This paper contextualizes language tests in relation to educational and national language policies by demonstrating how these language measures may be used as mechanisms for affecting "de facto" language policies. This phenomenon is of special relevance given current controversies in nation states between multilingual and multicultural realities…

This article discusses the effects of repetition (1, 3, 7, and 10 encounters) on word knowledge in a carefully controlled study of 121 Japanese students learning English. The study is innovative and original in several aspects. (1) The study uses 10 tests to measure knowledge of orthography, association, grammatical functions, syntax, and meaning…

The three mainland Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) are so closely related that the speakers mostly communicate in their own languages (semicommunication). Even though the three West Germanic languages Dutch, Frisian and Afrikaans are also closely related, semicommunication is not usual between these languages. In the present…

It is suggested in this column that trends in language testing in the last 15 years have followed trends in modern language teaching. Language testing adopted the tenets of audiolingualism and contrastive analysis, then incorporated test-making procedures of psychometrics, and finally became more eclectic in its approach. (SW)

This study reports the results of a nationwide questionnaire survey of 204 speech and language clinicians from 65 facilities for mentally retarded individuals. Information was requested from clinicians about which language test they used with the mentally retarded population, why they used these tests, and how often they used them. Residential and…

To determine how many occurrences of a syntactic structure are necessary to provide sampling reliability, two one-half hour spontaneous language samples were elicited from each of 15 language disordered students (5 to 6 years old). Sessions were divided into two periods, one for the child's telling about pictures and toys and the other for…

Presents a summary outline of an approach to oral testing used in the past two years with groups of students completing Fernand Marty's "Active French." (Author/PP)

Examines long-held assumptions and raises questions about the practice of using tests to evaluate the performances and abilities of students taking English composition. (RB)

The investigation explored the usefulness of the Noise Subtest of the Test of Auditory Discrimination and the Memory for Sequence subtest of the Goldman-Fristoe Woodcock Auditory Skills Test Battery for initial identification of central auditory function in normal children. (Author/CL)

Discusses attitudes to types of English language use--English as a second language, English as a foreign language, and English as a mother tongue (EMT)--as their use is demonstrated by tests. Concludes that EMT status is uncertain but that a test does provide a normative goal description. (SED)

A language-based test battery was used to identify characteristics of 101 learning disabled adolescents. Factor analysis revealed four major components (oral language; silent language; short-term memory processing; perceptual-motor) and suggests a distinct set of factors representative of juvenile offenders alone; or factors representative of…

The article describes a computerized language analysis system that produces a detailed description and summary statistics to track language growth within student populations. This microcomputer-based language assessment system simplifies identification of deficits in productive language, enabling the teacher or clinician to spend more time…

Two norm-referenced tests--Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL) and Preschool Language Scale (PLS) and one criterion-referenced task, the Basic Two-Choice Object Discrimination Task--were administered to nine severely handicapped preschoolers. Overall, performance and behavioral ratings tended to be best for the Two-Choice Task and…

Article investigates the truth-value interpretation of amphigorous, contradictory, redundant, and informative sentences and their corresponding negations. (Author)