There is an acknowledged difficulty in demonstrating that the standard of school exams remains constant over the years. It is a source of debate every summer when exam results come out. There is some evidence that foreign language exams, and French in particular, have declined in standard since the 1980s, but empirical measures to demonstrate this…

Reading is a complex skill, vital for the postgraduate student. However, many international postgraduate students experience considerable difficulty when applying their reading practices learnt in their own countries. This paper, part of a larger study, aims to provide insights into the reading practices of Indian/Bangladeshi postgraduate students…

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation received direct instruction in adjective-forming suffixes, then they took an immediate and a delayed test. Error analysis showed that 36% of the responses were left blank or the subjects duplicated the stimulus word. In 32% they mismatched the word…

An investigation of the language transfer in second language (L2) lexico-semantic development looked at the relationship of the level of L2 proficiency and interlingual patterns of lexico-semantic correspondence. The linguistic categories used were verbs and adjectives. Relative degrees of difficulty for L2 learners were determined for four…

Attempts to reinterpret the threshold hypothesis, which states that low second language (L2) proficiency blocks the transfer of first language (L1) reading strategies to the reading of L2 texts. Results indicate that it is not only low foreign language proficiency but also text difficulty in terms of register complexity that negatively affect the…

Describes a framework for examining the effects of the cognitive complexity of tasks on language production and learner perceptions of task difficulty, and for motivating sequencing decisions in task-based syllabuses. Results of a study of the relationship between task complexity, difficulty and production show that increasing the cognitive…

Identifies and discusses ten factors that contribute to the difficulties that language learners may have in dealing with false cognates. Provides suggestions for minimizing confusion. (Author/VWL)

Prediction of the difficulty (equated delta) of a large sample (n=213) of reading comprehension items from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was studied using main idea, inference, and supporting statement items. A related purpose was to examine whether text and text-related variables play a significant role in predicting item…

Discussion of oral communication between native and non-native speakers focuses on proficiency-related differences in interactions where the non-native speaker is experienced and those in which he is a novice. Research in oral proficiency development, discourse domains, and communication strategies is reviewed. It is argued that the ways in which…

The research reported in this paper is concerned with the ability of students of English as a second language (ESL) to apply cognitive skills in reading. The paper focuses on: (1) a validation study of an experimental test designed to measure Piagetian concrete operations in reading and (2) the effects of the paragraph types (additive or…

Discusses reading as a receptive skill in relation to current foreign language learning and teaching theory. Three types of reference in texts are defined (reference to the outside world, textual reference, and situational reference), and selected examples of these types in adapted texts are reported and analyzed. (26 references) (GLR)

Attempts to identify some features of novels that provide unusual educational and linguistic opportunities for the learner. Some of the difficulties both teachers and students may experience in using novels are examined, and sample materials that have been devised to overcome these difficulties are described. (GLR)

A survey of teachers' and students' perceptions of the difficulty of learning American Sign Language (ASL) suggested that teachers generally rated the learning difficulty levels higher than students, and both groups cited such sociolinguistic and affective problems as cultural inhibitions, interacting with the deaf, and attitudes and motivations…

A pilot experiment examined ambiguity in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning by graduate and undergraduate students. The findings revealed that most ESL speakers have greatest difficulty in understanding sentences with derived-structure ambiguity. Underlying-structure ambiguity was the next most difficult to understand, followed by lexical…