Seven foreign language tests for the secondary school level, published by Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J., are described and discussed. These tests are: (1) Foreign Language Achievement Tests--offered by the College Entrance Examination Board for high school students in French, German, Russian, and Spanish, with emphasis on the new…

This document lists over 100 research projects on various topics related to linguistics and language. The topics covered are foreign- and native-language instruction, relevant bibliographies, research in contemporary language, communication, textbooks, lexicology, lexicography, linguistics, computational linguistics, machine analysis of language,…

Present school programs place considerable reliance on the results of standardized language tests both as placement and diagnostic devices, yet the validity of these tests is open to question. Certain questions arise in light of current theory and research. To what extent are currently available measuring techniques useful for identifying the…

This paper discusses in a general way the decline of use of the Romanian language among second and third-generation Romanian-Americans, and then it points to the state of the study of English as a foreign language in the Romanian Socialist Republic today. A brief review of the influence of British English in Romania is followed by: (1) a more…

This study investigated the relationship between dialect usage and performance on four language tasks designed to reflect features developmental in nature: articulation, grammatical closure, auditory discrimination, and sentence comprehension. Predictor and criterion language tasks were administered to 90 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade…

This article investigates the acquisition of a variety of standard English (SE) by children whose first language is Hawaii Creole English (HCE). The hypothesis was made that, in a speech community with high prestige and low prestige codes, learning the dominant code would not adversely affect performance in the first language. The subjects, in…

The British Columbia French Speaking Test, administered to grade 3 immersion students, measured their speaking skills through a story- retelling and group discussion task. When 110 immersion children were compared to 25 Francophone children, results indicated that the immersion children were comparable to the francophones in communicative skills…

A study of the interlanguage pragmatics of learners of Hebrew and English (L2s) focuses on pragmatic indicators used in requests and apologies (situations in Appendix). Deviations from native-speaker norms in the speech of non-native speakers are discussed. Results suggest L2s' misuse of pragmatic indicators can have serious interactional…

A survey of Ontario's college admissions officers revealed a preference for reintroduction of provincial examinations for mathematics and first language courses in the first high school year and for applicant reporting of grades and provincial examination scores rather than use of scores as a secondary school rating measure. (MSE)

The set of materials are designed for the assessment of literacy, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), listening and reading comprehension, and/or job-related skills of factory workers, and are based on work-related tasks. The materials consist of instructions for administering the test, a picture prompt booklet for the test administrator to use…

The materials in this document present the results of a study of French native language testing in Alberta (Canada) public schools for grades 1-3 based on the curriculum instituted in 1998. As a result of the study, this collection was developed for grades 1-3 students who should be taught French as a first language. A separate section is devoted…

An instructional module designed to help prepare college-level teaching assistants (TAs) for their duties in second language instruction is presented. The module focuses on the use of alternative methods for assessing student learning. Introductory sections discuss the rationale for and definition of alternative assessment. Four specific types of…

This paper presents a descriptive examination of the effects of high school learners of Spanish who complete a series of Internet-based assignments using a popular online Spanish tutorial. The study is designed to measure the knowledge acquired from the World Wide Web by administering and comparing a pretest and a posttest to both a sample and a…

Analysis of error patterns in a test taken by 698 Finnish university students shows errors are made in this declining order of frequency: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and use. More talkative students were proportionately more proficient per utterance, and higher proficiency also correlated with sex (female) and high matriculation test…

Methods used to rectify imbalances in student proficiency levels within and between courses are described. One year after changes were made in promotion and placement procedures, examination development, and course and program objectives, course enrollment patterns improved, and there was evidence of improved student achievement in higher level…