In this paper, we explore the extent to which a stay abroad in a Danish university in which English is a frequent medium of instruction can be a very suitable context for students to increase their language proficiency and to develop both awareness of their communicative skills and their confidence in them. The data analysed come from (i) a pre-…

This paper introduces a case course with videoconferencing as a way of Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (SCMC) for foreign language education in Japan. Research questions were to see the effects of videoconferencing on the learners' speaking ability and general English language proficiency, and also to see how the learners'…

This paper assesses the efficiency of the "Language Immersion e-Course" developed at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Language Centre. The new self-study revision e-course, promoting students' proficiency in spoken and aural Russian through autonomous learning, is based on the Michel Thomas method, and is…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of task type on the performance of EFL speaking tests for Taiwanese college students. The major research questions explored in the study include: (1) Will test takers perform differently on various task types of EFL speaking tests? (2) Are there any differences in the accuracy,…

This study examined word-finding ability, measured by accuracy and latency of response, in a group of eight preschool stutterers (mean age 4.2 years) and two groups of eight nonstutterers (mean age 4.4 years) matched according to age, gender, race, and receptive vocabulary. Results indicated that, as a group, preschool children who stutter and…

The English language portions of appropriate levels of the Language Assessment Scales (LAS) were administered to 193 English-speaking monolingual elementary school students. The students were aged 5-14, and had average reading achievement scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. On the basis of the publisher's norms, maturational trends in scores…

In an effort to comply with bilingual instruction requirements, school districts throughout California will soon be involved in testing vast numbers of children to determine language proficiency and language dominance. Many language tests will require a child to repeat a sentence or a phrase in exactly the same manner that is stated by an examiner…

A description is given of experiments involving the standardization of aspects of oral fluency testing. Oral fluency is understood to imply a "communicative competence" requiring an ability to formulate accurate and appropriate utterances of more than one sentence in length. Throughout the test emphasis is laid on ease of application and…

The Functional Language Assessment (FLA) is a screening test which, when used in combination with teacher ratings and English achievement test scores, helps identify students, aged 5 through 13 from non-English speaking backgrounds, in need of bilingual programs. The language proficiency test can be administered by school staff who do not speak…

Even though modern methods of teaching emphasize listening and speaking, seldom are students of English tested in a standardized way on their ability to communicate through these skills. Many people learn to communicate well enough to conduct daily affairs in a new language, yet are unable to read, write, or speak any educated form of it. They are…

The lack of authentic, real-world interaction practice in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom is described and discussed, and the ways in which dialogue journals answer this classroom need are detailed. A dialogue journal is an interactive, self-generated, cumulative and functional writing and reading exchange between teacher and…

A study was conducted that was designed to determine if experienced ESL (English as a second language) teachers, working in pairs, can reach the same judgments regarding the oral proficiency of non-native speakers of English and to determine the reliability of such judgments. In addition, the question of whether different sets of judges rate…

An alternative assessment instrument developed to assess oral language skills of students in Spanish immersion programs in the United States is described. Originally developed by the Center for Applied Linguistic to evaluate 6-year-old immersion students' speaking and listening skills in a school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Student Oral…

Free speech samples and aural cloze test scores were collected from 24 Spanish-surnamed children at the beginning of first grade. The children were members of two classrooms, and each class received instruction from a Spanish-speaking bilingual teacher and an English-speaking monolingual teacher. The children were learning to read in Spanish and…

One of the main tenets of the audio-lingual theory which has dominated most of our thinking in foreign language teaching methodology for the last fifteen years is that students should never be put in the situation of having to say something for which they have not already learned the patterns. Is the language laboratory really useful, however, in…