Surveyed adult students in a basic speech communication course to assess their communication needs as a basis for establishing a communication curriculum. Found that listening was rated the most important career and social communication skill, with motivating, telephoning, conversing, briefing, relating, and resolving conflicts ranking high. (PD)

Presents the history of the development of instruments to test both English proficiency and limited-English-proficient candidates to determine those most likely to successfully complete a machine shop training program. Lists the competencies required at the time of enrollment and provides samples of the tests. (SED)

Proposes model of language teaching designed to balance teacher/learner input, whole class teaching vs. small group work, and teaching language as either form or function. Although amount of teacher intervention varies, all classroom activities are communicative, providing a situation where students are involved, contributing and interacting with…

"Re-tell" is examined as an activity designed to involve students in an interactive process. Authentic reading and listening passages provide a context in which the student can negotiate for meaning and extract information from the surrounding environment (the real world), thus fostering language acquisition via exposure to various learning…

The limitation of stimuli which occurs in visually impaired children can be partially ameliorated by strengthening other sense modalities. (JH)

Vocabulary teaching and learning constitute a major problem for EFL instructors and students. The pretest showed that freshman students at COLT have difficulty in pronouncing, recognizing the meaning of, using and spelling English words. In their first semester, freshman students are required to take a vocabulary course that consists of 50 lessons…

Faculty, instructional staff, and assessment professionals are interested in student outcomes assessment processes and tools that can be used to improve learning experiences and academic programs. How can students' skills be assessed effectively? What assessments measure skills in communication? Leadership? Information literacy? Quantitative…

This study assessed various traits of two Japanese high school students' communicative performance by examining their interaction with native speakers of English while they were visiting the United States as part of a 5-day study tour. The study focused on the kind of student performance that should be considered a successful outcome of…

This study examines the score dependability of writing and speaking assessments from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) from the perspectives of univariate and multivariate generalizability theory (G-theory) and presents the findings of three separate G-theory studies. For writing, the focus was on evaluating the impact on…

In this unit, students will use active listening, repeating, or paraphrasing what has been said to confirm understanding and introductory phrases and rising intonation to ask for clarification. They will also follow one, two, or multi-step instructions or give instructions to another person. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education)…

This paper presents the revised Core Curriculum standards (the essential ideas, concepts, and skills) for the K-6 reading language arts required of students in Utah. It notes that the Core should be taught with respect for differences in learning styles, learning rates, and individual capabilities without losing sight of the common goals.…

Designed to help teachers who want to implement an approach to assessment and reporting that supports the wholeness of the teaching/learning/assessment enterprise, this book describes students' accumulation of literacy-related behaviors and attributes and allows for the idiosyncracies of individual learning patterns. The scales presented in the…

This spider unit focuses on students' development of cooperative learning and inquiry-based skills. Students read "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle, and then work in cooperative groups using the Internet to research and synthesize important information about spiders. Technology is used for vocabulary instruction and to create a…

Educators have conquered e-mail and surfing the net; now they are striving to provide quality distance education. Classes often form discussion groups and use listservs to facilitate interaction. A discussion group is little more than a mailing list. Messages can be mailed to the list address and are copied to each person on that mailing list. The…

Poetry can be a basis for developing reading skills, listening skills, facility in oral English, if it is taught creatively, appealing directly to the inner child. (Author/RB)