For linguistically diverse communities, researchers have long questioned assessment approaches that disregard learners' multilingualism. Our study offers potential approaches that center contextualized, multilingual knowledges and skills within classroom-based language assessments with one teacher and his English foreign language courses for…

Purpose: In this clinical focus article, the authors argue for robust vocabulary instruction with emergent bilingual learners both in inclusive classroom settings and in clinical settings for emergent bilinguals with language and literacy disorders. Robust vocabulary instruction focuses on high-utility academic words that carry abstract meanings…

An Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) may be evaluated either during the interview procedure (direct-method) or from a tape-made oral interaction (semi-direct method). Such variety in methods of assessment can influence test takers' scores extensively. However, it is not conclusive whether such differences are due to test format or something else.…

Many ELT examinations have gone online in the last few years and a large number of educational institutions have also started considering the possibility of implementing their own tests. This paper deals with the training of a group of 24 ELT teachers in the Region of Valencia (Spain). In 2007, the Ministry of Education provided funds to determine…

Learner-centred approaches to language teaching, especially those that seek to develop learner autonomy, require the learner to take decisions concerning the goals, content and methods of learning; they also assign a central role to self-assessment. Although the logic of learner-centredness demands that learner self-assessment should somehow be…

Discusses whether the proficiency approach to teaching Arabic, which is now advocated, is really functional enough to suit true needs of students, and whether the debate concerning proficiency is becoming so polarized as to make impossible real discussion of the issues. Trends and changes that have occurred in the Arabic language over the decades…

Investigates the positive and negative potential for English-as-a-Second-Language student writers of word processing that are derivable from the properties of the medium. (40 references) (GLR)

Applied linguistics and psychometrics have influenced language testing, providing additional tools for investigating factors affecting language test performance and assuring measurement reliability. An examination is presented of language testing, including the theoretical issues involved, the methodological advances, language test development,…

Examines the role of American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines in language proficiency testing, focusing on Japanese language instruction and discussing how effective that system is in relation to university classroom instruction. Two main issues are addressed: viewing ACTFL Proficiency Tests as having the…

In this article Lynne Meiring and Nigel Norman focus on the notion of entitlement and the demands this has made on schools and teachers to cater for the needs of a wide range of pupils previously denied an experience of foreign languages. In order to enable all pupils to realise their potential, facilities and strategies have to be reviewed and…

Promotes student-as-teacher strategies in general, while extending their definition to include the peer teaching arrangement usually referred to as "group study." Cloze passages and rehearsed dictee are examined as well as the theoretical suggestion that these exercises are especially apt to encourage a variety of learning styles. (six references)…

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R) is advertised as usable with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students (with provisions to ensure students' understanding of instructions). This articles describes new features of the WRMT-R and examines criticisms of it since its debut in 1973. (SM)

Proposes to strengthen the theoretical basis supporting hypermedia computer-assisted language-learning (CALL) authoring by initiating a requirements analysis based on contextualized conceptual and mental models, presenting the theoretical dimension of knowledge representations within the authoring process and applying the theoretical approach to…

The concluding conference of the Council for Cultural Cooperation's Project on Foreign Languages is summarized according to the following framework: (1) the aims, the principle themes discussed at the conference, and the general results; (2) the considerations, proposals, and needs that were identified by the conference and the working groups; (3)…

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing group of K-12 students in the United States. Most ELLs spend the entire school day in mainstream classrooms where instruction is in English. It is therefore important for all teachers to have the knowledge and skills needed to facilitate these students' academic language development and…