Discussion of the benefits of reading aloud focuses on reading to teens. Topics include building social relationships; teaching language skills; improving text comprehension, imaginative and creative thinking, curriculum content learning, listening and speaking skills, and motivation to read and learn; and how to include reading in school…

The effect of the presence of cafeteria noise on the perception of native English and Mandarin-accented speech was assessed in a sentence-verification task and a sentence-transcription task. The outcomes of both tasks indicated strong adverse effects of noise on the intelligibility of many of the accented utterances. (Author/JL)

An adventure educator's anecdotes of international experiences illustrate the gap between the instructor's intended goals of an experiential exercise and participants' perceptions. Offers seven suggestions for structuring a dialog evaluation that works through different culture-based understandings of the same words, so that subsequent activities…

A study compared the perceptions of 118 American teachers and 292 Japanese teachers children with learning disabilities. American teachers identified 4 percent of their children as meeting the criteria and Japanese teachers identified 1.5 percent. Americans rated high percentages of children as "weaker" in listening, speaking,…

Suggests that additional attention to the sequencing of the grammatical structures needed for receptive comprehension might alleviate the problems associated with first-year German textbooks. The simple past tense, word order, and the indefinite pronoun "man" are used to illustrate the concept of a receptive grammar. (14 references) (Author/CK)

A study investigated the role of video and/or sound in the processing of aural French as a second language in grade-eight core French. Results indicate visual cues were informative and enhanced general comprehension but did not necessarily stimulate understanding of the specific text. Affective and attentional advantages were noted. (Contains 28…

Reports on empirical research on second-language (L2) Zairean multilingual students of English as a Second Language. Findings confirm the hypothesis of the differential effect of task type and the level of target language attainment on the amount of interaction; suggest a significant effect on L2 learning of oral peer interaction; and show a…

Reports on the perceptual discrimination of segmental and suprasegmental phones by Japanese learners of English. Results reveal that early learners showed better discrimination performance than normal learners and confirmed the usefulness of learning English at an early age. (16 references) (Author/CK)

Research with ESL students has begun to show that Chinese students experience particular challenges in English academic listening. This study focuses on their challenges as reported by Chinese ESL students in understanding English lectures. Seventy-eight Chinese ESL students at an American university participated in this study. This paper focuses…

In the following article the author presents a methodological framework for the teaching of intercomprehension. Competence in intercomprehension is seen as a realisation of the general human faculty for using and understanding language, which includes the ability to comprehend texts and utterances in "unfamiliar" languages. This competence can be…

Simultaneous interpreting is a complex skill in which language comprehension and production take place at the same time in two languages. In this study, we examined performance on basic language and working memory tasks that have been hypothesized to engage cognitive skills important for simultaneous interpreting. The participants were native…

This study investigated whether second language (L2) proficiency affects pragmatic comprehension, namely the ability to comprehend implied meaning in spoken dialogues, in terms of accuracy and speed of comprehension. Participants included 46 native English speakers at a U.S. university and 160 Japanese students of English in a college in Japan who…

While the debate over the optimal age for second language (L2) acquisition continues into the 21st century--that is, whether or not there is a clearly established critical period beyond which L2 learning cannot take place--most people believe (rightly or wrongly) that "earlier is better." In this article, the authors begin with the premise that…

There is no question that the development of oral language skills in second (as well as first) language learners is of prime importance. Language learners must focus on oral language proficiency because it is eventually the skill they will most use. But oracy in second language learners does not develop in a vacuum. It is inextricably intertwined…

This paper focuses on the oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired (HI) children. A task based on that used with language impaired children by Leinonen and Letts (1997) was used to assess the speaking and listening skills of 20 HI children (mean age=10;2 years; mean better ear average hearing loss=88.85 dBHL). Their performance…