Outlines the procedures followed in the needs analysis (NA) project carried out in 1996 at the College of Petroleum and Engineering at Kuwait University. Focuses on the steps taken in the project and the rationale behind them. Offers an illustration of an NA project and to show the procedural steps involved. (Author/VWL)

This article reports on two studies conducted at the same university, one investigating the link between ESL scores on an advanced ESL test and the grade point average (GPA) obtained over two semesters and the other investigating the link between French second language (FSL) scores on an advanced L2 test and both the number of courses failed and…

Assessing use of language learning strategies has become commonplace around the world. One strategy assessment tool is the questionnaire, which usually asks students to report on their typical, general use of language learning strategies. Because of this general focus, most questionnaires do not require respondents to complete an actual language…

This article examines the relationship between group and individual patterns of variation in one area of the grammar: verbal morphology. The results of studies of the acquisition of English and Hungarian verbal morphology by Chinese learners show that individual patterns of variation closely match group patterns on several dimensions. Multivariate…

Reading comprehension scores from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, and the Gray Oral Reading Test were examined in relation to measures of reading, language, and other cognitive skills that have been hypothesized to contribute to comprehension and account for comprehension differences. In a sample of 97…

Purpose: The performance of low-income African American preschoolers (36 to 52 months old) on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III; L. M. Dunn & L. M. Dunn, 1997) was examined to provide a norm for assessing the performance of this population and to explore the link between socioeconomic status (SES) and language scores on…

This study examined the relationship between learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition and their level of proficiency, and between acquisition and word frequency in a text. Participants were Turkish learners of English at three proficiency levels. One reading text and four vocabulary tests were administered over a two-week period. Analyses of…

This study investigates typological distance and order of acquisition (i.e., the order in which languages were acquired) in the context in which Spanish-English bilingual students, whose first language is English or Spanish, are learning Portuguese as a third language (L3). Participants were asked to think aloud as they worked on pedagogical tasks…

This article reports on an empirical study undertaken at the University of the North, South Africa, to test personal classroom observation and anecdotal evidence about the persistent gap between writing and spoken proficiencies among learners of English as a second language. A comparative and contrastive analysis of speech samples in the study…

Investigated the use of 50 common second language learning strategies by English for academic purposes students across eight disciplines--building, business, computing, engineering, English, mathematics, primary education, and science--in a university in Hong Kong. Compared and contrasted strategy use across disciplines and examined relationships…

Over the past few years, the author has often been invited to speak to various audiences on topics related to the development of English-language proficiency. The audience response and the kinds of questions asked led her to share the framework that she has adopted, some visual representations that illustrate the key concepts embedded in the…

Using an analytical framework that combines insights from a variety of previous studies, the current paper aims to contribute to the description of the joint construction of meaning in pedagogical discourse, in particular in one-on-one teacher-student interaction in writing conferences in a Japanese-as-a-foreign language (JFL) class. The argument…

Alternative assessment procedures have made consistent inroads into second and foreign language assessment practices over the last decade. The original impetus for alternative assessment methods has been predicated more on the ideological appeal this approach offers than on firm empirical evidence that alternative assessment approaches actually…

In Spanish-monolingual Colombia, social pressures push for access to early 50 = 50% Spanish-English medium instruction from the age of five. Parents and school administrators consider this the best way to achieve bilingualism. This article takes a first general look at the effects of this type of bilingual education on the Spanish and English…

In this paper, I discuss current interest in educational reform in Puerto Rico, the need for better and more appropriate assessment tools, the growing realisation in the USA that two-way bilingual programmes can provide an effective vehicle for fostering the development of bilingual proficiency, bicultural competence and subject-matter knowledge…