Addresses the question of mother-tongue education of children, especially in francophone countries of Africa. It seeks to contribute to the debate on the integration of local languages into educational systems in multilingual settings by stressing the opposing cultural messages carried by official and indigenous languages. (Author/JL)

The International English Language Testing System is described, including the test's underlying principles, design, administration, scoring, reliability, and interpretation. Some criticisms of the program are briefly discussed. (MSE)

Secondary school teachers invented a context for Louisiana's Eighth Grade French and Spanish Proficiency/Credit Exams based on real-life situations students would encounter on class trips to Disney's EPCOT Center. Test activities assess performance in four language skills areas: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Students' reaction to this…

Reports on the Minnesota Articulation Project, providing an overview of the projects' three principal working groups: political action, curriculum, and assessment. The article then outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the proficiency-based assessment instruments developed in French, German, and Spanish and describes in detail the content and…

Examines the efficacy of a weekly movie class through students' in-school achievement, a general proficiency test, and surveys about their cultural awareness and interest in English. An experimental group watched movies with viewing guides every week for 2 months. They improved significantly more than the control group in their in-school…

Examines the major issues relating to the introduction of an assessment of English language proficiency for students prior to graduation from tertiary education. Looks at the ongoing debate relating to the introduction of an exit language test and considers possible alternatives to a formal standardized test for reporting on language proficiency.…

Recounts the use of a computer-mediated proficiency test in an intensive international teaching assistant workshop. Both traditional raw score analyses and item response theory analyses done on the test data are described in detail. Indicated that the test was not suitable for making exemption and retention decisions with this particular group of…

Familiarizes test users with issues to consider when employing assessments for screening and admission purposes. Examines the purpose, content, and scoring methods of three English-as-a-Second-Language admissions tests--the Cambridge certificate exams, International English Language Teaching System, and Test of English as a Foreign…

Provides insight on preparing students to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Specific suggestions include helping teachers to become comfortable with the test's computer-based format and helping students adapt to the test's point of view. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and second language (L2) proficiency of university-level learners of French. Learners' performances on two grammaticality judgment tests and on a test of L2 proficiency were examined in the context of demands made upon these two components according to whether the learners had been…

Reports on a study of the development of literacy, bilingualism, and metalinguistic awareness. Subjects were speakers of Spanish and Nahuatl from Central Mexico. Assessments of metalinguistic awareness related to different aspects of the children's consciousness of the languages they spoke or understood were compared to a series of assessments of…

Describes initiatives to develop a new English for academic purposes listening test for incoming graduate students to the University of Michigan's English language institute. (Author/VWL)

Examines classroom Assessment in the English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) school context. Using data from teacher interviews, classroom observations, video and audio recordings of learners, and lesson transcripts, traces different stages in the teacher assessment process and presents a working model for analysis of teacher decision making in…

Explores theoretical and practical issues surrounding authenticity in course-based assessment, drawing on data from a university-level Japanese language course in Australia. Examines a teaching and assessment activity based around interviewing native speakers outside the classroom, which was designed to optimize authenticity. (Author/VWL)

The use of the Internet is expected in foreign-language classrooms. The present study investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of a language course supplemented with online material for college-level Japanese learners. The study compared exam scores from students enrolled in traditional inclass instruction taught 5 consecutive days for 50…