This report describes the results of the October, 1987, state assessment of basic skills of all Washington public school students in grades 4, 8, and 10. More than 152,000 students were tested using the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, Sixth Edition. The first section of the report describes the general state level results for the involved grades.…

The use of the cloze procedure by classroom teachers who are not extensively trained in testing in general or language testing in particular is discussed. Focal points are material selection for cloze; some technical aspects of construction and administration; insights about testing language students naive to cloze; reliability of cloze…

During April, 1986, approximately 60,000 Delaware public school students in grades 1 through 8 and in grade 11 were administered a battery of achievement tests as part of the state-funded Delaware Educational Assessment Program (DEAP). The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) in reading, language arts, and mathematics was administered. In…

A study investigated the use of a narrative discourse task to test oral English proficiency in non-native speakers for screening and placement. The subjects were Japanese university freshmen entering a five-level course in spoken English. The subjects were shown an animated cartoon of a Japanese folk tale, with narration in Japanese, and later…

This volume summarizes the results of the evaluation of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District 1981-82 State Compensatory Education Program. This technical report is organized into eight appendixes. Each appendix reports the information collected by a specific measure. Each appendix consists of (1) an instrument description, (2) purpose of…

While many institutions have utilized TOEFL scores for international admissions for many years, a speaking section has never before been a required part of TOEFL until the development of the iBT/Next Generation TOEFL. So institutions will need to determine how to set standards for the speaking section of TOEFL, also known as TOEFL Academic…

Since standardized tests of English foreign language seem to lack external validity, a new test, the New Cloze Test (NCT), was developed and validated as a placement test for foreign students. Details of the test design, including paragraph preparation, word deletion, and recommended methods for administration and scoring are discussed. Subjects…

After a survey of current methods of studying lexical acquisition, none of which are really suitable for studying how specific words are acquired and used by adult learners and how such usage differs from that of native speakers, a method is proposed for the study of such qualitative aspects of second language lexical acquisition. Learners are…

This paper discusses the role of intelligence in language comprehension. In the study reported, an attempt is made to determine how much of the variability in English reading scores of non-native speakers of English can be predicted on the basis of intelligence alone. In the study, three measures of reading comprehension are used: a traditional…

A study was conducted that was designed to determine if experienced ESL (English as a second language) teachers, working in pairs, can reach the same judgments regarding the oral proficiency of non-native speakers of English and to determine the reliability of such judgments. In addition, the question of whether different sets of judges rate…

This volume gathers a sampling of educators' ideas on the issue of the role of the non-standard dialect in the teaching of Spanish to Spanish speakers. Part one, "Rationale for the Teaching of Spanish to the Spanish Speaking," deals with philosophy and theory and contains papers by Guadalupe Valdes Fallis and Nasario Garcia. Part two,…

Book four, part one, of an intermediate-advanced level German refresher course for college students is presented. The volume consists of 25 lessons of text material and 50 prerecorded tapes. A typical lesson with its two accompanying tapes is made up of interrogation, military terminology drill, and a comprehension test. The materials of the first…

Eighteen studies on the validity of tests of English as a foreign language (EFL) for college admission and placement decisions are briefly summarized. No studies were found on the extent to which these tests reflect language skills, curriculum (content validity), or theory or behavior (construct validity). Instead, all of these studies…

BECAUSE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS HAVE NOT SUCCEEDED IN CRITICIZING OPENLY THE ILLS OF THE PROFESSION, A NUMBER OF CRITICAL PROBLEMS REMAIN UNSOLVED. IF THE NEED FOR UPGRADED SPECIFIC KINDS OF MATERIALS WOULD BE ARTICULATED OPENLY, PERHAPS PUBLISHERS WOULD PRODUCE MORE EFFECTIVE AND APPEALING TEXTBOOKS. IF THE PROFESSION WOULD RECOGNIZE THE…

PART OF A LARGER STUDY OF THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, THIS EXPERIMENT EXAMINED THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOTHERS' LANGUAGE STYLES AND THE CONCEPT ATTAINMENT OF THEIR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. SPEECH SAMPLES WERE OBTAINED FROM 160 URBAN NEGRO MOTHERS OF FOUR SOCIOECONOMIC GROUPS (MIDDLE-CLASS, UPPER-LOWER, LOWER-LOWER, AND…