The Arabic language examination was designed for Jewish immigrants from Syria wishing to satisfy New York State language requirements for high school graduation by indicating their proficiency in Arabic. The test is essentially a translation of a state test of Hebrew, and is intended to test Arabic at the third-year high school level. The…

Presented is a bibliography on anxiety and second language learning consisting of three sections. The first contains 34 annotated citations of articles and research reports on anxiety and second language learning and proficiency. The second lists and outlines 29 scales or other measures of anxiety, some of which specifically relate to language. In…

A study compared the results of administration of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Educational Testing Service (ACTFL/ETS) oral proficiency interview and those of two laboratory-administered Modern Language Association tests, one in the listening mode and one in the speaking mode. The comparative study was undertaken to…

The present study, using a totally direct method, investigates, within the framework of sociolinguistics and foreign language teaching in Iran, whether teachers of English prefer British or American variety of English language, and whether their preference corresponds to their performance on a related test. Thirty Iranian English language teachers…

This study validated the Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA), an oral proficiency instrument designed for students in elementary foreign language programs. Elementary students who were tested with the SOPA were also administered other instruments designed to measure proficiency. These instruments included the Stanford Foreign Language Oral…

This resource guide will help rural school districts with a low incidence of English language learners (ELLs) develop the capacity to build and implement a comprehensive program that meets both the academic and language proficiency needs of ELLs. Under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, ELLs must show increased academic achievement…

Presents a German test for English students. Errors in the placing of "nicht" are examined and categorized. Criticism of the objectivity of the findings are examined. The tests are seen as a measure of oral skills. Study is recommended of how to present most economically the various items. (IFS/WGA)

A study investigated the effects of grading practices on the oral production and attitudes of high school students in first-year German courses. The effectiveness of structured situational practice activities on oral communication with and without grading were examined. Results indicated that there were differences in proficiency as related to…

Administration of the Test of Spoken English (TSE) yields tapes of oral performance on items within six sections of the test. Trained scorers subsequently rate responses using four proficiency scales: pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and overall comprehensibility. This project examined the consistency of statistical relations among TSE scores with…

The report describes one segment of the Federal Language Testing Board's Unified Language Testing Plan (ULTP), the validation of the speaking proficiency test in Russian. The ULTP is a project to increase standardization of foreign language proficiency measurement and promote sharing of resources among testing programs in the federal government.…

The final project report on development of an advanced Russian language listening and reading proficiency test is presented. It summarizes activities in the second year of the project, including dissemination of summer 1985 test validation results to participating higher education institutions, item analyses, completion of the final test edition,…

A study investigated the attitudes of adult university students of English as a Second Language (ESL) toward use of closed captioned television (CCTV) as an instructional tool. Students at the intermediate (n=51) and advanced (n=55) levels of ESL study in classes using CCTV were administered a questionnaire concerning their perceptions of the…

Mexican university students enrolled in a general English course were administered a battery of tests including a reading comprehension test based on a Spanish text, one based on an English text, and the TEAL test battery of English language proficiency for adult students. Half the students were given an easy English text and a difficult Spanish…

This study examined first exposures to oral and written English from ages 1-16 years, surveying 212 Ming Chuan University (Taiwan) students. The survey asked about the language spoken at home; age at and context of hearing, reading, writing, and speaking the first English word; experiences with conversations in English; and problems learning…

This paper argues for considerably higher expectations for the qualifications of language teachers by focusing on what preparations could and should offer. Because efforts to address issues of teacher preparation confront tacit assumptions about language teaching, the paper draws on the experience of literature training and hiring as a parallel in…