Compares word-attack and comprehension skill mastery of 65 native Spanish-speaking upper elementary students in a bilingual English/Spanish program and 55 native Spanish-speaking students of the same grade levels in an English monolingual program. There was no significant difference in the word-attack skills of the two groups but the bilingual…

A review of research regarding the connection between intelligence and language proficiency precedes the description of an investigation indicating that inductive reasoning and intelligence can be clearly distinguished from general language proficiency. A language proficiency and reasoning test in English is appended. (CB)

An exploratory study of the composing activities of Chinese postgraduate English-as-a-foreign-language students as they produced academic written texts in both their first and foreign languages revealed that there was considerable variation among writers in their approach to the task of producing written text and a limited awareness of the nature…

Describes one aspect of a Welsh/English bilingual child being raised in England. The father is a native speaker of Welsh, and the mother has learned Welsh in order to speak it to her son. The father accommodates both the mother's and the child's linguistic errors. Areas of accommodation are identified and possible reasons discussed. (Author/LMO)

Briefly summarizes popular perspectives on the native-language reading process; presents pertinent studies of second-language reading; and analyzes these studies for pedagogical implications in three categories: organization of prior knowledge during the pre-reading phase; development of metacognitive skills during the reading act; and careful…

Considers the degree to which scientifically acquired knowledge about language can be used in the design and execution of language teaching programs. Second language learners should become fluent speakers when they are exposed to copious linguistic data and have adequate opportunity for interaction in the language with other speakers. (CB)

College students (N=180), in first-semester and second-semester Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were each given a short text and one of five assessment tasks to determine if comprehension of the subjunctive is necessarily due to prior instruction in its form and use or can be achieved without instruction. Text and…

When English as a second language teachers reversed traditional roles and became learners of a foreign language (Chinese), analysis of their diary entries revealed that the role reversal made the teachers reconsider the roles of praise, grammar, repetition, revision, and communicative teaching. (CB)

Explores issues of competency and proficiency in the learning of foreign languages at the undergraduate level, involving competencies currently established for language learning and the establishment of "tracks" in literature, language, and culture. (CB)

Describes the San Diego (CA) two-way bilingual program which puts English and Spanish-speaking students together to learn each others' languages. Program results in a lag in English language literacy after early years, but that difference is made up within one year of English language instruction. (PS)

Suggestions are given for using "Deutsche Welle" (DW)(German shortwave radio broadcast) programs to maintain or improve language skills of both instructors and students. Another function of DW radio includes helping students keep abreast of current events in the German-speaking world which, in turn, allows students and their teacher to be more…

Advanced (N=45) and intermediate (N=53) English as a second language (ESL) students' recall of a speaker's orally presented material indicated that student proficiency level, speaker gender, perceived expertness of speaker, and passage condition affected students' recall ability. (Author/CB)

Use of a seminar technique to improve the oral English communicative competence of Chinese postgraduate students in science and technology helped the students to learn foreign culture, science, and technology, as well as the foreign language, and helped them to lose their communication apprehension. (Author/CB)

The effect of schooling on the acquisition of an additive type of bilingualism is examined, focusing on additive bilingualism's relation to the ethnolinguistic vitality of linguistic groups and contributions of individual networks of linguistic contacts. A special and regular education merger without domination by a single cultural perspective is…

Compares priorities of language functions (1) between community college and university studnets; (2) between students enrolled in traditional language courses and those in conversational language courses; and (3) among students in first-term French, German, and Spanish at a community college. Results are presented in six tables. (Author/LMO)