Globalization and the digitalization of our lives have made it impossible to avoid (inter)cultural encounters. In the traditional classroom environment, students are expected to juggle a myriad of choices almost simultaneously. Factors like grammar, pronunciation, word choice, etc. are all important assessment factors to consider when looking at…

This paper looks at how corpus data was used to design an Italian as an L2 language learning programme and how it was evaluated by students. The study focuses on the acquisition of Italian verb-noun collocations by Chinese native students attending a ten month long Italian language course before enrolling at an Italian university. It describes how…

This volume reports on innovative, useful evaluation work conducted within U.S. college foreign language programs. An introductory chapter scopes out the territory, reporting key findings from research into the concerns, impetuses, and uses for evaluation that FL educators identify. Seven chapters then highlight examples of evaluations conducted…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and developmental English programs. The placement system includes: triangulating data from external test scores, with scores from a panel-marked hand-written essay (HWE),…

Any employment-related English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program, whether conducted on the job or as pre-employment training, results from five steps: conducting a need analysis of the language and cultural awareness needed to perform successfully in the workplace; developing a curriculum, based on objectives, that identifies and prioritizes…

The three-year Spanish program curriculum guide for Alberta public high schools outlines: (1) program objectives reflecting the basic education goals as well as a rationale for including Spanish in a school program; (2) specific minumum expectations for each language skill (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and for cultural understanding…

A discussion of the role of second language proficiency assessment in the evaluation of language programs argues that for four reasons, the use of proficiency is inappropriate as a central element in evaluation. The reasons are: (1) the construct of proficiency has not been operationalized in a way that enables it to be used usefully; (2)…

The development of an oral language proficiency rating scale for use in evaluating New Brunswick's junior and senior high school students' core French program achievement is described and discussed. (MSE)

Chronicles the steps taken in developing a curricular project to design, implement, and evaluate a simulation business course for beginners learning Japanese at the university level. The steps in developing the program, from the selection of materials to the evaluation of the entire project, are presented together with insights gained from the…

Locally developed language and culture programs are those that are developed and authorized by local school jurisdictions. This document presents a curricular framework from which program developers can build a language curriculum that meets the needs and reflects the philosophy of the linguistic community they serve. It also stresses the value of…

This report presents the development and results of a 1-year foreign language module program of 15-weeks duration for university students in the arts, commerce, science, and engineering. The project's central concern was to develop and test a general model for the delivery of foreign language teaching to students of other disciplines. The program…

A discussion of student and program assessment in the context of Chinese language instruction looks at theory and methods of assessment, and proposes that norm-referenced language proficiency testing is inadequate to evaluate student achievement and program effectiveness. It is further proposed that criterion-referenced tests are more appropriate…

A STUDY WAS MADE OF THE LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY ATTAINED BY FOREIGN LANGUAGE MAJORS IN U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, AND OF THE FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ATTAINMENTS OF THESE LEVELS. THE MLA FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTS FOR TEACHERS AND ADVANCED STUDENTS WERE ADMINISTERED IN 1965 TO 2,775 SENIORS MAJORING IN FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN,…

This study was conducted to evaluate the tests developed by elementary foreign language teachers of French, Japanese, and Spanish in a school district in South Carolina. The tests were designed to determine the level of end-of-year student learning and to provide a basis for evaluating the curriculum of each of the three languages. The French and…

The evaluation of urban foreign language programs by the teacher, supervisor, and school district, county, or other agency is discussed. Evaluation of the program by the teacher is largely a self-evaluation process to reexamine the course objectives and student achievement based on specific criteria. Criteria may include teacher-produced tests,…