v. the New York Board of Education and Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1. Lau v. Nichols was an action brought by non-English-speaking Chinese-origin students claiming to be denied an education because they could not comprehend…

A large-scale test development project at the Language Teaching Research Center of the University of Gothenburg aims to develop tests in English as a foreign language for use in various areas of business and public administration. After testing, certificates stating current proficiency level in each of the four language skills (listening, reading,…

Navaho Indians learning English tend to use two versions of the language: classroom English and an informal dialect spoken outside school. The sounds of Navaho are imposed on spoken English, and the phonological deviations produce morphological and syntactical errors. Mistakes in verb tense and in singular and plural suffixes are common. The value…

This article describes an experiment in early Welsh-English bilingual education which was begun in September of 1968 with 35 children and which continued for two years. There was one male teacher who used mostly Welsh and taught for one hour per day. The average age of the children at the beginning of the two-year experiment was five years, two…

Montreal high school students studying French as a second language completed a battery of tests including measures of linguistic aptitude, verbal intelligence, and various attitudinal and motivational characteristics. Analysis of the intercorrelations of these tests yielded two orthogonal factors equally related to ratings of achievement in…

The primary objective of the Regional English Language Center (RELC) is the improvement of standards of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language in the countries of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This report on the RELC seminar on English language testing contains the…

A discussion of Chinese instruction in a Bordeaux lycee. Specific questions addressed are: enrollment; reasons for studying Chinese; the study of the written and spoken language; the need for an appropriate textbook; teaching culture; and the need to organize Chinese as a regular course in the curriculum. (AMH)

Relates research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on the language problems of foreign teaching assistants (TAs) and their remediation. SLA research has not yet addressed specific data on the proficiency level needed for effective foreign TAs. Research needs are outlined. (Author/LMO)

Describes a computer-assisted interactive video system designed to improve listening comprehension skills. The courseware makes use of a wide selection HELP OPTIONS as feedback to aid the learner's mastery of authentic natural Korean. (LMO)

Advises the secondary school teacher lacking special training how to use the ACFL Guidelines to test for oral proficiency in the classroom. Sample situation cards and a sample grading sheet are included. (LMO)

Analysis of responses of native French-speaking (N=10) and English-speaking (N=10) college French instructors rating students' errors in French revealed that (1) native French speakers were more critical evaluators than native English speakers; (2) teachers were generally more critical evaluators than students; and (3) more fluent speakers were…

Dutch native children and Turkish immigrant children, born and reared in the Netherlands, were asked to tell a story from a series of pictures, at age six and again at age eight. The Turkish children exhibited about the same level of narrative proficiency in Dutch as their Dutch peers. (Author/LMO)

When college students (N=124) studying French performed a cloze test, translated additional text, and recalled the reading, results indicated that both syntactic and vocabulary proficiency positively affected reading comprehension and recall of text. This supports continued attention to grammar and vocabulary-building exercises for students in…

Data collected from young adult English-as-a-second-language students' (N=20) reports, think-aloud protocols, and analyses of achievement in composition writing indicated that most learners were able to use these learning strategies to make discernable achievements in their writing proficiency. (Author/CB)