This article describes the need for a test of the first 1,000 words of English, the essential vocabulary for simplified teaching material. It examines the development of basic word lists and the difficulties involved in testing the first 1,000 words. It then presents 2 versions of a 40-item true/false test that can be used to determine what…

Factors affecting student listening comprehension include those inherent - age, IQ, hearing ability, knowledge of the foreign language, memory - and those relating to material - content, complexity, length, use of visual clues. Suggestions are made for adapting text material to effective listening exercises. (CHK)

Surveys programs and techniques of language teaching in Europe both in industry and business and in the schools. (CK)

A model of speech perception and production is suggested here which attempts to account for different rates of acquisition of perceptual and productive skill in the second language without assuming the existence of two separate second language grammars. (Author/KM)

A system for teaching foreign languages to adults is described. The course material is divided into categories based on the language needs of the students, and credits are given for each completed category. (Text is in French.) (PMP)

Describes a five-choice French test used for first-year university students and discusses its construction and effectiveness. (KM)

Recounts trends and classroom techniques noted in several schools visited by a University of Toronto delegation in 1972. Techniques include use of recordings, role-playing, discussion, songs, and recitation; speaker confidence was noted by the visitors. (MSE)

Social norms, situational and geographic considerations, formality of spoken language desired, and educational attitudes ranging from normative to permissive inhibit the determination of instructional criteria. (Text is in French.) (Author/MSE)

Partial results are presented of a study investigating the relationship between an oral interview and a cloze test in Hebrew and focusing on issues related to the oral interview procedure. An oral interview speaking test and cloze tests were administered to 106 students of Hebrew at the University of Minnesota. The taped interviews were rated by…

Research on the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development is reviewed, and two complementary models of bilingualism are developed to account for research results. It is suggested that research since 1960 shows a positive relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development, at least for some types of bilingualism. The advantage or…

Describes techniques for measuring and developing the syntactic fluency of students learning French. (P M P)

Accepting that language diversity is functionally related to other variables characterizing human societies, much discussion stems from the advantages or disadvantageous nature of language diversity in terms of national development and national unity. To discover ways of measuring language diversity would help, in part, to solve the language…

Predictors of relative clause production in adult second language acquisition were examined through a replication and extension of a study by Schachter (1974). The present study is different in that it was based on oral instead of written production and it was designed to examine avoidance with the consideration that avoidance presupposed choice.…

Five language assessment tests (LATs) are used for identifying children of limited English speaking ability in Texas: Basic Inventory of Natural Language; Bilingual Syntax Measure; Language Assessment Scales; Primary Acquisition of Language; and Schutt Primary Language Indicator Test. Interrelationships between LATs and relationships between the…

The state of the art of research in second language acquisition is reviewed. A framework is first established for the examination of second language learning. The concept of proficiency is addressed with respect to its theoretical basis, rating scales, formal tests, and interlanguage studies. The social context of second language acquisition is…