Noting that speech is not simply basic communication, this digest discusses ways in which teachers can help children develop oral language proficiency. The digest holds that speech involves thinking, knowledge, and skills, and that it requires practice and training. After setting out three criteria for oral language competence--fluency, clarity,…

This report describes a research study designed to adopt a predominantly quantitative approach to investigating three related aspects of oral fluency: fluency improvement, correlation between subjective judgments and objective counts, and variation of fluency in different speech interactions. Subjects were 15 English as a foreign language (EFL)…

This overview of the 40 year development of language proficiency rating at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and elsewhere in the federal government focuses on three issues pertaining to the scale and the raters: (1) the number of levels of differentiation in the scale; (2) the relation of the scale to the rating task; and (3) the calibration of…

In this study, the performance of apologies among 20 non-native speakers (NNSs) of English and 20 native speakers (NSs) of English was examined. Two questions were addressed: How did NNSs' apologies compare with NSs' in identical situations? What relationship existed between the performance of apologies by NNSs and Test of English as a Foreign…

The work of Joseph Sargent Hall, a pioneer researcher in Appalachian studies, is chronicled. Hall was hired by the National Park Service in 1937, as a graduate student, to document the lives and lore of older mountain residents allowed to remain in the Great Smoky Mountains after the land was purchased for a national park. His early efforts…

A study of silent and filled pauses in second language speech analyzes (1) which types of pause are produced, (2) which are the functions of non-juncture pauses, (3) whether pauses co-occur with other hesitation phenomena, and (4) whether the occurrence of pauses is associated with second language proficiency. Subjects were 15 intermediate and…

This discussion of the development of oral proficiency in a second language first examines relevant research and then suggests guidelines for designing classroom techniques for teaching oral proficiency. Research in cognitive psychology is reviewed, focusing on information processing theory and forgetting theory. Research discussed in the area of…

An American culture curricular unit is described for an integrated skills content based course of an intensive English program. There are five components to the unit, including: (1) listening and speaking; (2) reading and writing; (3) fieldtrips; (4) academic study skills; and (5) English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students as amateur…

This curriculum guide presents ideas for classroom use with migrant students. Instructional bulletin board ideas are provided for reading, oral language, and math. Ideas for decorating window shades are illustrated for each of the nine months of the school year. Examples of shades that reinforce specific skills are also presented. A section on…

Nine papers from a British conference on applied linguistics are compiled in this report. Introductory comments point out the traditional primacy of spoken language while acknowledging the demand for literacy and the importance of the written mode. Papers and authors are as follows: "An Educational Theory of (Written) Language" (Michael Stubbs);…

This essay advances a definition of language disadvantage and applies Cummins' theory of language acquisition to a model of assessment designed to determine the existence and degree of language disadvantage. Language disadvantage is defined as the difference between a person's ability to learn a language compared to that same person's actual…

A serious study of discourse particles (DIPs) must be founded on the analysis of orality in its two main dimensions: oral communication in its ordinary functioning (i.e., discourse, conversation, enunciation), but also in expression ritualized by the oral tradition of cultures that do not have a writing system. The association of the two…

A study of immigrants investigated the relationship between education in the native language (L1) and development of oral proficiency in a second language (L2), also considering other variables such as age, age at settlement, and length of settlement in the L2 country. Literacy in L1 was not a formal variable, but was roughly implied by extent of…

This report describes the outcomes of a project designed to aid agricultural workers in their transition to hotel jobs. Displaced workers (predominantly Filipino) from a Dole plantation were forced to seek employment in new resorts on Lanai. The goals of the project were to: (1) qualify former Dole employees for jobs in the newly-developed resort…

The level of mastery of selected language forms among English as a second language students in Botswana was investigated. Eighty-four pupils in the third to the sixth year of formal education provided oral English samples in unstructured formats involving language experience stories. The oral language of the pupils was analyzed to establish the…