This speech-communication examination is a "dyadic" test in which students, issued a set of cards to be marked according to directions, are assigned partners with whom they communicate and respond to in turn. This latest version of dyadic tests has been administered in rural and urban public schools in Hawaii, to speakers of nonstandard…

This paper provides background on the procedures currently used in the language interviews conducted by the Peace Corps in testing Peace Corps Volunteer/Trainee performance in host country languages. The purpose of these face-to-face interviews, which are based on the interviews used by the Foreign Service Institute, is "to give the student…

The 2-year study evaluated the language performance of 69 hearing impaired, preschool children born following the rubella epidemic of the early 1960's in order to develop an instrument for objectively assessing language achievement and a predictive index of language achievement. Two language rating scales were developed which were tied to the…

THE ADDITION OF A TEACHER-ASSISTANT (TA) PROVIDED A RICHER ENVIRONMENT AND CURRICULUM RESULTING IN A HIGH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY GAIN FOR THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED KINDERGARTENER. AFTER SIX ORIENTATION SESSIONS AND A WEEK OF OBERVATION, A TA WAS ASSIGNED AS A SECOND TEACHER TO ONE OF THREE MORNING AND THREE AFTERNOON KINDERGARTEN SESSIONS AT THE THREE…

Suggests a monolingual, strictly oral "multiple choice" testing system, with suggestions regarding method, correcting and grading. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Reports on an experiment designed to test the reliability of the cloze procedure in second language testing, specifically as a measure of overall language proficiency, and as a measure whose results are independent of style. (AM)

Presents a measurement instrument for evaluating a second language learner's oral skills, which is based on a mathematical theory of communication, and which relies on native speaker judgment. (AM)

Short-form versions of the Screening Test of Spanish Grammar and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test were devised and tested on 60 lower social status bilingual Latino children (four to seven years old).

Discusses the value of self-evaluation to the adult second language learner; the tools of self-evaluation; and the relationship of self-evaluation to other forms of evaluation, to learning, and to instruction. (AM)

Presents a study testing the hypothesis that students of informal as opposed to formal teachers would score better on the Richmond work-study tests than on the language and mathematics tests. Results find differences between formal and informal classes to be insignificant but individual students to differ in hypothesized directions. (Author/AEM)

Concludes that the PLAI is a unique test that can be very useful in assessing children's ability to deal with the language of instruction. (FL)

Briefly describes the rationale, history of development, and current status of the "proficiency-based" testing movement in the United States. and cites areas in which additional research and development work are recommended to enhance both the validity and the practical value of this approach. (Author/LMO)

Reviews research on the use of the "T-Unit" as a measure of language ability, demonstrating that the measure has limited utility in the case of second language, since it bases itself solely on syntax and does not reward speakers for sophistication in such areas as vocabulary. (Author/CB)

Employs a form-content theory to analyze usage of clitics in Spanish. A questionnaire (in Appendix) compares responses by English-dominant subjects to those of Spanish-dominant subjects. Results are compared with spontaneous production of clitics in the context of free conversations with 67 informants from the Caribbean area. (Author/LMO)

The study describes the Shewan Spontaneous Language Analysis (SSLA), establishes its reliability and validity, and reports on its use with 47 aphasic adults who had suffered a single unilateral occlusive cerebral vascular accident two to four weeks prior to testing and 30 normal adults. (Author/DB)