A discussion of points raised by Dell Hymes in his article "On Communicative Competence" leads to a proposal for a clearer and more comprehensive theory of communicative competence based on two models, a matrix of discourse analysis and a model of communication interaction. Pedagogical implications of the theory are considered, including the…

It is not enough for students of English as a second language enrolled in English-language elementary school programs to speak English fluently at the conversational level; they must be provided with language and an environment for continuing cognitive development through the application of high-level thinking skills, often without the benefit of…

This document contains six papers relating to the teaching of English as a foreign language. The titles and authors are as follows: "The Fail-Safe Micro Research Paper" (Mary Anne Saunders); "Is Role Playing an Effective EFL Teaching Technique?" (Frances L. Smith); "Research on the Cloze Procedure of Reading Comprehension and Its Use in the EFL…

A strategy for including writing of a research paper in a university's advanced intensive English course for students of English as a second language is described. The method consists of eight assignments given over the course of 11 weeks, resulting in a short research paper. The method is designed to minimize error by dealing with specific…

A study of the kinds of requests for foreign language information made by adult students of Spanish, and a comparison of the kinds of inquiries made by students aged 19 to 23 and those over 55 years, are reported. The objective was to learn more about what language learning processes are contributing to the difference in success of the two groups.…

A study of the attitudes and practices in multinational corporations concerning second language and intercultural skills as criteria for employment of international managers consisted of three elements: (1) a survey of corporations; (2) followup interviews with respondents and with commercial language schools and cross-cultural training…

A study investigated the process of learning French by Chinese students, as revealed by student errors in 48 compositions and 33 oral reports. Grammatical, or competency, errors were categorized by type and frequency. Analysis of the results shows the most frequent errors to be, in declining order of occurrence: in the use of articles; choice of…

The preliminary work of the Scottish "School-Based Assessment of Communicative Foreign-Language Skills in Secondary Classes 3 and 4" to train teachers to undertake increased testing responsibilities under recent educational reforms is explained. The models of communicative competence and performance being developed for use with classroom…

One solution to the problems of discrete-point testing are tests of reduced redundancy, that is, tests that introduce interference into the communication through actual introduction of noise or through deletion of text and that ask the learner to perform in spite of the noise. Three test types were originally developed to operationalize the…

This practical guide on foreign language learning presents concrete suggestions on how to become a more effective and successful language learner. Suitable for use by both students and teachers, the book, divided into three parts, discusses language and language learning, learning strategies, and learner aids. Part 1 discusses the language learner…

The implications for research of the Lau regulations, the political climate in which the regulations were withdrawn, and the Lau remedies are explored. Research activities have been mandated by the Bilingual Education Act of 1978 in the areas of needs assessment, the quality of educational services, and the effectiveness of Title VII programs.…

An issue of the journal devoted to teaching foreign languages to students with special educational needs, resulting from a New York State Board of Regents plan to require foreign languages of all students, contains these articles: "A New Challenge: The Foreign Language Learner with Special Educational Needs" (Harriet Barnett, John B. Webb);…

A study to determine the role of oral language and reading skills in the transfer from two years of reading in Spanish to reading in English had as subjects 191 fourth grade students in a bilingual education program. Students were tested and classified as efficient and non-efficient readers. It was found that: (1) there is a relationship between…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was used in this study, which attempted to develop a new methodology for assessing the speededness of right-scored tests. Traditional procedures of assessing speededness have assumed that the test is scored under formula-scoring instructions; this approach is not always appropriate. In this study,…

The manual designed to accompany an orientation seminar for students concerning language learning processes and strategies and the design of their program includes materials for five sessions, in three sections. The first section covers language learning and acquisition in general and contains a survey of the participants' foreign language…