Present school programs place considerable reliance on the results of standardized language tests both as placement and diagnostic devices, yet the validity of these tests is open to question. Certain questions arise in light of current theory and research. To what extent are currently available measuring techniques useful for identifying the…

This paper reports an investigation into the transitional dialect spoken by learners in the process of learning a second language. Theories concerning the psychology of second language learning which have been hypothesized by a small number of people in the field are discussed. These theories were first reported on from Scotland and England and…

This study investigated the relationship between dialect usage and performance on four language tasks designed to reflect features developmental in nature: articulation, grammatical closure, auditory discrimination, and sentence comprehension. Predictor and criterion language tasks were administered to 90 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade…

It is suggested that the static model of language which is prerequisite for contrastive analysis is inadequate in pinpointing potential difficulties in second language learning. The student learning graphemic-phonetic correspondences encounters two types of difficulties not exposed by contrastive analysis: dialectal difficulties and reading…

This paper describes two methods of EST (English for Science and Technology) paragraph development: rhetorical process development and rhetorical function-shift development. A series of hypotheses set up to account for explicit and implicit information in some EST function-shift paragraphs that students have had difficulty learning to understand…

A discussion of the translation process focuses on inferencing strategy, using attributes and contexts that are familiar in recognizing or making sense of what is unfamiliar in a text. Examples drawn from Belgian translation student work are used to illustrate this principle in operation, at several levels of difficulty. The examples come from…

This collection of articles on Bilingualism includes: "Fremdsprachenunterricht fur Fortgeschrittene: ein Uberblick" (Foreign Language Learning for Advanced Students: An Overview) (Paul R. Portmann); "Never Mind the Width, Feel the Quality: From Quantity to Quality in Language Teaching at Advanced Levels" (Mike Makosch); "Irren ist menschlich: Ein…

This collection of articles on the nature of discourse and writing instruction include: "Une demarche de psychologie de discours; quelques aspects introductifs" ("An Application of Discourse Psychology; Introductory Thoughts") (Jean-Paul Bronckart); "Les procedes de prise en charge enonciative dans trois genres de texts expositifs" ("The Processes…

A study investigated the effects of second language (L2) acquisition age, length of L2 exposure, and gender on bilingual coding, and examined whether the bilingual dual coding effect in incidental recalls would be the same as in Indo-European languages. The bilingual dual coding hypothesis proposes that the individual's image system and the two…

Papers on lexicographic research in Quebec (Canada) include: "Indications semantiques dans les dictionnaires bilingues" ("Semantic Indications in Bilingual Dictionaries) (Johanne Blais, Roda P. Roberts); "Definitions predictionnairiques de 'maison, batiment, et pavillon'" ("Pre-dictionary definitions of 'house,…

This study investigates the effects of regular, one-to-one conversations with a native speakers of English on the writing skills of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) college students. The subjects, three undergraduate students (ages 18 to 23) in the ESL program of a small college, participated in standard conversational English with a native…

A study assessed the awareness of English-as-a-Foreign- Language (EFL) learners concerning a set of English lexical items referring to racial or ethnic heritage, and examined how this awareness might predict the learner's linguistic behavior. Subjects were 40 university students of varying linguistic background enrolled in beginning and advanced…

To determine relative levels of motivation in learning English as a Second Language, 40 freshman and sophomores at 2 national universities in mainland China and Japan responded to a 40-point attitudinal questionnaire and 6-point followup motivational intensity scale. Data on student language proficiency were also gathered. While a solid majority…

The use of poetry in the second language class is explored as a means of gentle, non-threatening communication. Techniques for using poetry to teach intonation, using adjectives, verbs, pronunciation, and syntax, as well as for offering the student another means of expressing feelings, are explored. Sample poems and lessons are discussed, and…

This volume seeks to examine the potential for building relationships among foreign language, bilingual, and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs with the goal of fostering bilingualism. Part one of the volume examines the sociopolitical contexts for language partnerships, includes the following articles: "Language Planning and Policy…