Reports a study which examined the ability of adult immigrants to communicate as they were completing a 30-week, 900-hour second language program and then again six months later. Two cohorts of learners were interviewed: one comprised of immigrants from Southeast Asia and the other of Poles and Latin Americans. (Author/SED)

Describes a study which measures the threshold of second language reading competence and explains its nature. Results indicate that the threshold is reflected in a 65-70% score on the reading section of the First Certificate of English exam and that the most important element for text interpretation is vocabulary. (SED)

Reviews earlier studies of the effect of student background knowledge on reading comprehension and then reports on a third investigation into the same effect. Concludes that the test results obtained in the study can be accounted for in terms of an interaction between background knowledge and linguistic proficiency. (Author/SED)

This paper describes two different English programs for international students at the American Language Institute in San Diego, California. One is English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and the other is Intensive English for Communication (IEC). The paper focuses on one teacher's experiences teaching IEC writing after 2 years of teaching EAP…

This book summarizes the research on adult English language learners (ELLs) reading English, offering English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers and administrators suggestions for instruction and noting areas where further research is needed. It is based on an annotated bibliography of research on reading development for adult learners of English…

This study explored the relationship between discourse topics and interlanguage variation, describing the following: relationships between discourse topics and a second language learner's participation in native speaker/non-native speaker (NS-NNS) conversation; relationships between discourse topics and the grammatical complexity, accuracy, and…

Statistics indicate a growing interest in the study of Latin across the country. In elementary and secondary schools, it is taught as an end in itself and as a means of improving the English language skills and the linguistic background of Hispanic students. The American Classical League supports this revival. (PMJ)

Studies are reported which attempt to discover the exact level of second language proficiency reached by students in second language immersion programs, with emphasis on analysis of error. (RM)

A study compared the pragmatic performance, using the Adolescent Pragmatics Screening Scale, between two groups of students (n=14) who had been enrolled in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes for varying lengths of time. Results yielded information about the rate at which Latino bilingual students' English pragmatic skills emerged.…

Reports on a study of high school students on the relationship between the types of listening comprehension strategies used, the frequency of their use, and the differences in reported use across four variables: level of language proficiency, gender, listening ability, and learning style. (Author/JL)

Examines the inferencing procedures used by university-level second language (L2) learners of French to guess at the meaning of unfamiliar words in a written L2 text. The article combines qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and compares the strategies used by students assessed as high or low in French proficiency relative to their…

Explores conceptual syntheses advancing second language (L2) word recognition research and uncovers agendas relating to cross-linguistic examinations of L2 processing in a cohort of undergraduate students in France. Describes connections between word recognition and reading, overviews the connectionist construct, and illustrates cross-linguistic…

Examined the validity of the pragmatic approach to test difficulty put forward by Child (1987). This study investigated whether the Child discourse-type hierarchy predicts text difficulty for second-language readers. Results suggested that this hierarchy may provide a sound basis for developing foreign-language tests when it is applied by trained…

Studies the effect of vocabulary glossing on reading comprehension in second-language learning. Findings reveal that there was a significant effect for glossing but no significant interactions between the treatment and any of the other variables, i.e., psychological type, tolerance of ambiguity, proficiency, frequency of gloss use, perceived value…

Describes and assesses current and past communicative language learning exercises used by the Foreign Service Institute's Russian Program to "break down" classroom walls with activities encouraging language acquisition, including immersion experiences, internships, speaking tracks, and language/area integration. Sample activities are…