Investigated the online processing strategies used by a sample of nonnative speakers of English who were asked to give the meanings of selected common idioms presented in a written context. Data were gathered using a think-aloud procedure; participants were asked to verbalize their thoughts as they arrived at the meaning of the idioms. (Author/VWL)

Discusses a course and accompanying test for teaching spoken English in India. (Author/VWL)

Discusses two monolingual Spanish-speaking patients who were able to read words but showed great difficulty reading nonwords, a pattern of behavior known as phonological dyslexia. Contradicts the hypothesis that lexical reading is not an option for Spanish readers, because Spanish orthography is highly irregular, and supports the view that…

A communicative-competence orientation was undertaken to study the validity of test-score inferences derived from the revised Test of Spoken English (TSE). To implement the approach, a sample of undergraduate students, primarily native-English speakers, provided reactions to the test responses of a sample of TSE examinees. (Author/VWL)

Describes a project that aimed to find a more contextualized method of testing the comprehensibility of spoken language and then to use this method to test the comprehensibility of five native and nonnative varieties of South African English with as international an audience as time and resources would allow. (Author/VWL)

Compares two language tests with different item types. The tests are the Dutch Reynell test and the BELL test. Both tests were administered to 64 Dutch kindergarten children with an average age of 70.3 months. Regression analyses indicate that item type does not contribute significantly to prediction of item difficulty, but the linguistic…

Seeks to resolve certain questions pertaining to the relationship between gender and second-language vocabulary knowledge. One particular question examined was whether female and male English-as-a-Second-Language students at the University of California at Irvine differ significantly in their knowledge of academic vocabulary in English as measured…

Examined how object shape, taxonomic relatedness, and prior lexical knowledge influenced children's overextensions (e.g., referring to pomegranates as apples). Researchers presented items that disentangled the three factors and used a novel comprehension task where children could indicate negative exemplars. Error patterns differed by task and by…

Evaluates the characteristics of Yes/No tests as a measure for receptive vocabulary size in a second language (L2). The evaluation was conducted both on theoretical grounds as well as on the basis of a large corpus of data collected with French learners of Dutch. Focuses on the internal qualities of the format in comparison with other more…

Examines one aspect of the many interfaces between second language (L2) learning and L2 testing. The aspect is the oral interaction--the dialogue--that occurs within small groups. Discusses from within a sociocultural theory of mind, that in a group, performance is jointly constructed and distributed across the participants. (Author/VWL)

Compares the linguistic acceptability of the various forms of "need" in non-assertive contexts (i.e. in interrogatives and negatives) between two speech communities: Australians as native speakers of English, and Hong Kong people as second or foreign language learners of English. (Author/VWL)

Provides information on how intelligence testing courses are currently taught in a sample of American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited clinical and school psychology programs from across the United States and Canada. Discusses limitations of the study and teaching strategies to improve students' test administration skills. (CMK)

Provides insights gained from a study of 19 foreign countries regarding foreign language education. The study looked at what the United States can learn from these countries, examining specific policies and practices that could inform U.S. foreign language education. Implications of study findings are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Presents, in a farewell column, some reflections on educational issues and movements concerning rainbow students, including self-esteem, story sharing, nonverbal differences, racial identification, and testing. (TB)

To test the validity of brief measures of intelligence and explore how well these instruments relate to academic performance, the WPPSI-R, the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Scale, Draw-A-Person: Quantitative Scoring System, and the K-ABC Achievement Scale were administered to 50 kindergarten and first-grade children. Results indicated all measures…