This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…

A study examined the relative contributions of age, sex, and education to verbal and nonverbal fluency in a normal population. Sixty-seven subjects aged 12 to 71 years performed paper-and-pencil tasks proven to be dependent on the right and left hemispheric modalities of the frontal lobes. Multiple t-tests were applied to determine whether…

Examines whether significantly high correlations exist among language skills in second year students as measured by their final exams. Results support previous research suggesting the existence of shared language aspects across skills. However, each language skill appears to retain enough unique variance that the score in one skill cannot…

Four issues concerning aspects of the validity of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery are examined: (1) whether the subtests assess the attributes claimed; (2) the relationship of the subtests to higher order constructs; (3) whether the strategy for measuring affective variables influences correlations with achievement measures; and (4)…

Native (n=46) and nonnative (n=27) speakers of English enrolled in university English courses reacted to 15 prompts from essay tests. Nonnative speakers chose prompts on topics of interest to them; with topics of equal interest, they chose the prompts offering the greatest scope for doing a lot of writing. (six references) (JR)

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 investigated the levels of language proficiency and language anxiety of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The goals of the study were: (1) to determine the effect of gender differences and learner specialization on levels of English language anxiety; (2) to study the relationship between gender differences and academic…