Profiles of adult Americans' attitudes toward second languages and second language study were gathered by means of oral interviews conducted across the country, resulting in 64 viewpoints from 13 states. Results are reported through quotations from the statements of subjects. General benefits of language study were perceived to be increased global…

Student attitudes toward foreign language instruction are examined by means of an overview of 12 surveys conducted at high schools and colleges across the U.S. Findings indicate that students who are unsatisfied with their progress in learning a foreign language may have set unrealistic goals for themselves at the outset. Often they feel they are…

Presents the results of a questionnaire administered to students of Italian at the School for Foreigners of Siena to determine the following: (1) student characteristics; (2) student motivations for studying Italian; (3) student interests; (4) student linguistic needs; and (5) student evaluation of the program. (CFM)

A program of activities outside the language classroom, conducted by specially trained French speakers and designed to improve Anglophone student attitudes toward the French language and French Canadians as well as to improve language skills, has been found to be successful over a three-year period. (MSE)

Describes a study of first-year university students of Spanish done to discover their types of motivation for learning a second language and to investigate the relationship between type and strength of motivation. Findings indicate the existence of two types of motivation clusters that resemble the integrative and instrumental orientations. (SED)

This study investigated the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) listening needs of college students in Taiwan, examining the ESL conversational and academic listening abilities required by college students and differences in listening needs between effective and ineffective ESL listeners. Study participants were 296 Taiwanese college freshmen. The…

Presents preliminary attempt to gain insight into the self-perceptions of students and the teachers' observations regarding their students' abilities in English as a second language. Results show students and teachers do not view the students' language ability similarly. Suggests self-esteem may be a factor in motivating students. (Author/BK)

Reports construction of a questionnaire for measuring secondary students' attitudes toward learning French. Suggests that the instrument may be easily adapted to other languages. An appendix provides a list of scaled items on the questionnaire. (SJL)

Describes and analyzes results of a questionnaire, addressed to 438 students of Spanish in grades three through college, which sought to determine the reasons behind students' interest in learning a second language. (AM)

Examines experimental data relative to second language acquisition of English reflexives. The article focuses on an experiment designed to tap syntactic constraints of interlanguage grammar and on the consideration of the consistency of responses of individual subjects. Findings reveal the systematicity of interlanguage grammar much more…

Investigates the relationship between test takers' strategy and their performance on second-language tests (SLTP) comprising an 80-item Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire and a 70-item standardized language test. Results explain SLTP by grammar and reading ability; cognitive processing by comprehending, storing, and retrieval…

Explores relationships among test-taker characteristics and test performance. Suggests test-taking strategies play a role in mediating between test taker characteristics and performance. Findings suggests that if classroom teachers were able to determine what their students are doing while taking tests and were able to apply those strategies that…

Examines Japanese English-as-a-Foreign-Language learners' requestive strategies. Data were obtained through the Situation Assessment Questionnaire and the Discourse Completion test and analyzed in terms of the relationship of the subjects' awareness of situation and frequency of the word "please," characteristics of subjects' strategies…

Investigates the look-up behavior of bilingualized dictionaries of Hong Kong (China) students focusing on dictionary information frequency usage and the perceptions of the usefulness of such information. Indicates that students in general make limited use of the bilingualized dictionary, while more proficient students use the dictionary more…

Presents the results of a needs assessment study carried out with university students who were preparing to work as health professionals. Questionnaire data gauged the students' expectations for language courses intended specifically for their areas of specialization. Analysis follows a multidimensional approach and examines profiles of the…