After discussing the different uses of the terms "competence,""proficiency," and "communicative language ability" in linguistic and applied language literature, the conclusion is that "competence" should be accepted in its Chomskyan formulation, whereas "communicative language ability" should be…

Discusses what is known and done about bilingualism in early childhood education, highlighting Australia's language education experience. Notes that bilingualism can enhance child development, but the needs of bilingual Australian children are often ignored so their potential bilingualism is lost or underdeveloped. Their language-learning programs…

Studied how literacy and identity interacted in the development of approximately 85 Latino/a students in 4 intermediate-grade bilingual classrooms. Findings show that students' bilingual language and literacy knowledge and their understanding of identity have noticeable influences on each other. Identified some ways in which language and literacy…

Builds on a study on modified output to examine the impact of learner proficiency in learner-learner interaction, particularly on opportunities for modified output through interactional moves. Data were collected from leaners of Japanese using two different types of tasks. Results showed that mixed-level dyads provided more interactional moves…

Urges education to help students learn through conceptual thinking. States that the first step must be to teach the subtleties of words--without a command of the language, important discriminations can be confused. Asserts that if students are to think well conceptually, surface language must dissolve, and alternative ways to communicate must be…

Provides a description of passing for a native speaker as a form of second language (L2) ability. Discusses ethnographic research into success in second language learning and explains why other approaches tend to identify a significantly lower incidence of high-level achievement. Data suggest age of exposure to the target language is less crucial…

Examined second language learners' ability to use their second language knowledge in production, exploring form/meaning relationships. Groups of native English speakers watched video segments four times while recording their own online rendition in Spanish, viewing either repeated or different segments each time. Results indicated that task…

This study investigated the relationship between examinee proficiency and the structure of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Speaking Proficiency in English Assessment Kit (SPEAK). Specifically, using multi-group structural equation modeling, this study tested two competing hypotheses about the relationship: whether or not…

This article describes part of an investigation into the reliability and potential benefits of incorporating peer assessment into English language programmes. Undergraduate Engineering students attending a university in Hong Kong were asked to assess the English language proficiency of their peers - among other assessment criteria, such as…

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have cognitive disabilities resulting from trisomy 21. Language-learning difficulties, especially expressive language problems, are an important component of the phenotype of this population. Many individuals with DS are born into bilingual environments. To date, however, there is almost no information available…

To investigate factors that motivate Japanese high school students to read English extensively, I assessed 219 female high school students who participated in an extensive reading program for 1 academic year. The results showed that the 2 most influential factors were students' intrinsic motivation for first language (L1) reading and second…

Although most researchers recognise that the language repertoire of bilinguals can vary, few studies have tried to address variation in bilingual competence in any detail. This study aims to take a first step towards further understanding the way in which bilingual competencies can vary at the level of syntax by comparing the use of syntactic…

The purpose of this study was to identify potential general outcome indicators (GOIs) of language proficiency. Brief narratives were elicited from 45 kindergarten, first-grade, and third-grade children using single-picture scenes and a standardized protocol. Measures of language productivity, verbal fluency, and grammaticality were examined for…

This article describes the results of a study of future bilingual teachers' perspectives on the importance of Spanish, their heritage language, in their careers. The study examined the participants' experiences with Spanish throughout their education, their perceptions of the role of Spanish instruction in their teacher preparation program, and…

The native speaker still has a privileged position in English language teaching, representing both the model speaker and the ideal teacher. Non-native-speaker teachers of English are often perceived as having a lower status than their native-speaking counterparts, and have been shown to face discriminatory attitudes when applying for teaching…