This research describes strategies used to improve student achievement in a foreign language class through the use of effective study skills. The targeted population included high school students in a first year foreign language class. Evidence for the problem of low achievement came from teacher observations, student surveys, and low assessment…

This study examined learners' productive competence in collocations and idioms by means of their performance on two interdependent tasks. Participants were two groups of English as a Foreign Language undergraduate and graduate students from the English department at Jordan's Yarmouk University. The two tasks included the following: a multiple…

This digest discusses a project conducted in the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, that sought to integrate effective practices in literacy education, an empirically based cooperative learning model, and a classroom management model to help teachers develop the English and Spanish language proficiency of their students. The…

Revised version of a paper presented at the Fifth Symposium of the PILEI, Programa Interamericano de Linguistica y Ensenanza de Idiomas (Inter-American Program on Linguistics and Foreign Language Instruction), Sao Paolo, Brazil, January 11, 1969. (DS)

The ability of two groups of different language proficiency to make appropriate grammatical judgments and correct sentences was analyzed. With increased proficiency, students moved from a general grammatical ability to an ability to identify and correct details. Results are discussed in terms of concepts of implicit/explicit knowledge and…

Discusses the distinctions between the acquisition of a second language and of a foreign language. Proposes a tridimensional model for all varietal manifestations of foreign, second, and native language acquisition. Describes Singapore English and the English used by a group of Chinese-medium educated Singaporeans in terms of the model. (EKN)

Classroom interactional patterns by language choice and speech partner of six four-year old Spanish-preferring children in a bilingual preschool, observed over one year, indicated that those children using relatively more English with peers in the classroom and increasing their English usage over time generally showed the greatest increases in…

Examines the differential use of formal explicit knowledge and intuitive implicit knowledge in a second language grammaticality judgement tasks. (Author/AM)

Describes a research project based on a questionnaire designed to determine the language needs in French of English-speaking Canadian diplomats assigned overseas. (AM)

Critiques the "Report of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies." It is indicated that the crux of the national problem was overlooked. A proposal is made that a six-year program of coordinated language instruction is possible and would accomplish the result desired by the Commission. (Author/AMH)

Discusses various test types, and specifically the placement test for German as a foreign language at Bonn University, describing the segments: multiple-choice questions and "fill-in" dictations based on given texts. Test content varies according to students' nationality. Grading procedures are also described. (IFS/WGA)

Argues that tests have always been used as a means of political and social control. Maintains that test results are unreliable, especially at the extremes, that their predictive power is weak and that language testers need to be skeptical and need to insist on complete information on candidates' backgrounds for selection decision making. (10…

Examines perceived competence in a second language (L2) as a function of actual competence and language anxiety. Anglophone college students with varied competency in French completed scales of language anxiety and a modified version of the "can-do" test, which assessed their self-perceptions of competence on 26 French tasks. Findings indicate…