This reader is designed to accompany the fifth text in the Orientation in American English series. It is intended to provide advanced practice in reading comprehension as well as concentrated practice in composition techniques and writing. At the same time it supports and reinforces concepts and structures introduced in the text. The reader may be…

Introduces an activity that simultaneously teaches oral expression and auditory comprehension. Groups in a class listen to an audio text that gives only incomplete information. The gaps are filled in by the group. Students are given worksheets. Presenting topics and work materials provides an integration of aural and oral skills. (IFS/WGA)

The article compares the use of pattern drills to contextualized practice and suggests that although the second is a more personally meaningful approach, the pattern drills can provide a means through which the operations of many language features will be made more apparent to the learner. (NCR)

A Spanish course is described in which reading ability was gained as a preliminary to a conventional first-year language course. Through passive learning, recognition of vocabulary and grammatical structure was achieved, and correct pronunciation and writing drills reinforced learning. Good results were obtained in the subsequent conventional…

A description of a French course given in Mexico to mathematics teachers. The object was to enable them to read primary, untranslated sources as quickly as possible. The general learning objectives, characteristics of students and teachers, methods, and a complete sample lesson plan are given. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Discusses some problems in the rating of achievement in auditory understanding, as well as types of exercises for the teaching of English in general and for specific professions. (IFS/WGA)

A Confidence-rating scale accompanying answers on a listening test helps distinguish between learners who select answers based on effective self-monitoring and those whose answers are based on poor self-monitoring. The latter are more likely to do so subsequently as well. Test items and a rating scale are illustrated. (Author/LMO)

Analysis of reading comprehension and recall of text by college students studying Spanish indicated that three components of background knowledge--context, transparency, and familiarity--affected the way learners read, comprehend, and recall passages. Interaction between these components and the reader is extremely complex. (CB)

Elucidates the reading problems of nonnative English speakers, noting reasons for the problems, giving signs of the problems, and demonstrating results of the problems. (HOD)

Describes cultural bias at four levels: lexico-syntactic, content and concepts, social and cognitive, and schematic or frame of reference. A study is described which provides examples of cultural bias in reading comprehension items because of a mismatch between the culture of the test item and that of the test taker.

Describes two experiments which assessed the ability of adult second language (L2) learners to produce and comprehend real, unreal, and past unreal English conditional sentences. Developmental differences are analyzed in relation to distinctive features. The analyses lend support to the explanatory power of markedness theory in explaining L2…

"Listening Recall" is a listening comprehension test which discriminates over a wide range of proficiency. Unlike traditional tests, requiring multiple choice responses, it is a listening cloze procedure; a narrative passage accompanied by a written version with deletions. Particularly suited to low proficiency learners, test has high…

Realschulen (secondary schools) in Baden-Wurttemberg now permit a reading comprehension test, plus dictation, for the graduation examination in FL, instead of the traditional translation. The test is described: Part A tests receptive skills, Part B reproductive-productive. Suggestions are given on content and conducting tests. (Text is in German.)…

For children with poor vocabulary development, reading is intimidating rather than exciting. That is why elementary and middle school teachers need this activity-filled guidebook--to improve students' independent word learning skills and strengthen their comprehension so they will tackle their schoolwork with confidence. Teachers will start by…

The human cognitive system may have a developmental property that makes acquisition of fluent reading skills difficult after a certain age. This problem may be seen to affect two different populations: participants in adult literacy programs who lacked access to schools as children and educated adults fluent in languages with non-Latin scripts.…