Although it is commonly believed that language and culture are inexorably linked, the precise nature of this relationship remains elusive. This study investigated the hypothesis that a loss in language signals a loss in culture if language is considered a central value. This hypothesis was investigated by rating the Hindi and English proficiency…

Public school students in Japan must take English as a required subject for three years in junior high school and for three more years in senior high school. In spite of the amount of classroom time invested, and in spite of the available learning support services, the foreign Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) system included, the English…

Differences between early and late Irish-immersion secondary school students are examined, not only in terms of academic outcome and target language ability, but also in terms of attitudes to learning the target language. Participants included a gender-balanced group of 97 students in Irish-immersion in fourth year of secondary school (mean age…

This study explored the extent to which the reading-to-write construct is the sum of one's reading and writing abilities or an independent construct. The investigation included an analysis of (a) test tasks, (b) the relationship of test task scores and scores on reading and writing measures, and (c) the effects of proficiency level and educational…

Keiwa College, a small liberal arts college in Niigata, Japan, has developed a number of on-campus and community-based teacher training programmes to benefit our students in the teacher education course in the Department of English and Communication and in-service English teachers in the area. These programmes provide students with opportunities…

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Education and the Ministry of Education in China entered into a bilateral partnership to develop a technology-driven approach to foreign language learning that integrated gaming, immersion, voice recognition, problem-based learning tasks, and other features that made it a significant research and development pilot…

The Test of Spoken English (TSE) is an internationally administered instrument for assessing nonnative speakers' proficiency in speaking English. The research foundation of the TSE examination described in its manual refers to two sources of variation other than the achievement being measured: interrater reliability and internal consistency.…

For the second language student, proficiency is a measure of what tasks can be accomplished with acquired language and how well they can be accomplished. The necessity for specification of functional proficiency arose, and resulted in the publication of guidelines by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)'s guidelines…

This paper highlights central topics in language testing theory and practice that are relevant to the examination of modern language teaching and learning. Part 1 gives a time-lapse picture of the development of models of language competence in language testing, discusses the distinction between descriptive models and working models, and reviews…

The Hindi language proficiency guidelines are based on the 1986 generic ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) proficiency guidelines. They represent a hierarchy of global characterizations of integrated performance in four skill areas (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) in Hindi. The guidelines for each skill area…

This study explores the linguistic abilities and political insights of African Americans in the inner city, focusing on the women and children of one particular neighborhood. Many of the research conversations were conducted with 12 members of 2 families. Based on more than 3 years of fieldwork, the book presents the oral, literate, and analytical…

By being creative in preparing tests and by allowing creativity on the part of students, language teachers can incorporate many of the principles associated with proficiency-oriented instruction into a traditional test format. Such test strategies are based on the following: (1) testing in context is better than testing with a series of unrelated…

"Autonomous" and "ideological" models of literacy are discussed in the context of the literacy-culture-politics relationship. Assumptions underlying literacy, nationalism, assessment, and the links among them are questioned, and approaches to alternative assessment procedures are considered. Arguments about the formation and…

A change in language laboratory use at the University of North Alabama has given new meaning to the lab requirement and role. While developing a language program, the developer reviewed the language lab's traditional role and found a mixed history with many negative aspects. Personal experience also revealed problems, including: students and…

The process of developing, piloting, and refining an oral proficiency test as part of the Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR) test battery is described. The test was designed to fill a need for an oral interview-type measure adapted for fifth to seventh grade students. The test was produced first for Spanish immersion students, then…