Compares the Paris Chamber of Commerce Exams (both certificate and diploma levels) and the ACTFL Guidelines for language proficiency for the benefit of language teachers. Teaching strategies are suggested for preparing students for the Chamber of Commerce exams. (LMO)

Writing for the BBC World Service "Short Story" Program provides English as a second language students with the necessary conditions for "authentic writing," namely authentic and communicative writing practice, encouragement of language acquisition, and improvement of the teacher student relationship. (CB)

The creative writing of English poetry by English as a second language college students helps them to: overcome initial psychological inhibitions to language learning; stimulate interest and involvement in study; develop a means of self-expression; and prepare for study in other areas. (Author/CB)

If literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, in the context of Hong Kong, literacy is more commonly known as language proficiency. The introduction of the Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme in English (HKERS) in 1991 aimed to motivate the students to read and thus enhance their English proficiency. Yet, as of 2001, after a decade since…

Throughout the 1990s, legislation increasingly required programs receiving federal funding to be more accountable for what they did. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 further emphasized the levels of accountability to ensure student success in schools. For limited English proficient (LEP) education, these requirements have intensified the…

Rauding theory states that two factors, accuracy and rate, explain nearly all the variance in the general reading ability of American schoolchildren (Carver, 1999). Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and regression, this dissertation investigated to what extent the Rauding model could be applied to 92 Japanese university aged young adults…

This document is a comprehensive, annotated series of resource lists designed to assist in selecting resources for the senior high English as a Second Language (ESL) program. This source book is divided into five levels. Level 1 is intended for students who are acquiring literacy for the first time or who have had significant gaps in previous…

Articles in this special issue include the following: "Learning to Write in a Second Language: Two Decades of Research" (Alister Cumming); "Some Steps Towards a Socio-Cognitive Interpretation of Second Language Composition Processes" (Julio Delarios Roca, Liz Murphy Liz); "Trends in the Conceptualizations of Second Language Composing Strategies: A…

This digest discusses the contextual factors that affect students' learning of a second language. These individual, social, and societal factors can be considered from the perspective of the language, the learner, and the learning process. These perspectives are discussed as they relate to learning any second language, with a particular focus on…

Examines the intersection of learner identity, social position, and second-language acquisition. The article, which focuses on a case study of a white woman learning Japanese in Japan, presents a conversation between the learner and her professor to show the dynamic coconstruction of identity and sociolinguistic proficiency within conversational…

Data from an auditory lexical decision experiment with English-Dutch bilinguals are compared with data from a similar experiment using visual lexical decision to determine the effect of language proficiency, mode of presentation, and cognateness of lexical items on lexical processing. The results indicate significant within and between-language…

Proposes a variety of conversational training that maximizes learner autonomy and focuses on sociocultural competence in speaking. Students recorded role-plays that required good sociolinguistic knowledge and then compared the discourse generated with native speaker equivalents. The future of conversational training at third level is discussed in…

Discusses a survey conducted to assess the correlation between student concepts of an ideal graduate linguist and actual language ability. Little agreement exists among students about what skills an ideal graduate should possess. There is a high level of complacency among respondents regarding their own language ability. (three references) (CK)

Studies the long-term effects of transitional (TBE) and maintenance (MBE) bilingual instructional programs on development of native and English oral language proficiency for 125 TBE-instructed Vietnamese and 298 MBE-instructed Hispanic American children from kindergarten through second grade. Discusses significant findings on positive and negative…

Numerous reports and articles have decried the mediocrity of U.S. students' foreign language skills and have called for improved language education. One study that looked at foreign language education in 19 countries suggests several characteristics of successful foreign language programs: starting early, providing an articulated framework,…