This test, conducted to prove that closed vowels can be heard in fricative utterances as open vowels in explosive utterances, gives further evidence for the closing action of constrictives and the opening action of occlusives. It also reveals a possible articulatory and auditive convergence between consonants and vowels. (Text is in French.)…

The paper notes the difficulties with most formal tests of language skills when applied to the assessment of communication and precommunication skills in individuals with severe and multiple handicaps. General principles for assessment and a flexible assessment device are summarized. The Functional Communication Assessment is offered as a basic…

The development of an empirically based model of communicative competence is discussed in terms of conceptual, statistical, and methodological considerations. A distinction is made between descriptive and working models of communicative competence. Working models attempt to show how components of communicative competence are interrelated…

The prime contention of this paper is that applied linguists are capable of making a more substantial contribution than they have hitherto to the field of Language Skills Measurement. (Author)

The study investigated the effect of "item density" on item difficulty in passage-related language tests. Item density refers to the number and frequency of items in relation to clear text. The format used was a passage with underlinings to signal the language situations out of which the items were constructed. American College Testing…

The possible effects of applying new assessment techniques to second language learning is dramatized by two contrasting scenarios. The first describes a high school Spanish class as we might find it today: the teaching is effective, but the best results are not being obtained. The second scenario is set in the year 1990. Here, applications of…

An administrator's manual and two reading comprehension tests in Spanish and English for use in elementary grades are presented here. The Spanish reading comprehension test was developed, standardized, and normed in Mexico; the English reading comprehension test was translated from the Spanish test. The tests were designed to be used in the…

A forced-choice paired-comparison test containing 252 items was presented to eight subjects. Each item consisted of two geometric figures chosen systematically from a sample of four ellipses and four triangles. The subjects (six female and two male adults who spoke only English) were asked to decide which of the two figures went best with a…

The experiment reported in this document extended the study by Milburn and Bell (1969) of English word frequencies. Specifically, this experiment examined the influence of instructional set on the relationship between affect and frequency estimates, with a distinction between personal and nationwide norms. The experiment design provided for two…

This paper answers a series of questions concerning the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM): what it is, who it is designed for, what it consists of, how long it takes to administer the test, who should administer it, where the BSM should be given, how to conduct the assessment, and how to score the test. The paper concludes that, overall, the BSM can…

A STUDY WAS UNDERTAKEN TO INVESTIGATE FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING IN BOTH INTRAINING AND FIELD PROGRAMS OF THE PEACE CORPS, AND TO DETERMINE INDIVIDUAL AND EXPERIENCE FACTORS AFFECTING THE RATE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING. THE OBJECTIVE WAS TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE FOR A PARAMETRIC STUDY INVOLVING SUCH FACTORS AS LANGUAGE APTITUDE AND PRIOR LANGUAGE…

A study involving 40 nursery school and kindergarten children was conducted to obtain information on how preschool children understand the following three aspects of spoken sentences: word patterns; word regularities, and word relationships. Available from: Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap, 3304-33rd Street N.W., Calgary,…

Suggests that giving students two copies of a language test allows the student the opportunity to check his answers, know his results immediately, and possibly add points to his original score through self-correction. (CHK)

The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was used to test and compare the language related functioning of 20 autistic and 20 mentally retarded 11-12 year olds. (BB)