The report details a federally-funded program at the University of Texas, Austin whose activities included: (1) an experimental summer intensive language institute to facilitate Brazilian Portuguese certification for nine certified secondary school teachers of Spanish; (2) writing and publication of a new textbook of Brazilian Portuguese for…

A review of research on foreign language proficiency, constraints of language learning, and constraints of the learner suggests that current oral language proficiency standards and tests are more helpful in evaluating the effectiveness of a foreign language program than in evaluating the achievement of individual students. (CB)