Describes liaison interpreting, a technique whereby students use bilingual dialogs to become aware of important differences (lexical, phonological, syntactical) between their mother tongue and the foreign language. They practice selecting a passage and encoding it for transmission. Examples of Italian-English dialogs and guidelines for use of…

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…

Concludes that an integrated language-reading treatment approach was effective in improving the reading performance of second-grade children with possible listening comprehension problems and language deficiencies. (FL)

Discusses Michael Canale's paper, "Considerations in the Testing of Reading and Listening Proficiency," focusing on the third section, "Suggestions for improvements in receptive language testing." Considers such areas as: (1) level descriptions for academic use, (2) item and item types, and (3) validation. (SED)

This study has been done to gather data as to whether there is improvement in vocabulary development, reading comprehension and reading fluency when a child is reading aloud and he or she has a reading companion as opposed to not having a reading companion. As this literature review indicates there has been a lot of research on the benefits of…

The wealth of information available on the Web affords teachers and learners access to language learning resources like never before. Online journals, listservs, newspapers, and magazines provide authentic material for language learners, while teachers can find lesson plans and ideas, exercises, assessment tools, and other materials for use in…

This revised language arts curriculum framework lists the content standards for writing; reading; and listening, speaking, and viewing. The writing section's standards are designed to help students employ a wide range of strategies as they write; use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate to different audiences for a…

A study investigated the out-of-class learning experiences of non-native speakers of English, and the impact of the experiences on the individuals' second-language conversation skills. Subjects were eight international students enrolled in an intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program at Indiana University, Bloomington. Data were…

The attitudes and practices of teachers of English in an elementary school in India were studied through a questionnaire completed by all 11 teachers who taught the English classes in grades 1 through 5. The survey elicited data about participants' beliefs about teaching English and their instructional and assessment practices. Teachers believed…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first and second language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out and evaluating their work. The task for ninth grade students…

Experience and research on the appropriateness and reliability of various criteria used in oral language tests are discussed. It is concluded that global marking schemes, which are less detailed, may enable the scorer to better evaluate communicative effectiveness, which includes both linguistic and paralinguistic factors. (MSE)

A study inspired by previous research investigated comprehension of three complex English structures by Dutch high school students at three levels of proficiency. Dutch learners responded similarly to speakers of other languages in an earlier study, but had significantly more ease with one structure familiar in Dutch. (MSE)

Presents the results of a study of the recall performances of developing young readers compared across the three language reception modes of listening, oral reading, and silent reading. The effects of the difficulty of the reading material and of sex differences are discussed. The texts used are appended. (Author/JL)

Advocates an approach to second language learning based on Krashen's "Implicit Learning" model. Emphasizes comprehension training in preparation for productive skills learning, as a stress-free, highly motivating instructional strategy. Discusses results obtained with this approach in a variety of foreign languages at several schools across the…

Subtests on grammar, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and translation were developed for screening the English as a second language abilities of students applying to universities outside the U.S. Total test scores, writing ability, and grade point average were used as criteria for evaluating each subtest's validity. (GSK)