The efficiency of oral error correction was investigated as a function of 35 Dutch-speaking high school seniors' individual characteristics of aptitude, motivation, anxiety, and previous achievement. Results were mixed but generally suggest that error correction does not lead to across-the-board improvement of achievement. (Contains 55…

Study examined transfer of learners' first language (L1) orthographic processing strategies to second language processing. Two groups learning Japanese, differing by L1 writing system (phonographic vs. morphographic), were tested on ability to represent novel kanji characters in short-term memory. Results indicate learners with a morphographic L1…

Provides support for a theoretical orientation toward viewing dialog as both a means of communication and a cognitive tool. Data to support this position come from an analysis of language-related episodes isolated in the dialog of two grade 8 French immersion students as they carry out a jigsaw task. (Author/VWL)

Draws on a case study of six student teachers in secondary school and their codeswitching between first language and second language over the course of 14 foreign language lessons, where French was the second language and English was the first language. Describes how student teachers were exposed to theoretical positions and empirical studies on…

Suggests having foreign language students write business letters to stimulate interest in developing writing skills. This project gives the students the opportunity of travelling abroad vicariously and to collect souvenirs while improving their communication skills in the foreign language. (CFM)

Contrastive analysis of Spanish and English reveals the importance of giving as much attention to suprasegmentals as to segmentals in the teaching of pronunciation. (CFM)

Examines the effects of aptitude, field independence, attitude, and strategy use upon four areas of language achievement: formal/oral, formal/written, functional/oral, and functional/written. Test results indicated that aptitude and field independence are related, as are strategy use and attitude; only aptitude and strategy use, however, affect…

A summary is presented of the views of foreign language experts concerning the foreign language requirements for preparation toward liberal arts degrees in schools and colleges, and their opinions on what should be priority goals of foreign language departments. Questionnaire responses were obtained from 47 foreign language specialists. (SW)

A review of research regarding the connection between intelligence and language proficiency precedes the description of an investigation indicating that inductive reasoning and intelligence can be clearly distinguished from general language proficiency. A language proficiency and reasoning test in English is appended. (CB)

Describes the uses for and advantages of a computerized foreign language/ English dictionary. Using Russian as an example, the additional teaching functions such a dictionary could provide include: (1) word frequency; (2) etymological information; (3) word family; (4) tergo listings; (5) synonym listings; (6) thesaurus listings; and (7) literary…

College students (N=180), in first-semester and second-semester Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were each given a short text and one of five assessment tasks to determine if comprehension of the subjunctive is necessarily due to prior instruction in its form and use or can be achieved without instruction. Text and…

Describes a study done to identify those syntactic structures that effectively communicate ideas in written German composition of fourth-semester students. Also identified were grammatical structures that writers can control on a syntactic level, but which they do not employ as a communicative strategy. (Author/SED)

Discusses the "fill-in" test, explains how to construct it, and gives statistical evidence for its effectiveness in testing English as a foreign language reading comprehension. In addition, a comparison is made between this test and the more conventional multiple-choice and cloze tests, citing the advantages and disadvantages of each.…

Studies the relationship between Dutch students' attitudes toward German, the course material, and the teacher and students' achievements in German. Results show that students having positive attitudes achieved more than those with negative attitudes and that students enrolled in a communicative course had more positive attitudes than those in a…

Reports the results of a cross-sectional study of 67 short autobiographical essays by U.S. students of Russian at 4 levels. Linguistic measures differentiating the groups included fluency and syntactic fluency, but not accuracy. The article recommends further research into second- and foreign- language learning writing that accounts for different…