A study of the language proficiency of students in core French programs in a number of Eastern Ontario (Canada) high schools looked at the listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and oral skills of students in grades 9, 10, and 12. Comparisons were made across and within school districts, and also with previous groups tested. Findings show…

The paper describes the development of the "Test of Thought and Language" (Total) which is intended to allow first grade teachers to determine if students are ready for phonics instruction or if, for some students, the curriculum should first develop language concepts, structures and thinking processes. Background information for the…

Two studies investigated: (1) aspects of the language of native-English-speaking (ES) and non-native-English-speaking (NES) parents of children learning English and (2) the demands made on the listening of young children learning English from native-speaking parents and non-native-speaking parents. Information in the parent study was drawn from…

Project CHIME (Children with Hearing Impairments in Mainstreamed Environments) was developed to create a curriculum for use by professionals who are providing mainstreaming opportunities for hearing-impaired preschoolers. The CHIME curriculum is divided into five activity areas that are part of the growth and development process for all…

Although the teaching of listening has been mandated in Alberta, Canada for nearly ten years, little assistance has been available to help teachers develop effective instructional strategies for teaching the subject. This paper describes the Calgary Listening Inquiry Project (CLIP), a collaborative action research project currently functioning in…

A study was carried out to assess the French language proficiency of students enrolled in two different programs at the kindergarten level in Montreal: an early immersion program and a "class d'accueil" program. Three groups of students were tested: (1) an early immersion class; (2) a "classe d'accueil," or class for immigrant…

While listening comprehension is perhaps the most ignored area of the language arts, a review of the literature suggests that it is deserving of more classroom instructional time. Involving the simultaneous orchestration of skills in phonology, syntax, semantics, and knowledge of text structure, listening comprehension seems to be controlled by…

A complete teaching guide is presented for teaching English as a second language (ESL) according to the Total Physical Response (TPR) approach as was researched by James J. Asher of San Jose (California) State University. The method is based on the following premises: (1) understanding the spoken language should be developed far in advance of…

Twenty-one students in their second quarter of Romanian language study at The Ohio State University completed a language background survey, took a perception test and made a tape recording of their pronunciations of a list of Romanian words. The tape used in the perception test consisted of a list of fifteen minimal pairs with initial voiceless or…

Language processing is the abstraction of meaning from a physical signal, such as a sequence of speech sounds. Processing a spoken message requires a series of transformations that begin with the acoustic signal arriving at the ears and end with meaning in the mind of the listener. The goal of this information-processing model is to describe how…

Many teachers not trained in English as a second language (ESL) often feel at a disadvantage when they are working with children whose first language is not English. This book addresses this disadvantage by giving practical information and teaching aids. The first area investigated is registration. Questions are suggested and the use to which…

A study investigated children's recall and representation for multiple episode stories differing in terms of goal structure. Subjects were 36 third and fifth grade students reading below grade level, and 48 students from the same grades who were identified as average readers. The students read or listened to stories containing embedded and…

The resource guide provides migrant educators with activities to implement the National Migrant Education Oral Language Skills List, serving as both a starting point for developing oral language and as a model for the kinds of activities compatible with the stated purpose and rationale used to develop the Skills List. All listening and speaking…

This research is a practical investigation of the effectiveness of the methods and modes which have been used to increase the listening comprehension skills of Chinese speakers learning English as a second language (ESL). A twelve-minute videotape, "Hawaii, Chinese Style," was chosen for the experiment because the language was authentic…

This book is a survey of all the modern language examinations in the United Kingdom at "GCE"'O' level, Scottish 'O' grade, and "CSE" Mode 1, available in 1979 in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, as well as the "16+" examination offered by a consortium of boards in the north of England. It is an attempt…