Social norms, situational and geographic considerations, formality of spoken language desired, and educational attitudes ranging from normative to permissive inhibit the determination of instructional criteria. (Text is in French.) (Author/MSE)

Partial results are presented of a study investigating the relationship between an oral interview and a cloze test in Hebrew and focusing on issues related to the oral interview procedure. An oral interview speaking test and cloze tests were administered to 106 students of Hebrew at the University of Minnesota. The taped interviews were rated by…

Research on the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development is reviewed, and two complementary models of bilingualism are developed to account for research results. It is suggested that research since 1960 shows a positive relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development, at least for some types of bilingualism. The advantage or…

Describes techniques for measuring and developing the syntactic fluency of students learning French. (P M P)

Accepting that language diversity is functionally related to other variables characterizing human societies, much discussion stems from the advantages or disadvantageous nature of language diversity in terms of national development and national unity. To discover ways of measuring language diversity would help, in part, to solve the language…

Predictors of relative clause production in adult second language acquisition were examined through a replication and extension of a study by Schachter (1974). The present study is different in that it was based on oral instead of written production and it was designed to examine avoidance with the consideration that avoidance presupposed choice.…

Five language assessment tests (LATs) are used for identifying children of limited English speaking ability in Texas: Basic Inventory of Natural Language; Bilingual Syntax Measure; Language Assessment Scales; Primary Acquisition of Language; and Schutt Primary Language Indicator Test. Interrelationships between LATs and relationships between the…

The state of the art of research in second language acquisition is reviewed. A framework is first established for the examination of second language learning. The concept of proficiency is addressed with respect to its theoretical basis, rating scales, formal tests, and interlanguage studies. The social context of second language acquisition is…

This paper attempts to provide a framework within which the terminology used to talk about the learner's interlanguage may be defined so as to represent categories of types of interlanguage phenomena which are often discussed by teachers and researchers interested in second language acquisition. Several distinct types of "communication…

A language-learning system is described in which individual practice in the learning laboratory is the central activity, both of learning and of testing. The system includes as one component an audio/visual device controlled by a digital computer. The system is designed to achieve a high quality of instruction by good management of the student's…

Agrees with Oller and Perkins (1978) that correlation and causation are not equivalent and that correlations between invalid measures yield no important conclusions. In addition, Oller and Perkins' arguments against the validity of self-report measurements are examined, as well as evidence for a causal relation between variance in affective…

Research was carried out on Japanese children in the United States to test the hypothesis of early age sensitivity in second language learning. The results did not support this hypothesis. Acquisition proceeded at a fast rate initially, but the amounts of gain diminished with time. (CFM)

Three tests of self-assessment of oral skills were compared with a standardized measure of listening comprehension and oral expression, CEEL's test N73, parts 2 and 3. Results are provided. (KM)

A study was undertaken at the Canadian Forces Base Saint-Jean to determine whether sex is a significant factor in second language learning. Subjects were 200 females and 200 males, all francophone privates between 18 and 22; no significant differences between males and females as learners were found. (CFM)

This paper reports evidence supporting the use of the cloze procedure technique as a reliable way of assessing the listening proficiency of foreign students of English. Evidence was gathered from two small-scale experiments. (CHK)