This study investigated how Korean adult learners of English at various levels of proficiency interpret English reflexives. The subjects consisted of 15 ninth-graders with 2.5 years of English instruction, 15 eleventh-graders with 4.5 years of instruction, 15 first-year college students with 6.5 years of instruction, and 15 graduate students who…

The restructuring of the Romance language program at Howard University to improve oral proficiency involved modification of goals, syllabi, classroom activities, and testing. Goals were adapted to American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)/Educational Testing Service (ETS) guidelines for oral proficiency. Assessment of French…

Recent research on language learning and its implications for language teachers and others interested in language pedagogy and practice is summarized. The review takes the form of the following pedagogical questions: In what ways does knowing one language help and hinder the learning of a second?; What is "comprehensible input," and is it really…

This report summarizes the Assessment of Language Proficiency of Bilingual Persons (ALPBP) project research component and provides a summary of the findings of the other six components of the study. The summary of the research component includes an outline of the goals, activities, and requests for proposals. After the introduction, the following…

The University of Texas at Austin conducted a validity study of the College Board Achievement Test in Russian Listening-Reading during the 1986-87 academic year. The test, a multiple-choice test with audio-taped and reading portions, was administered to 298 students in 22 sections of 8 courses in Russian. The purpose was to revalidate the test as…

A study investigated the retention and loss of school-learned foreign language skills. Subjects were 150 students of Dutch secondary schools with 4 or 6 years of French language instruction and 0, 2, and 4 years of disuse. Nine tests of general language proficiency, listening and reading comprehension, phonology, vocabulary, and grammar were…

Six of 11 papers presented at a symposium on language aptitude testing are included in this document. "Cognitive Abilities in Foreign Language Aptitude: Then and Now" (John B. Carroll) reconsiders language aptitude testing 30 years after publication of the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT). "Preliminary Investigation of the…

A study examined the impact of oral language competence on the writing behavior of secondary students of English as a second language (ESL). Samples of student writing in both the native Spanish and English were analyzed along five dimensions (topic of the composition, internal organization of thoughts, conveying meaning, sentence construction,…

Teaching grammar for its own sake is largely counterproductive when the goal of instruction is to have students communicate spontaneously, fluently, and accurately in the target language. The ideal foreign language program is one providing the best possible environment for language acquisition to take place. Explicit teaching about the language…

Research on second language learning suggests that age or age-related factors are a major variable in the acquisition of a second language for school. In the early stages of acquisition, older students are faster and more efficient learners, with the advantage of more advanced cognitive development in the first language. This early advantage…

This monograph presents language factors related to bilingualism, to assist educators to distinguish normal phenomena due to bilingualism from symptoms of a handicapping condition. The first section, called "The Nature of Bilingualism," discusses the diversity of bilingual students and their dynamic use of two languages, focusing on simultaneous…

It was found that the seemingly greatly increased oral fluency of Middlebury College seniors who had studied in college-sponsored junior year abroad programs did not carry over to written skills or to comprehensive grammatical knowledge. In the oral proficiency interview for Spanish, many returning students had no control of the subjunctive, a key…

A study investigated the communication patterns among 11 foreign expatriate managers and 75 Chinese managers in Taiwan with four different levels of second language competence. In particular, the study examined (1) how foreign expatriate managers perceive the importance of second language competence; (2) how Chinese local managers perceive the…

Seventy-one subjects (22 English monolinguals, 23 Spanish monolinguals, and one bilingual group comprised of 19 Spanish-dominant and 7 English-dominant bilinguals) were assessed by means of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery and the Woodcock-Johnson Language Proficiency Battery at the beginning of kindergarten and first grade. These…

Arranged alphabetically by title, the bibliography lists 92 tests, designed for use with students ranging from preschoolers to adults, that are measures of proficiency in English as a second language. Each citation provides title, author, copyright date, age level suitability, publisher, and a brief annotation describing the purpose of the test.…