The results of a survey of 180 part-time students' opinions on the standard of English in Hong Kong, on governmental efforts to improve the level of English in Hong Kong, and on how returning Hong Kong to China in 1997 will effect the standard of English are reported. The students were enrolled in a 6-year course in Chinese/English/Translation at…

Students of foreign languages insist on seeing the evidence that foreign language skills have something to do with getting jobs in the "real world." Evidence is being ammassed which does show this to be true. Several studies have revealed that American firms are looking for qualified personnel who possess language skills. A survey was initiated at…

A report is presented of a survey conducted in the fall of 1977 among 185 representative foreign language supervisors, teachers on all levels, and teacher trainers. The purpose of the survey was to determine what projects and research in the area of curriculum, instruction, and classroom management were most needed and should therefore be…

"Linguistic ability" is a widely misused term in foreign language literature. This confusion prompted an investigation into language aptitude testing, the specific goals of which included determining: the distribution of language aptitude across ability range; the validity of Pimsleur's suggestions of combined verbal and auditory scores;…

Designed to ascertain whether advanced students could apply language skills acquired through a minimum of three years of study to a practical purpose such as an academic subject, this report describes and evaluates a 2-year research project involving the teaching of history in French or Spanish in a number of Virginia high schools. Following a…

The introduction to this handbook for teachers and administrators in bilingual education programs states: "Half of the children in the world are bilingual, and approximately one fourth of the people in the United States can communicate in more than one language. About ten percent of our population speaks a language other than English natively. For…

This document summarizes the results of an open-ended questionnaire sent to teachers of English as a second language concerning the education of immigrant children newly arrived in Canada. Rather than in statistical form, the results are in the form of a general discussion of statements made by the teachers on various topics. Initial consideration…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate French programs in Alberta. Evaluation teams visited schools in four jurisdictions; each school jurisdiction provided a representative sample of 50 non-Francophone students at each of the grades 6, 9, and 11, and a sample of 25 dropouts from the program in each of the grades 6 and 11. Tests and…

This paper presents the results of the work of nine teacher researchers who took an in-depth look at instructional practices and beliefs about oral language and its assessment. There are three sets of research questions: (1) How do teachers and students believe oral instruction should be handled in the classroom and to what extent do the beliefs…

Using a Vygotskian perspective, this study investigated the possibility of secondary school second language students providing scaffolding for each other's learning during dyadic verbal interaction on a dictogloss task. Participants in the study were 19 English-as-a-Second-Language students from China, Hong Kong, and Korea, who studied at a girl's…

Two types of contextualized input in prosody training were investigated for 28 advanced L2 speakers of English (L1 Chinese). Their oral presentations provided training materials. Native-speakers (NSs) of English provided global prosody ratings, and participants completed questionnaires on perceived training effectiveness. Two groups received…

Bernhardt (2003) claims that half of the variance in second language (L2) reading is accounted for by first language literacy (20%) and second language knowledge (30%), and that one of the central goals of current L2 reading research should be to investigate the 50% of variance that remains unexplained. Part of this variance takes consists of…

The present study examines the possible effects of bilinguality on third language learning among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with a focus on reading comprehension proficiency achievement. This study is a longitudinal survey of EFL learners in Urmia University in Azerbaijan, Iran, during 2002-2004. It compared 56 Turkish-Persian…

A study examining the perceptions of college students in beginning foreign language classes toward various teaching discovered a discrepancy between the value students and teachers ascribe to communicative language teaching. The study was conducted at the University of South Carolina, in two classes where a variety of teaching techniques were…

An investigation was undertaken to assess student attitudes toward learning and using French and their reasons for studying it. It was felt that a more thorough investigation of these issues might help to broaden knowledge of some of the non-educational, social consequences of immersion programs. English-speaking students in sixth and eleventh…