This study examined the construct validity of the "e-rater"® automated essay scoring engine as an alternative to human scoring in the context of TOEFL® essay writing. Analyses were based on a sample of students who repeated the TOEFL within a short time period. Two "e-rater" scores were investigated in this study, the first…

This paper examines the intersection between heritage language (HL) learning and the development of English and Farsi deep lexical knowledge. The study compares two groups of Farsi-English bilingual children with different HL educational backgrounds and a group of English-only children by testing their paradigmatic-syntagmatic knowledge of words.…

This report summarizes the 2007-2008 program evaluation of professional development opportunities for teachers of English as a second language (ESL) in Austin Independent School District's Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) program.

A study was conducted at the International University of Japan to see if second language (L2) working capacity correlates with L2 reading ability in advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The study consisted of a set of memory tests (Simple Digit, Simple Word, and Complex Span Test) and a set of measures of reading skills given to…

A study of differential brain hemisphere involvement in second language acquisition is reported. The study examined the idea that the right hemisphere is progressively more involved the later the second language is acquired. Various techniques for monitoring hemispheric functioning are described, especially the Evoked Potential (EP) technique. In…

This study investigated the relationship between aptitude, as measured by Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) scores, and oral proficiency as measured by the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) scores of 72 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents who completed basic foreign language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI).…

After discussing the ties between language teaching and second language acquisition research, the present paper reviews the role that second language acquisition research has played on two recent pedagogical proposals. First, communicative language teaching, advocated in the early eighties, in which focus on the code was excluded, and then the…

The Bilingual Reading Study employs several measures of oral language proficiency: (1) a standardized oral language proficiency test, the Language Assessment Scales (LAS); (2) teacher ratings on the Student Operational Language Assessment Scale (SOLA); (3) teacher ratings on the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) Oral Language…

This study tested hypotheses on the relationship between achievement of proficiency in spoken Japanese and the variables of ease of adjustment to life in Japan; effects of childhood multilingualism, musical background, and previous level of formal education; and deliberately delaying the introduction of kanji (Chinese ideographs) into intensive…

Discusses three possible sources of nonrandom but extraneous variance in self-reported attitude data, and demonstrates that these data may be surreptitious measures of verbal intelligence and language proficiency. (Author/AM)

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)

Analysis of basilang speech (in terms of word order, reference to time, and reference to space) of Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese speakers of English as a second language indicated that oriental subjects tended not to use prepositions and that Spanish-speaking subjects tended to use "in" to express most locative meanings. (Author/CB)

European and American students at the University of Bergen, Norway, were found to be more integratively motivated to learn Norwegian than Middle Eastern, African, and Asian students, who were found to be more instrumentally motivated. A weak positive correlation between integrative motivation and language proficiency and a negative correlation…

College students (N=60) majoring in French, German, or Spanish took Self-Appraisal of Speaking Proficiency and State Anxiety Inventory before being assessed by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Results showed that anxiety did not exert as much influence on scores as ability did. However, once…

English for academic-purposes courses are often regarded as self-contained entities. Sufficient attention is paid neither to interrelations with other aspects of language teaching nor to relevant sources of research. Suggested areas of future investigation include language-teaching research and classroom research. (Author/CB)