Examines key educational policies and practices that limit opportunities for bilingual education teachers to obtain academic language proficiency in Spanish. Bilingual-education teacher training cannot make up for ground lost by educators who lack prior attainment of math and science Spanish-language skills. Effective Spanish-language competency…

Discusses the utility of the German Speaking Test (GST) as a general test of German foreign-language proficiency, examining whether it can be used effectively in classroom and institutional foreign-language settings and how proficiency ratings based on the GST relate to examinees' real-world German communicative abilities. Caveats regarding the…

Discusses the role of assessment in determining whether the investment in an early start in a foreign language has been worthwhile, suggesting that it is important for reasons, such as feedback to parents and the public, informing national policy development, and school self evaluation. Describes an independent evaluation of modern languages in…

Describes the process for generating, from a text, three types of multiple-choice vocabulary cloze tests: one based on n-th word deletion, one using user-specified frequency ranges, and one based on a particular word class. The article discusses the extent to which good test material can be produced realistically by computer-aided systems and the…

Discusses a longitudinal experimental study concerned with the second-language acquisition of argument structure and its relationship with case theory. French and English intermediate learners of Spanish as a second language were tested three times over a period of eight months on their knowledge of dative experiencers. Results indicate that the…

This study compared 4 methods (2 case history and 2 performance-based) used to classify the status of adult subjects in familial studies of developmental language disorders, involving 24 parents of children with developmental language disorders and 24 unrelated adult controls. Classification by case history found fewer affected adults than…

This article uses a question-and-answer format to describe the major categories of technical information usually presented in technical manuals for tests used by speech/language clinicians, including logical evidence of validity, empirical evidence of validity, types of reliability estimates, and practical issues in applying standardization data…

Discusses the value of content considerations in the design of language tests and the implications of the findings of various investigations of content analysis. The article argues that content analysis can be viewed as the application of a model of test design to a particular measurement instrument, using judgments of trained analysts. (26…

Examines the background factors that may be related to the French proficiency development of candidates applying for the foreign and second language teaching option at the University of Ottawa. Candidates have to pass tests of oral and written French, and this study sought to determine what makes a candidate successful on the test. (Author/VWL)

Investigates expressions of gratitude in Japanese and American English, focusing on the sociocultural factors influencing the deeper level of these expressions. Data are collected through the written answers to the discourse completion test, which has ten different situations designed to elicit a variety of expressions of gratitude from the…

Highlights the learner test-writing process, in which pupils write their own tests. The process consists of a number of steps, including reviewing the material learned, writing the questions, taking the test, and going over the graded test. (Author/VWL)

This study evaluated the validity of language-assessment instruments with Native American children, ages 3 to 5. Results indicated that the Preschool Language Scale-3 provides a valid assessment of the receptive and expressive language skills of 3- and 4-year-old Native-American children. However, use of this scale with 5-year-old Native Americans…

Reveals how English test item analysis is carried out with the help of a computer-programmed approach, what significance this has, and how beneficial it could be to teachers of English all over the world. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the discourse coherence of school-aged children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Children with SLI were found to be significantly impaired in the areas of topic maintenance, event sequencing, explicitness, conjunctive cohesion, and fluency. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed. (Author/ER)

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…