Examined the magnitude of the contributions that motivation and attitudes make to achievement in the second language in he research conducted by Gardner and associates. Meta-analysis indicates the relationship of second language achievement to the five attitude/motivation variables from Gardner's socioeductional model. (Author/VWL)

A study of 220 communication strategies used by 12 Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language learners indicated that the frequency, type, and effectiveness of strategies employed by learners varied according to their proficiency level and the language distance between the learners' native and second languages. (28 references) (Author/CB)

This study examined the receptive vocabulary of 102 first-, third-, and sixth-grade Spanish/English bilingual students of Hispanic origin. It found that, although students in all three grade levels functioned comparably well on the Spanish instruments, performance on the English instruments increased with grade level. (41 references) (MDM)

This paper examined the assessment of second-language proficiency in 157 research articles published in 5 language journals from 1988 through 1992, finding 4 major conventions for the assessment of language proficiency: (1) impressionistic judgment; (2) institutional status; (3) in-house measures; and (4) standardized test scores. (64 references)…

Investigated how well nonnative speakers (NNSs) could modify their output toward comprehensibility when interacting with native speakers (NSs) and NNSs, noting how often modified comprehensible output (MCO) was other- or self-initiated. Picture-dictation and opinion-exchange task data indicated that most repairs were self-initiated. NNS-NNS…

Results of a diagnostic test revealed that Thai students have no more trouble in learning English prepositions than others learning English as a second language; all the groups had difficulty. Error analysis was found to be just as effective in explaining mistakes as contrastive analysis. (AG)

Reports the results of a study which sought to investigate the validity of the oral interview in testing language proficiency, in particular that of adult students of English as a Second Language. (Author/AM)

Questions the validity of current measurement instruments or techniques which purport to assess affective variables, and relates this to the question of correlation between measures of affective variables and attained language proficiency. (AM)

Investigation of the linguistic features lost in oral French over a vacation period by English-speaking ninth graders (N=89) revealed significant reductions in total time, speaking time, number of pauses, quantity of production, and grammatical accuracy on tasks requiring production of discourse, suggesting a general deterioration in language…

Examines the writing strategies of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) student writers at different levels of ESL instruction. Results indicate that native and non-native writers had many strategies in common, but ESL learners were less inhibited by attempts to correct their work. Little correlation was found among English proficiency, writing…

Describes a study of the effects on second language attrition of attitudes, motivations, and reported language use by learners during a six-month period after the completion of an intensive French course. (SED)

Explores the relationship between student participation in the English as a second language classroom and proficiency in English, use of the target language outside the classroom, and field sensitivity. Results of cloze tests and in some cases, oral interviews, indicate no significant relationship. These findings are discussed with respect to the…

Conducted experiment to determine how the presence of sandhi-variation, a common characteristic of spoken English that reduces the perceptual saliency of many of its features, affects the comprehensibility of English unit. Results indicated that sandhi-variation is an important input-intake filter for English learners but not for those whose…

Analysis of the keyed responses of items in three English-as-a-Second-Language reading comprehension tests focused on the form and source of information and on the frequency with which the information appeared in the text. Analysis of the results found that these facets were differentially related to the item score at different proficiency levels.…