A pilot study used the Spanish Oral Proficiency Test (SOPT)--a taped oral test--to evaluate the oral proficiency level of students of intermediate Spanish. Also examined what variables might affect the development of students' oral skills. (Author/VWL)

Children should learn foreign languages during a window of opportunity that is widest until about age 10. After that, the window closes on the speech sounds of a new language, and it becomes more difficult to acquire native or near-native speech while learning a foreign language. (MLH)

Although many states and school districts require reading benchmarks and performance standards, these reading benchmarks may not be consistent or based on sound educational research concerning what is best for English Language Learners (ELLs). The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion for the need of research to establish realistic…

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) offers 199 courses with online features to enhance the distance learning environment. The university has arranged these courses to provide students with greater flexibility in interacting with tutors, classmates, and the content itself. Integral to learner flexibility online is access, valuing computers and…

A number of theories of second language L2 acquisition acknowledge a role for explicit L2 knowledge. However, the testing of these theories remains problematic because of the lack of a widely accepted means for measuring L2 explicit knowledge. This article seeks to address this lacuna by examining L2 explicit knowledge from two perspectives.…

In this article, the authors evaluate a Swedish pilot scheme that targeted immigrants with weak Swedish-language skills registered as unemployed at public employment offices. By sandwiching work-oriented language teaching and practical workplace training, the project aimed at enhancing the employability of project participants but also at alerting…

Extensive reading has for many years been seen as an important and motivating means of improving general language proficiency in a second language. This article argues that while extensive reading per se is an important medium for long-term second language acquisition, extensive reading schemes may not be the most effective means of promoting…

In five experiments highly-proficient bilinguals were asked to name two sets of pictures in their L2: a) pictures whose names in the L2 and their corresponding L1 translations have the same grammatical gender value, and b) pictures whose names in the L2 and their corresponding L1 translations have different gender values. In Experiments 1, 2, and…

Based on empirical research and qualitative analysis, this paper aims to explore the effects of L1 use on L2 vocabulary teaching. The results show that, during L2 vocabulary teaching process, the proper application of L1 can effectively facilitate the memorization of new words, and the bilingual method (both English explanation and Chinese…

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited Proceedings of each year's conference. The Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT), held its annual conference, April 3-5, 2008, at the Springmaid Beach Resort and Conference Center, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in collaboration with the South…

This investigation was undertaken to investigate the threshold levels of literacy and language proficiency necessary for adult learners to use the Internet for independent learning. The report is triangulated around learning from large-scale surveys, learning from the literature, and learning from the field. Reported findings include: (1)…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has made a great impact on states' policies in assessing English language learner (ELL) students. The legislation requires states to develop or adopt sound assessments in order to validly measure the ELL students' English language proficiency (ELP), as well as content knowledge and skills. Although states have…

The authors examined the effectiveness of a 2-year (kindergarten and first grade) oral English intervention provided to 534 Hispanic English-language learners in transitional bilingual education (TBE) and structured English immersion (SEI) programs. Using latent growth modeling, the authors compared instructional programs in relation to growth…

The early 1980s saw an influx of Southeast Asian refugees from various demographic groups and backgrounds to Minnesota. As teachers, the author and her colleagues regularly added children from these groups to their classrooms, receiving little explanation of a student's history or language proficiency. To counteract increasing teacher resentment…

Background: The role of race and ethnicity is consistently found to be linked to the likelihood of students experiencing school violence-related outcomes; however, the findings are not always consistent. The variation of likelihood, as well as the type, of student-related school violence outcome among the Latino student population may be…