Romanian is characterized by a richness of surface forms that are difficult to classify and even more difficult for the learner to assimilate. There is much instructional material available in Romanian, and in a survey of fifty works published outside the country, four categories emerged: teaching materials, pedagogical grammars, grammars, and…

Both sentence length and sentence complexity of various kinds of newspaper prose were examined in a study to determine (1) ways newspaper prose differs from the prose of books native English speaking students chose to read and enjoy reading and (2) whether there are features of newspaper prose other than vocabulary and a lack of international news…

The experiences of a teacher of English as a second language in teaching reading in English to an enthusiastic and illiterate Ethiopian woman married to an American and living in the United States are described. The Ethiopian woman was eager to talk on the telephone, take messages for her husband, go to the store by herself, read to her…

A study of transfer of native language training and/or interference in learning English idioms had as its subjects 12 Venezuelan students in an American university who were advanced learners of English as a second language. Fifteen equivalent and commonly used English and Spanish idioms were used in tests of recognition, comprehension, recall, and…

The results of a revised French listening comprehension test for grade 6 students are reported. The original French comprehension test consisted of 150 items presented by cassette recording. Based upon the results of the 1980 experience, test items were changed to increase the test's objective goals. A further reason for modification was the…

A study investigated the bipolar tension/relaxation factors that affect a second language learner's oral proficiency. While the traditional assumption in the field of second language acquisition is that negative attitudes toward communicative interaction naturally predicate low proficiency, the data gathered from 50 subjects studying English as a…

A list of linguistics-related holdings in the Middlebury College (Vermont) library is presented as an example of a well-developed library collection for an undergraduate linguistics program. The materials are listed under 10 headings corresponding to the best-represented subareas in the collection: linguistics, semantics, grammar (comparative and…

A study of textual cohesion in the oral discourse of learners of English as a second language had as subjects 19 Asians from 4 language backgrounds, who were living and, in most cases, studying English in the United States. Analysis of taped conversations focused on the use of conjunctive adjuncts of three kinds: (1) simple adverbs (e.g., and,…

The development and validation of oral native language tests for Dutch adolescents was conducted for both assessment and curriculum development purposes at the secondary level. The oral language situations tested were the monologue, dialogue, and polylogue or group conversation on a topic. An American inventory of common speech subjects was used…

Classical cloze tests have been criticized as unsatisfactory operationalizations of the concept of reduced redundancy and the theory of expectancy grammar. Use of the C-Principle is proposed as an improvement over the classical cloze procedure. Such tests are constructed according to a technique that deletes the second half of every second word in…

All speakers bring to even simple verbal encounters complex presuppositions and expectations that may create discourse interference. A second-language encounter carries a complex and often inexplicable expectation load. Language expresses meaning and intentions, but also carries social import. The value or appropriateness of speaking itself varies…

A counselling service to facilitate foreign language instruction for students desiring it was undertaken as an experiment at Cambridge University during the 1980-81 academic year. Its aims were twofold: (1) to provide a mechanism whereby students could be heard and their needs responded to, and (2) to insure that alternatives to the already…

Major changes were implemented in the elementary French program in London, Ontario during the period from 1968-78 and other major changes have been planned for 1978-88. One of the most significant changes was the increase in instructional time from 120 to 180 to 240 hours in grades 7 and 8. A summary of various studies on the impact of these…

There is a great deal of knowledge required to send or receive a message of "no." The acquisition of communicative competence, i.e., the ability to interpret the full meaning of a message and the ability to properly formulate such messages, requires three levels of knowledge. These three levels are all needed in the interpretation of the…

A demonstration program to serve the needs of children who are identified as limited English proficient (LEP) was developed and implemented. Each of six schools in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) contained a class of 18 students, 3 of whom were non-LEP. The non-LEP children served as English-speaking models for their LEP peers.…