The program evaluated here involved a two-way exchange of students and teachers from a school in Mainz and two high schools in Madison, Wisconsin. Homestay and cultural touring were outstanding aspects of the program. To measure the impact of the program on American participants, tests and questionnaires were administered before and after the…

This report presents an overview of three major research projects on the instruction of French as a second language. The projects are being carried out in the schools of the Ottawa Roman Catholic Separate School Board, the Carleton Roman Catholic Separate School Board, and the Carleton and Ottawa Boards of Education. The projects are concerned…

The present paper discusses some linguistic correlates of early bilingualism, correlates which have implications for first cognitions about language. The paper also touches on the question of what linguistic environments are optimal for the very young child to acquire two languages fluently, testing the importance of a one-speaker/one-language…

This paper describes a procedure designed to enhance the effectiveness of teaching writing skills in intermediate and advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. The procedure consists of a correction sheet and a testing technique. The student prepares a written assignment which is corrected by the instructor with regard to the student's…

Early language aptitude tests were generally tests of ability in English or work-sample tests in the target language or an artificial language. Recent work has involved various correlational studies and factor analyses to determine what factors correlate most with success in foreign language learning. Approaches include: (1) correlations of…

The experimental test measures the ability of a subject to reconstruct obscured words by means of sentence analysis, carried out not as a separate academic task, but in the normal procedure of understanding what the sentence says. It is a task built on the assumption that the ability to handle reduced redundancy is a valid measure of linguistic…

The author feels that this study reaffirms the importance of attitude as one of the factors explaining the degree of proficiency a student achieves in learning a second language. Four groups of students representing 80 countries were administered (1) a direct questionnaire on which they were asked to rate the importance of 14 possible reasons for…

Stresses the need to synthesize techniques and methodologies, and to establish a central focus for beginning and intermediate programs of foreign language education in schools, higher education, and adult education programs. General conclusions and priorities are also offered. (EJS)

A study based on two hypotheses: (1) The cognitive and academic effects of bilingualism are mediated by the levels of competence attained in the first and second languages, and (2) the development of skills in a second language is a function of skills already developed in the first language. (AMH)

Research at Queens College involving 116 English as a second language students revealed that proficiency in English, measured by a variety of tests, is more closely related to amount of formal instruction than to years spent in an English-speaking country, although a significant relationship exists between proficiency and each factor. (CFM)

A survey exploring important aspects of language learning as perceived by university students (N=1,135) enrolled in required foreign language courses revealed that, while students most highly valued oral proficiency, teachers appeared to value testing and evaluation practices most highly. (CB)

Some aspects of second language referential communication are analyzed in an experimental setting. The experimental task required subjects, who were visually separated but allowed to converse freely, to reach agreement on the ordering of a set of abstract shapes over a number of trials. (Author/LMO)

Study of the relationship between attitudes of native speakers and improved nonnative performance in Spanish and the relationship between increased degree of bilingualism and positive evaluations of nonnative speech suggested that language background has some influence on the perception of others' level of fluency. (CB)

Considers current research on reading in a second language from five points of view: (1) the reader's role in light of new models of language and textual meaning; (2) revised definitions of textual meaning and reader processing; (3) reader processing of schemata; (4) relationship between second-language competency and reader strategies; and (5)…

Discusses the issue of oral communication tests through an account of an oral test administered to nearly 1,000 students at Yarmouk University Language Center. The ways in which the institution attempted to overcome problems in the oral test's feasibility, validity, and reliability are presented. (Author/CB)