Listening and speaking are active language skills and need special attention in English language pedagogy, especially in ESL/EFL contexts. English in India is taught as a second language in almost all the states, and the secondary education boards stipulate the teaching of all the four language skills as the objective of teaching English, yet the…

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a structural-cum-communicative approach to the teaching of vocabulary to students possessing a low level of English proficiency. A total of 52 foundation degree students taking a 13-week preparatory reading and writing course participated in the present study. Both the control and the…

This article highlights research collected during a year-long critical participatory ethnographic study at a primary school in Trinidad and Tobago. The study presents the experiences of two teacher collaborators who engage in the processes of problem identification, design and implementation of a language-friendly plan, reflective practice and…

This instructional paper examines the lack of L2 English skills demonstrated by Chinese post-secondary education students and the results of empiric testing to determine what key language functions were missing from a student's tool box when exiting their primary education phase.The identification of these skills and ability gaps allowed for…

The demand for literacy in a developing country like Nigeria has multiple results such as the expansion, by leaps and bounds, of the average Nigerian classroom. This paper highlights the reasons for large classes in Nigerian secondary schools, the educational and psychological dimensions of language testing in large classes, the challenges of such…

This paper describes and evaluates the Higher-Secondary School Certificate (HSC) exam in Pakistan that has been in place in its present form for more than thirty years. The author recounts her experience as a teacher of English in a representative high school in Pakistan and, reflecting on the impact of high school public exam, she argues that the…

Presents a study testing the hypothesis that students of informal as opposed to formal teachers would score better on the Richmond work-study tests than on the language and mathematics tests. Results find differences between formal and informal classes to be insignificant but individual students to differ in hypothesized directions. (Author/AEM)

The BBC's French educational programs are valuable for classroom use. Use of worksheets with essay questions, filling in blanks in a passage, and writing equivalents of phrases can test pupils' comprehension. Tape copying is discussed, and a sample worksheet appended. (CHK)

Elective English courses in grades 7 to 10 of 10-grade "general educational" polytechnical schools in the GDR are facing increased demands. Student testing has revealed increased attention by teachers to the strengthening of lexical and grammatical knowledge, development of free-variation procedures, and introduction of teaching aids.…

The current tendency toward uniformity of teaching methods and tests in the Hauptschulen ("terminal" junior high schools) is applauded. Using a picture story as an example, a list of criteria is given for the evaluation of student performance. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This project was designed to develop a test of modality (eye/ear) endowment and to determine the significance of this factor in foreign language instruction. Subjects were junior and senior high school students enrolled in French and Spanish classes. In phases 1 and 2 the Modality Endowment Battery of tests (MEB) was constructed and shown to have…

Discusses the systematic inclusion of vocabulary work and vocabulary tests in teaching English. The suggestions deal with the pupils' preparation through vocabulary work at home, and with the giving of vocabulary tests, their construction, and grading. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Wherever aural comprehension is prized, together with literacy and ability to read the foreign language, dictation may be found to be both profitable for teaching and valid for testing. It must not be presented as a series of spelling traps but as a realistic language activity. (Author/CFM)

A review of literature on communicative competence reveals many meanings of the concept and of the way it should be used in second and foreign language instruction. In the literature there are two views: that communicative competence includes grammatical competence, and that it does not; or at least the ability to communicate one's meaning is…

Reports on the newly devised optional Reading Comprehension Test in the high school graduation examination for Realschulen. Proposes a coordination of learning goals and teaching procedures with the various parts of the test. Offers suggestions for grading. Many examples are given. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)