Studies of age differences in second language learning ability are collected along with commentary on the results. The 12 papers describe long and short term studies of children and adults that focus on the optimal age for second language acquisition, the effect of different teaching methods and environments on age differences, and theories that…

A study to determine whether college students in first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses who saw and heard dialogs between native speakers would score significantly higher on a listening comprehension test than those who only heard the dialogs had as its subjects 178 students randomly divided into two treatment groups. Twenty-seven…

In a primary school in Dade County, Florida, disadvantaged kindergarten children were entering first grade without the receptive language and listening skills necessary to succeed academically. A practicum attempted to remedy this problem by stimulating kindergarten children's receptive language skills in vocabulary and listening comprehension.…

The College Board has identified several basic intellectual competencies thought to be essential for effective work in all fields of college study, among them listening and speaking. An issue that arises in connection with these competencies is the availability of suitable measures to assess students' development in these areas. This report…

Listening is a crucial element in the communication process. To date, however, research efforts have been unsuccessful in identifying the proper role that listening should play in the building of communication theory. To be a legitimate part of the communication process, listening must be placed in a conceptual framework similar to those found in…

The lessons are intended for teenage and adult students. Focus is on placement of the tongue, jaw, lips, any movements involved, and whether the sound is whispered (voiced) or spoken (voiceless). Consonants are taught in pairs so students realize the distinctions necessary to avoid misunderstandings. Lessons include (1) final consonants, (2)…

Auditory Comprehension is a skill which must be developed by second language learners if communicative competence is to be achieved. While most programs treat the rudimentary aspects of listening skills with rather mechanical drills, exercises to develop this skill in more advanced stages are usually not included. However, with the trend toward…

This is an account of some of the issues raised during 5 years of design, development and operation of the English Language Testing Service (ELTS). The measures in question are made up of five sub-tests: two general tests of reading and listening comprehension, and three modular tests of language study skills in reading, writing, and speaking. The…

The Santa Fe Community College (Gainesville, Florida) offers courses to prepare students for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The two classes--one intermediate and one advanced--meet three times a week for three hours each session. Grammar explanations are presented during the first two classes each week, and students are offered…

This book presents articles on language teaching media. Among the titles are: (1) "Il Foreign Language Teaching e l'impiego degli audio-visivi" (Foreign Language Teaching and the Use of Audio Visual Methods) by D'Agostino, (2) "Le role et la nature de l'image dans l'enseignement programme de l'anglais, langue seconde" (The Role and Nature of the…

Working under the hypothesis that a child's concept of a story and his or her concept of the task of narration used to tap comprehension emerge first in social interaction, a methodology was created for studying the process of development from dependent functioning in social interaction to independent functioning based on L. Vygotsky's theoretical…

Controlling the rate of oral delivery in the second language classroom has been demonstrated as beneficial to the learner, whose information-processing capacity is an important factor in listening comprehension. Rate of information delivery can be controlled by limiting the actual rate of words per unit of time, or by maintaining content…

The relationship between first graders' listening comprehension and reading comprehension was examined in a study involving 64 children. Two forms of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, Primary A, were administered--one orally and one silently. No significant difference was found between the mean score of the silent test and that of the oral test.…

Assuming that radio listeners are more interested in programs where the pace is faster, two versions of a six-minute interview were devised and tested on 97 adult church choir members. Prior to the experiment, participants completed a questionnaire that requested information on their age, sex, education, radio station preference, and listening…

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is a multiple-choice test of English for non-native speakers of English. It consists of two sections: listening comprehension and reading. There are 100 questions in each section. Separate scaled scores are provided for each section, the part score scales ranging from five to 495 and the…