Explores the few studies that compare the psycholinguistic processes characterizing second language acquisition in the classroom and native-speaking environments. A description of a study that found that, although intermediate Spanish students extensively monitored language usage in both environments, their monitored knowledge was still quite…

A study compared students' orientations toward learning Spanish to their orientations toward learning English or French as a second language, and examined other variables, including interethnic attitudes and contact, motivation, self-confidence, and Spanish competence. Results do not permit a clear delineation of a sociomotivational basis for…

Summarizes findings of a Modern Language Association survey on employment of individuals holding doctorates in English or foreign languages and compares these findings with results of earlier surveys. Tabular information is provided regarding the number of degrees conferred and employment status. (CB)

Reviews multidisciplinary research on second culture and second language reading comprehension to support the claim that second language reading is an interactive process, involving the interrelationship of cultural schemata and discourse structure. Argues for the roles of cultural schemata and discourse structure in an interactive model of first…

An interview with Alan Decaux of the Academie Francaise focuses on his campaign for each European to know two languages in addition to the mother tongue, using early foreign language education to attain this goal. (MSE)

In a French study based on Spanish research, the communicative effectiveness and grammatical accuracy of foreign language students in generating appropriate classroom questions was investigated. Despite language differences, similarities were found in communication errors, especially incorrect interrogative words and structures, verb tenses and…

Reports on research into the interactive roles played in the verbal comprehension processes by the sequence of textual elements, text-specific prior knowledge, and levels of language proficiency. Four cloze tests were administered to undergraduate and graduate native speakers of English and to undergraduate non-native speakers of English at three…

A study of college students' motivation for learning, and other social-psychological aspects of second language learning, found students learn German for instrumental, friendship, travel, identification/influence, and knowledge reasons. Fluency was related to motivation, and students of German heritage had higher self-confidence in the German…

Assessment of the English writing proficiency of 23 native French speaking students on 3 composition tasks found variance in the qualities of written texts and problem-solving behaviors. Writing expertise was found to affect discourse organization and content, writing complexity, heuristic strategies, and control strategies, while second-language…

Analyzes ethnographic data regarding one prolonged speech event, the negotiation of a driver's license at the Ministry of Transportation in Puno, Peru, from the perspective of Hymes' redefinition of linguistic competence. Implications for the acquisition of second language communicative competence are also discussed. (Author/CB)

Analysis of 38 international teaching assistants' (ITA) performance on general-topic and field-specific SPEAK tests (tests of spoken English proficiency) indicated that, although ITAs as a group did not differ significantly in performance across the two tests, pass or fail recommendations for eight subjects would depend on which test was used. (27…

Suggests that English-as-an-International-Language (EIL) and interlanguage, in recent years, have emerged as two major developments in applied linguistics and language-teaching studies. Three questions are addressed concerning EIL and language teaching. (27 references) (Author/VWL)

The patterns of second grade French immersion students' spontaneous reading in English during the first and second year of their immersion program are reported and compared with their French reading performance. (MSE)

Discusses the concept of language immersion programs in the European context, then focuses on the current trend in Finnish schools to "see what these programs are like." The article concludes with a discussion about the inevitable problems and challenges related to immersion programs. (JL)

This study investigated the effect of using computer-mediated reading supports on the reading comprehension and reading behavior of beginning learners of Arabic as a foreign language. Recommendations for future research are given as well as theoretical and pedagogical implications for second-language instruction. (eight references) (LRW)