Discusses the provisional proficiency guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and explores their application to two important areas of foreign language education--testing and curriculum development. Reviews the features of proficiency and achievement tests and describes two proficiency-based curriculum projects.…

The adaptation of Likert scaling in children was investigated by means of pilot studies using children aged 6 to 10. Preliminary results indicate the modified Likert methodology is valid to use with children. Suggested directions to use when administering a modified Likert scale to children are presented. (Author/CT)

Surveyed 210 Vietnamese refugees to determine factors affecting employment and job satisfaction. Results showed Vietnamese subjects reporting job satisfaction had been in the U.S. longer. They were more proficient in speaking English than dissatisfied refugees but not more positive about job-seeking resources. (Author/BH)

Discusses the findings of five studies which investigated the effects of informal contact on classroom learners' second language abilities. These findings are discussed in terms of six factors which might have contributed to the finding in four of the five studies that informal contact did not lead to increased proficiency. (SED)

Reviews some trends in the measurement of oral fluency in a foreign language and offers an alternative to integrative and discrete point testing and to the oral interview. This alternative looks at two components of fluent speech--speech rate and consonant attraction--as they fit into the parameters of fluency. (SED)

Reports results from a detailed syntactic analysis of spoken language samples collected from poor and good readers at eight years of age. Results showed an undeniably strong association between reduced language comprehension and reading impairment at age eight, an association that appeared to strengthen by age nine. (SED)

Describes the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI) and discusses the SCPI rating scale, linguistic and cultural factors important for sign communicative competence, and skills in communicating simultaneously in signing and speaking. (EKN)

The public school is a "connected" institution and there cannot be an island of academic excellence in a sea of indifference and neglect. Four priorities for school renewal are identified: development of language, the relationship of knowledge to people's lives, teachers, and students. (MLW)

Discusses several tests designed to determine speaking ability which preceded the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Educational Testing Service test and describes the benefits of the American Institute of Musical Studies oral proficiency testing program. (SED)

Presents a series of proficiency-oriented classroom activities which are specifically linked to the skills and levels of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency guidelines. The activities are limited to speaking and writing and are organized by skill and by level. (SED)

This article is a study of attempts made to adapt B. S. Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives to foreign language teaching. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

This research applied a cognitive model to identify item features that lead to irrelevant variance on the Test of Spoken English[TM] (TSE[R]). The TSE is an assessment of English oral proficiency and includes an item that elicits a description of a statistical graph. This item type sometimes appears to tap graph-reading skills--an irrelevant…

This study examined strategy use in producing lexical collocations among freshman English majors at the Chinese Culture University. Divided into two groups by English writing proficiency, students completed three tasks: a collocation test, an optimal revision task, and a task-based structured questionnaire regarding their actions and mental…

A glance through the past century of language teaching gives an interesting picture of various methodologies in the field of foreign language teaching. The sudden break-out of World War II heightened the need for proficient language speakers. The US Army provided fund for specific language courses that focused on aural-oral skills under the…

This study analyzed the size and characteristics of monolingual and bilingual workers, using the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey, which contains questions on English language Usage, second language usage, and language proficiencies. Interviews with a nationally representative sample of the U.S. adult population (in English or Spanish)…