In evaluating the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (a test for assessing expressive and receptive grammar in preschool and primary age children), the author points out problems with the test norms, reliability, and validity. (SBH)

The author responds to W. Arndt's criticisms of the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test, a test for assessing receptive and expressive grammar in young children. (SBH)

Reviewed are four tests which classroom teachers can use to assess language performance of learning disabled students, and described are three language programs. (CL)

Language learning is not maximally efficient without intentional practice following tests that evaluate student achievement of an instructional objective. Post-evaluation practice must be at increasing intervals to maximize student retention, and must sometimes be unscheduled, to achieve automatic language usage. A distribution schedule and types…

Describes proposed oral achievement test for elementary Arabic based on teaching material used at University of Michigan. The rationale for testing oral skills at the elementary level and previous types of oral testing of Arabic are outlined. A test facsimile and sample items are provided, including an exploration of the test's format, scoring…

While no significant differences were found for sixth-graders' (N=30) performance on the Fullerton Test for Adolescents, Test of Adolescent Language, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions, significantly fewer students were identified as needing further evaluation by the Screening Test of Adolescent Language than by the other three…

A review of Hunt's research to find ways of measuring the growth of syntactic proficiency in American school children explores the possibilities of applying these measures to groups of British native and non-native speakers of English and developing them for use in teaching and testing. (Author/CB)

Assesses the self-monitoring abilities of intermediate English-as-a second-language students enrolled in a pronunciation/listening course indicated three subgroups: those who improved their ability to choose correct answers but not their self-monitoring ability; those who regressed in ability to choose correct answers but significantly improved…

Language skills of 38 mildly to moderately behavior-disordered students (ages 8-12) were examined to determine if their risk for language disorders would resemble that of children with more severe emotional disturbances. All but one fell a minimum of one standard deviation below the mean on Test of Language Development-Intermediate subtests.…

The scores of 11 non-handicapped kindergarten children on the Pragmatic Protocol (used in assessing language-handicapped children) were correlated with their ratings by five experienced judges on a 7-point equal-appearing interval scale of communicative competence. The concurrent validity of the Protocol and interobserver reliability were…

Results of an administration of the Language Proficiency Measure indicated that the interrater reliability was adequate, internal-consistency reliability estimates were high, concurrent validity coefficients were adequate, and the classification validity was acceptable. (Author/LMO)

The article provides a statistically derived method of developing an accurate profile analysis of the five major subtest standard scores comprising the "Test of Language Development-Primary" thus helping clinicians determine relative strengths and weaknesses within the child's overall language profile. (Author/DB)

Five priorities on the national agenda are detailed: language competency among adults, the need for a common metric for language skills, determination of the most effective language teaching method, more integrated language instruction, and critical examination of the practice of teaching European languages to the neglect of other languages. (AMH)

Considers whether scores on cloze items are generally sensitive to amounts of context in excess of 10 words on either side of them and, if not, when they are sensitive to long-range constraints. Concludes that some are sensitive to constraints that reach beyond 50 words on either side of a blank. (SED)

Supports use of multiple paradigms for the measurement of individual differences in the search for explanations of natural language. Rather than a single paradigm discipline, they offer a wider scope of inquiry--phenomena of interest, types of questions, and forms of explanations, as well as opening the discipline to inspiration and analogy from…