This article discusses the problems involved in insisting upon oral proficiency in language instruction, to the detriment of other language skills. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This article constitutes a response challenging Balesdent's article which claimed that insistence on oral proficiency in language instruction is doomed to failure. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Concerns research undertaken to assess the role of intelligence, as measured by standardized, group I.Q. tests, in the acquisition of a second language. Reading and language usage tests correlated with I.Q. level; tests of listening comprehension and interpersonal communication did not for anglophone students learning French. (Author/POP)

This article states that affective learning is important to prevent boredom and stimulate language use. Use of affective learning activities in the language classroom is outlined and a teaching technique, the open-ended sentence is described as a method that elicits responses charged with personal opinions, feelings and humor. (CHK)

Cloze tests are valid, reliable second language proficiency tests. This paper discusses the construction, administration, scoring and interpretation of cloze tests of overall language proficiency. Other uses of the cloze in ESL are mentioned. Finally an explanation of the cognitive processes in doing cloze tasks is offered. (CHK)

This study investigated the interrater reliability of proficiency-level judgments of graduate student trainee raters on oral proficiency interviews (OPIs). Trainees' ratings were compared with the judgments of a certified American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) tester for 150 interviews. (Author/JL)

This pilot study shows that the use of Internet resources is a meaningful way to integrate language and culture and to provide opportunities for students to learn about the target culture while using e-mail to discuss cultural aspects with native speakers. Results of the study showed that e-mail increased students' interest and motivation.…

Presents the results of a survey on the use of video materials at high school and college levels that was carried out to contribute a better communication between the two levels in Japanese-language education in the United States. Questions asked were, What kinds of videos are used at college and high school levels? and, What are the purposes of…

Describes a Chinese Canadian immigrant family that is encountering difficulties with schooling, demonstrating the complex interrelationship between home literacy, culture, and politics of schooling. Findings suggest that cultural mismatch theory alone cannot explain minority school failure. Rather, multilevel interactions, including cultural…

Reports on a small scale pilot project designed to elicit acceptability judgments regarding dative alternation in English studied as a second language. Preliminary results suggest that a thematic strategy may be one of a battery of learning strategies available to second-language learners. (40 references) (CK)

Addresses matters of ethics, standards, and professionalism in language testing. Terminology is defined, and current standards and codes relevant to language testing are reviewed. Personal experiences illustrating the ethical choices faced by professional language testers are provided. (11 references) (Author/CK)

Forty 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds discussed past events with their mothers and completed tasks indexing their ability to reason about conflicting mental representations and understanding of knowledge. Found that theory-of-mind scores were related to memory conversation participation, independent of age and linguistic skill, and to the frequency of…

Investigates whether systematic links exist between young school-aged children's awareness of others' communicative intentions and early descriptive-expository and narrative writing proficiency. Young children were shown a directive speech act in a puppet-played scenario, and an interview determined the types of communicative intention attributed…

Assessing academic abilities in the Indian educational context is closely linked with proficiency in writing. This article discusses ways to help learners produce self-contained compositions in English. This involves teaching them to link and develop information, ideas, or arguments in logical sequences. (Author/VWL)

Examines the effects of English language proficiency and levels of reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. Suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence…