LANGUAGE ABILITY IS ESSENTIAL TO A CHILD'S SUCCESS IN SCHOOL, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF COMMUNICATION IS THE CHILD'S ABILITY TO PUT WORDS TOGETHER IN MEANINGFUL PATTERNS. THE ABILITY OF ADULTS TO GIVE AN INTERPRETATION TO NONSENSE LIKE "JABBERWOCKY" DEPENDS ON THE SYNTACTIC CUES GIVEN BY RELATIONAL WORDS AND WORD ORDER. IN ORDER TO FIND OUT…

Seven independent studies of young children's performances on language tests were reviewed. (Author/BD)

Examines and analyzes items on the Grossen Deutschen Sprachdiploms" test of May 1970. (WB)

A list of publication sources for language tests and a 48-item bibliography are appended; a preprint from a pamphlet to be published by the National Conference on Research in English. (Editor/RD)

The rationale for using multiple measures to assess language ability in bilingual students is examined. The relationships among the Language Facility Test, teacher judgment, home bilingual usage estimate, and, where possible, standardized achievement tests are investigated, utilizing data from a study of 1800 Washington State students. (Author/GC)

There is a lack of adequate measurement techniques for testing language proficiency. Researchers compose specific tests for a certain task, but these have only limited general applicability. Often multiple-choice, true-false or fill-in-the-blank tests are used, but these rely heavily on written language and are inadequate for those with poor…

The cloze test requires a student to fill gaps in a text with appropriate words where every nth word is deleted. The cloze procedure forms a test of a reader's ability to predict, on the basis of context, what word will occur. Test marking may be narrow, in which only the exact word omitted is counted as correct, or broad, where any acceptable…

TWENTY HEAD START PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WERE GIVEN THREE LANGUAGE TASKS DESIGNED TO MEASURE THEIR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT--(1) A PRODUCTION TASK REQUIRED THE CHILDREN TO ENGAGE IN FREE SPEECH. THE CHILDREN WERE ASKED TO ANSWER A QUESTION, TO DESCRIBE A SERIES OF PICTURES, AND TO RETELL A STORY. THE FREE SPEECH OF THE CHILDREN IN RESPONSE TO THESE…

This paper reports on attempts to predict the aptitude of nine-year-old German children for learning English. Subjects participated in a pilot study in which the aptitude and achievement of three classes were compared. Findings support continued use of objective tests of language proficiency in predicting academic achievement. (CHK)

This is a preliminary report concerning the development of tests which measure the linguistic ability in Spanish of English students at the beginning of their post A-level courses. The Palspan (Post A-level Spanish project) pilot test battery is comprised of five sub-tests of between 45 and 90 minutes in length which test for speaking, listening,…

During the summer of 1967, a 1-week training program was conducted at the University of Hawaii in which seven teachers and six aides were instructed in the use of the Bereiter-Egnelmann teaching strategy for language programs. The Bereiter-Engelmann approach involves concentration upon the development of language skills and facility with basic…

Three methods for second language data collection are compared: free composition, picture description and translation. The comparison is based on percentage of errors in a grammatical category and in a source category. Most results obtained from the free compositions and picture descriptions tended to be similar. Greater variation was found for…

The purpose of this paper is to present a practical model for determining and depicting language dominance, given the general nature and needs of bilingual education programs in the United States. The author proposes the use of parallel tests of aural ability to indicate initially the language dominance of children who, for example, are otherwise…

This study analyzed the vocabulary, listening, speaking, and pre-reading skills of a kindergarten class to identify the factors contributing to language development and the interrelationship of children's language skills. The 21 children were tested individually three times during the year, and case studies were compiled from monthly language…