The purpose of this study was to understand relationships between English proficiency and academic performance for a group of English language learners (ELLs) from 4 elementary schools. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to examine scores from the Language Assessment Scales, the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey, and the Colorado…

The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether the type of instruction (English as vehicular language and English as a subject) is related to the use of reiteration ties. In the first place, we identified, classified, and counted the number and kind of reiteration ties used by two groups of EFL learners. Secondly, we examined whether…

The British Columbia (BC) English as a Second Language (ESL) Articulation Committee's Canadian Language Benchmarks project was precipitated by ESL instructors' desire to address transfer difficulties of ESL students within the BC transfer system and to respond to the recognition that the Canadian Language Benchmarks, a descriptive scale of ESL…

The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) was interested in evaluating components of a statewide pilot program to support instruction in World Languages (particularly Spanish and French). The first component was an online student assessment, the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) to measure the learning outcomes. The DDOE also…

The 2008 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a joint conference with the Michigan World Language Association, focused on learning about the diverse backgrounds and needs of today's students and discovering new ways to help them succeed in reaching the goal of language proficiency. A wide variety of workshops and…

Based on the assumption that the acquisition of language habits is in itself insufficient for the true mastery of language, small group discussion techniques have been used in conversation workshops for students in English as a second language (ESL) courses at New York's Bronx Community College. In the groups, students are induced to communicate…

The numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students in classrooms at all levels of study are increasing dramatically. In addition, the available information indicates that in general they are not performing well scholastically. Five articles address this issue; they are remarks from a 1992 symposium of members from the Teachers of…

The relationship between instructional treatment manifested as mastery learning and non-mastery learning strategies and various measures of Spanish proficiency was studied with 41 freshmen at an all-female high school in the New Orleans (Louisiana) area. Subjects were grouped homogeneously into 2 classes of 22 and 19 students, representing the…

A study investigated the relationship between language contacts made outside of the classroom by Japanese foreign students and how those contacts affect their participation within the classroom and their overall academic performance. Subjects were 32 university students from Japan enrolled in an intensive language program. All of the students had…

Probabilistic models with more than one latent variable are designed to report profiles of skills or cognitive attributes. Testing programs want to offer additional information beyond what a single test score can provide using these skill profiles. Many recent approaches to skill profile models are limited to dichotomous data and have made use of…

A collection of papers on second language instruction includes: "The Immersion Approach: Principle and Practice" (Helena Anderson Curtain); "Authentic Camera-Produced Materials for Random-Access Video Delivery" (Francis Lide, Barbara Lide); "Listening: What's Really Going on in the Classroom?" (Donna Reseigh Long); "Listening and Learning:…

A teacher training packet (student's edition) on methods and techniques for communicative competence in bilingual education is presented. In addition to state-of-the-art reviews, the packet contains: a course syllabus, a pretest, a glossary, learning objectives, learning activities, a notional-functional taxonomy; diagrams of the…

A teacher training packet (teacher's edition) on methods and techniques for communicative competence in bilingual education is presented. In addition to state-of-the-art reviews, the packet contains: a course syllabus, a pretest and answer key, a glossary, learning objectives, learning activities, a notional-functional taxonomy, diagrams of the…

The content characteristics of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are examined from a communicative viewpoint, based on current theory in applied linguistics and language proficiency assessment. The study employed a four-part operational framework. The first component analyzed the communicative characteristics of a language…

This paper describes a training course for oral skills devised for the intermediate and advanced students of the Japanese language, utilizing the media of the Wesleyan University campus broadcasting station, WESU. The training starts with correcting the students' pronunciation and pitch accent and goes to the higher level of skills, such as…