The reading, writing, speaking and listening standards in this paper describe what Pennsylvania students should know and be able to do with the English language at four grade levels (third, fifth, eighth and eleventh). The standards provide the targets for instruction and student learning essential for success in all academic areas, not just…

Students can become better listeners by learning to: (1) listen accurately; and (2) listen critically, when interpretation is required. Teachers can foster accurate listening through games demanding close attention to rhythm instruments and directions. They can encourage critical listening through music exercises and activities that involve…

Six drills are presented to enhance aural sensitivity in students who may have only minimal knowledge of music theory. The exercises require little preclass preparation and none takes longer than five minutes. Drills cover scales, pitch and rhythm memory, pitch patterns, and corrective listening with pitch patterns and melodies. (SJL)

Key issues in the selection and interpretation of listening tests include: the definition of listening capacity; the test developer's method for measuring listening capacity, through rote recall, following directions, informal reading inventory, etc.; and the impact of internal test components such as test structure, question content, and clarity…

Describes study that was conducted to determine the effects of captioned television videotapes on the listening comprehension of university students studying English as a Second Language (ESL). Results indicate substantial comprehension benefits for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students who view videotaped television material with…

Describes how the capabilities of the MacLang authoring system allow foreign language teachers to develop computer-assisted instruction that meets the listening skill objectives of foreign language courses. Examples are given of the use of audio and video interfaces that facilitate listening comprehension. (Author/CB)

A survey of 75 school administrators was made to determine what they judge to be the specific oral communication skills most vital to teacher success. The emphasis administrators place on oral communication means that it should figure prominently in teacher education. Of all communication factors, listening is considered most important. (SLD)

Argues that some important aspects of listening as an interactive skill have been neglected in second-language teaching, including the receipt tokens "yeah,""mm hm," and "mm," and that such items should be taught as part of the development of conversational skills. Characteristics of these items' placement in talk sequences, prosodic shape, pause…

This review describes the theory behind two new measures of spoken word recognition for children with sensory aids, the Lexical and the Multisyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Tests. It then summarizes data concerning the tests' word familiarity, interlist equivalency, and test-retest reliability. Results indicate that deaf children with cochlear…

Written specifically for K-12 educators, this accessible book explains the processes involved in second-language acquisition and provides a wealth of practical strategies for helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed at reading. The authors integrate knowledge from two fields that often remain disconnected--linguistics and literacy--with a…

Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful metacognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts. This article provides a repertoire of speaking and listening strategies to develop the…

Acquiring an adequate vocabulary is a cognitive challenge for foreign language learners. Varied exposures to newly acquired words as they occur in meaningful contexts may facilitate the process of vocabulary learning. In this study we investigated the effects of such a multiple-strategy-based vocabulary teaching approach. We conducted an…

This diagnostic skills checklist enables the methods and materials specialists to note the reading and spelling skills the child has mastered, those skills which are weak or not developed, and those skills which are clearly beyond the child's capability of mastering because of insufficiently developed abilities at lower, prerequisite levels. Also…

Listening is very important. Conversations will take place only when we can understand what our interlocutor says; listening is also an important input. Yet, many of my students got frustrated in listening. Being a teacher, I tried to rethink about what I did in my listening classes and did some literature review. As a result, I found that there…

Repeated interactive read-alouds, a systematic method of reading aloud, allow teachers to scaffold children's understanding of the book being read, model strategies for making inferences and explanations, and teach vocabulary and concepts. A storybook is read three times in slightly different ways in order to increase the amount and quality of…