Dutch native children and Turkish immigrant children, born and reared in the Netherlands, were asked to tell a story from a series of pictures, at age six and again at age eight. The Turkish children exhibited about the same level of narrative proficiency in Dutch as their Dutch peers. (Author/LMO)

Suggests that the use in English language teaching of visual media is based on insufficient analysis of the properties of visual formats, the skills demanded in using them, and the existing literacy of the students. The design and implementation of the appended Visual Information Test are described. (Author/SED)

Describes a one-semester conversational language course based on specific proficiency goals. The oral proficiency pre- and posttests, goal contracts outlining performance objectives for each chapter of the text, specific instructional and grading techniques, and class activities are detailed. (MSE)

The recent drive of Chinese modernization and world globalization has caused the rapid development of TESL (Teaching of English as a Second Language) and there are currently 300 million ESL (English as a Second Language) students in China. At the same time, due to similar forces and China's market economy reform, more and more foreigners are…

Articles in this volume include the following: "Assessment Challenges in Supported Distance Learning: How the ABE Distance Learning Project Is Implementing the Massachusetts ABE Assessment Policies and Procedures" (Roger Hooper); "The NIFL LINCS Assessment Special Collection" (Dianna Baycich, Tim Ponder); "Making Sense of…

This report is based on a test that was arranged in April and May of 1997 among first- and second-year students at Tallinn Pedagogical University who studied the Finnish language as a general subject and among the students of the eleventh and twelfth grades in some Estonian secondary schools. There were among 105 Estonians and 25 Russians among…

With the advent of the communicative approach, the role of speaking ability has become more central in language teaching. Consequently, performance testing, especially testing speaking ability, has become one of the most important issues in language testing. There are many limitations in this area because of the nature of speaking ability and the…

This document attempts to clarify the issues surrounding the assessment of English language learners (ELLs) for school board members, administrators, teachers, parents, and community members in school districts that are members of the Council of the Great City Schools. These school districts enroll more than 30% of all ELLs in the United States.…

A classroom study investigated the use of daily action logs as a means for assessing the progress of advanced students of English as a second language (ESL) at the college level. The approach was intended to promote student reflection, help make explicit the class' content, and provide feedback to the teacher on the effectiveness of the…

Describes two total immersion summer programs, one in Latin and one in Greek, each lasting two and a half months, with daily class instruction involving four hours per day, plus three hours of optional classes. In addition, students must spend six to eight hours doing homework each night. (MES)

This article discusses a battery of tests, the "Short Tests of Linguistic Skills," which was developed by the Chicago Board of Education to help teachers determine the language dominance of Spanish bilingual children between the ages of 8 and 13. (CFM)

Explores the role of sonority in constraining the word identification errors of normal listeners by examining the phonological relationships between response errors and stimulus targets. Findings indicate that sonority and lexical phonostatistics may constrain coda-driven word-search processes. (35 references) (Author/CK)

Examined open-ended production tasks in higher level testing in French-as-a-second-language courses in the United Kingdom. The article studied the effect of teachers' linguistic background, training, experience, and ability on their marking of students' oral language tests; the reliability of marking criteria; and the validity of assessing…

Examines the differences in effectiveness of three types of dictionaries--monolingual, bilingual, and "bilingualised" in the comprehension and production of new words by learners of English as a foreign language. The study tested participants on the comprehension of target words and on their ability to use these words in their own sentences. (16…

Compared teachers' holistic scoring of Nigerian English-as-a-Second-Language students' essays and their scores on a standardized language proficiency test. Results revealed that holistic scoring of essays lacked concurrent validity with the subject pool. (32 references) (CB)