This book offers an evidence-based guide to EAL for everyone who works with multilingual learners. It provides a concise, helpful introduction to the latest research underpinning three key areas of EAL practice: (1) How children acquire additional languages? (2) How language works across the curriculum? and (3) How you can establish outstanding…

The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) fulfills federal requirements for assessing the English language proficiency of English language learners (ELLs) in kindergarten through grade 12 in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. TELPAS assesses students in alignment with the Texas English…

Current guidelines indicate that therapeutic interactions must be in the client's primary language. This article addresses the ethical dilemmas faced by monolingual clinicians and researchers who must assess the foreign language competence of an interpreter. Guidelines are proposed for assessing language competence of staff in clinical and…

Argues that holistic scoring requires evaluators to suppress their interpretive judgment and treat students' writing differently than in any other situation, based on an analysis of videotaped reader-training sessions for an English Proficiency Essay Exam. (NH)

This guide is intended to assist individual bilingual vocational training projects improve their approach to program evaluation. The guide presents an overall framework to be used by local project staff and evaluators to establish the scope of evaluation and give direction in meeting local evaluation needs. The guide does not provide a…

Guidelines for conducting a self-study of international educational exchange programs and services are provided for colleges and universities. Attention is directed to: the self-regulation program of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs (NAFSA), conducting NAFSA self-study processes, and using NAFSA principles. The major elements…

Discusses the importance of appropriate proficiency-oriented testing for students studying foreign languages, explaining that grammatical accuracy is of no value if it cannot be used to carry out real-life tasks as an inherent and natural activity. Presents guidelines for designing and administering tests and provides an example of a…

This guide helps parents understand how schools assess their child's English language ability and suggests ways for them to help schools place their children in the most useful language program. All districts must decide which students to test, and then how to test them. Some schools attempt to find out the English skills of all students, and…

This guide helps parents understand how schools assess their child's English language ability and suggests ways for them to help schools place their children in the most useful language program. All districts must decide which students to test, and then how to test them. Some schools attempt to find out the English skills of all students, and…

Examines ways to involve language students in the test-making process. Discusses student-generated test items, test goals, outdoor paired vocabulary testing, interactive grading, and peer testing. Argues that student learning is more important than test scores. (nine references) (MDM)

After tests are administered, they are scored and the scores are given back to the students. If the real purpose of the test is to improve student learning, simply returning the scores is not sufficient. The first step in evaluating test results is to be sure that the test has tested the intended concepts and content. Calculating the mean and the…

The role of different types of testing instruments in second language programs is discussed. Knowledge-based tests, including discrete-point and integrative tests are contrasted with direct tests, including the Foreign Service Institute Scale and the Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ASLPR). The ASLPR is described in detail in terms…

This guide, which is intended for adult basic education (ABE) practitioners in Victoria, Australia, details policies and procedures regarding the conduct of placement assessments of students entering or enrolled in ABE programs. The guide's aims are summarized in the introduction. Discussed in part 1 are the following topics: the content/purposes…

This packet is the fourth of five developed as a set of self-appraisal instruments with which teachers (and others) can systematically examine their instruction methods in communication skills. The packet contains forms for teachers, students, administrators, and parents addressing two levels of specificity: responses to the overall communication…

This document outlines a curriculum design intended for use with Bosnian refugees living in the United States learning English as a Second Language for survival purposes. The first chapter identifies the setting of instruction and background information regarding this refugee group. The second chapter reviews the theoretical issues of adult…