This paper focuses on the current developments in regard to the assessment of language proficiency in children who are from non-English speaking backgrounds. Instruments currently used to assess language proficiency for placement in English programs usually fail validity and reliability tests. These tests usually measure formal aspects of language…

The objective of this course is to enable students to negotiate a business transaction directly in English. The proposed setting is a conference room and the interlocutors are upper middle class professional people. The learners are students of business administration in France who already possess some knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar.…

Differences between Cree and North American middle class patterns of interactional etiquette are discussed. Interactional etiquette is defined as the verbal and non-verbal conventions that are involved in communication among individuals, including greeting, leave taking, asking questions, disagreement, and interruption. The Cree communicate more…

This journal (usually published twice a year) is a publication of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), a nonprofit professional organization of language teachers dedicated to the improvement of language learning and teaching in Japan. JALT's publications and events serve as vehicles for the exchange of new ideas and techniques, and…

Selected papers include: "From Core to Periphery: A Study on the Directionality of Syntactic Change in Japanese" (Kaoru Horie); "On the Extension of Body-Part Nouns to Object-Part Nouns and Spatial Adpositions" (Yo Matsumoto); "Noun Classes: Language Change and Learning" (Maria Polinsky, Dan Jackson);…

Investigates the relationship between age of arrival in the second-language environment and a preference for prosodic versus syntactic cues to sentence interpretation in English. The study found that older English-as-a-Second-Language learners were just as likely as the younger ones to attend to prosody rather than syntax. (43 references)…

This paper reports on the creation of an instrument for use by instructors, students, or researchers to identify, measure or promote critical thinking (CT) in online asynchronous discussions (OADs). Four models of CT were reviewed, synthesised, analysed, and evaluated to clarify the construct. Indicators of specific cognitive processes related to…

The textbook surveys what is known about language and of the methods used by linguists in arriving at that knowledge. Each chapter addresses an aspect of linguistics, reviewing current knowledge and providing study questions, discussion topics and projects, and a list of additional reading. Chapter topics include: the origins of language;…

Spanish/English bilingual kindergarten teachers and parents serving as instructional aides in the same bilingual education classrooms served as subjects in a study on classroom interaction. Audio/video recordings of small-group instruction sessions of teachers and parents were subjected to discourse analysis. A point of interest was the…

These two issues of the journal "CLAVE" contain these articles in Spanish with one article in English: "La ensenanza de la lingua materna" (Pablo Arnaez); "Saben resumir los alumnos universitarios de nuevo ingreso?" (Marisol Garcia); "El desempeno en la escritura de cartas argumentativas y cuentos en alumnos de octavo grado" (Yolanda Perez, Maria…

Papers on aspects of pragmatics include: "Pragmatics and Language Learning" (Lawrence F. Bouton); "Pragmatics and Language Teaching: Bringing Pragmatics and Pedagogy Together" (Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig); "Cross-Cultural Communication and Interlanguage Pragmatics: American vs. European Requests" (Jasone Cenoz, Jose F.…

The question of the relationship between children's play and more formal, literate uses of language is explored in the 9 studies described in this volume. Chapter titles and authors are as follows: (1) "The Influence of Discourse Content and Context on Preschoolers' Use of Language" (Lucia A. French, Joan Lucariello, Susan Seidman, and Katherine…

A selection of 27 papers presented at the 1977 TESOL convention is presented. Part one contains the four plenary-session papers which present: a comprehensive view of the teaching-learning process and related interdisciplinary research; the scope of research on language teaching; some of the larger issues in bilingual education; and a perspective…

Understanding spontaneous speech is a very difficult task for many foreign students. They must be taught to use all the ethnographic cues available to enable them to predict the likely content of a text. They must predict not only the factual content of spoken language but also the interactional structuring. (Author/CFM)

This paper assembles innovative ideas from several disciplines and offers an integrated discussion for improving TESL/TEFL curriculum design, specifically for individuals from peripheral social contexts and to address the global demand for ESL/EFL teachers. Overall, the suggested innovations serve to: (1) increase program accessibility to…