The relationship between the reading comprehension and writing production of non-English speakers was examined in an exploratory study to determine whether knowledge gained through reading academic texts can facilitate the writing of compositions. The 10 subjects were enrolled in a developmental English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) university-level…

This report describes the development, construction, and validation of the Preliminary Chinese Proficiency Test (Pre-CPT), a standardized, nationally-normed test of listening and reading comprehension for beginning-level native English-speaking learners of Chinese as a second language. The Pre-CPT was designed as a lower-level version of the…

A preliminary report on a long-term empirical investigation of advanced language acquisition in a study-abroad environment is presented. The project is based on an American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) longitudinal study of the gains in Russian language competence demonstrated by American students in semester-long language programs in…

The 12 tests cited in this bibliography are used to assess students' knowledge of German as a second language. Many of the tests described are included because one or more of their subtests measure some aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. The tests are primarily for secondary or higher education students; a few are used to…

Traditional methods of both first and second language teaching have commonly relied on simplification, restricting the range of language forms and functions to be learned and then practicing those forms to achieve mastery. These methods, however, fail to consider seriously the questions of how language develops in natural contexts, what language…

The problem of lack of information regarding the relationship among second language students' language ability, metacognition, and reading materials is examined. The study investigates how reading strategies transfer from the native language to the second language within an interactive and compensatory processing model framework. It examines the…

The use of prepositions, past tense verb forms, and subject-verb agreement in the English of a Korean college student of English for foreign students is analyzed in the context of Krashen's Monitor Model theory of language acquisition. The student was interviewed, asked to give a free writing sample, asked to read his own writing, and asked to…

This study investigated the multidimensional nature of language preference, language confidence, self-identity, and various attitudes and stereotypes among a sample of Polish immigrants to Canada. A total of 320 questionnaires were used in the study, 100 written in English and 220 in Polish; of this total, 248 were returned for a response rate of…

Based on results of a project undertaken in Finland over many years, this definition of transfer is offered: Transfer is both a facilitating and limiting factor which provides one basis for the learner to form and test hypotheses about the second language he or she is learning. Theory and research on transfer are discussed as they relate to item…

The study of the spontaneous generation of a pidgin by two children, five and six years old, to accommodate their communication needs when neither had fully acquired his native language, is described. The children were an African native of a Swahili-speaking family and an American child living in the African village. The new language created was a…

An analysis of the objectives of modern language instruction expands on earlier work concerning the "Threshhold Level" of language learning. The first part outlines a model of language instructional objectives more complex and encompassing than those of the threshhold level and examines the nature and instructional incidence of each component of…

This paper describes accounts of two kindergarten-aged children learning English as a second language (ESL) to demonstrate that exposure is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for acquiring a second language. The 10-month histories of "L," a quick and highly successful learner, and "M," a less successful, much slower…

English proficiency of Thai university students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) was studied in relation to attitudinal scores on social, economic, travel, or prestige scales. Secondarily, the subjects' attitudes toward their native group and toward the target language group, and their motives for learning English were studied in…

A study was undertaken to investigate the variation in the speech of child second language learners as a function of the different discourse constraints imposed by three participant structures: narrator-audience, child-adult conversation, and child-child conversation. The subjects were 18 children aged 7 to 12, temporary residents in the United…

This paper describes an experiment in which the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure, which has been used successfully for scoring sentence complexity in child language, was examined for its usefulness when applied to adult learners of English as a Second Language. The technique is based upon a developmental scale of syntax acquisition within…