In Ireland Irish is taught as a second language in all primary schools in English-speaking areas. A form of code cognition approach known as the A.B.C. method was in use in all schools for about forty years prior to the introduction of audiovisual methods between 1965-1970. This report gives the results of a survey carried out among teachers who…

Spanish students in four inner-city high schools were first tested for conceptual tempo and then given the Test of Oral Proficiency in Spanish (TOPS). It is concluded that speeded and timed tests not only allow impulsive examinees to answer too soon, but often pressure normally reflective examinees to respond impulsively. (EJS)

Reports on the progress being made in an attempt to establish a second language acquisition index of development that would gauge a learner's second language proficiency. A project was undertaken involving the analysis of 212 compositions written by university students of English as a second language. (CFM)

Recent reports and proposals for the improvement of foreign language education and general education (with implications for foreign language instruction) are examined and critiqued, and consideration is given to current developments for this field and the establishment of a national foundation for foreign languages and international studies. (CB)

Reviews effects on faculty, teaching assistants, curriculum, and students of the proficiency-based foreign language requirement instituted at the University of Pennsylvania. Although important and valuable changes have occurred in the language learning and teaching environment, caution is urged in creating realistic and well-understood standards…

Data from responses to a grammaticality judgement test by 26 learners of English as a second language at two proficiency levels were used to investigate syntactic acquisition. Four syntactic structures were examined. Results suggest that less proficient subjects use syntactic strategies, while more proficient learners use semantic-based…

Fifty-one adult Spanish speakers at three levels of ESL ability were tested in both their elicited imitation (production) and act-out (comprehension) of complex sentences that were structurally identical. Analysis of variance results indicate that production tests, not comprehension tests, principally evaluate a learner's structural knowledge.…

Data collected from both native and non-native speakers' linguistic performances in five request and seven apology situations revealed a systematic difference in length of utterance in speech acts by non-native speakers as compared to native speakers. Deviation from native norms of utterance length can cause pragmatic failure in several ways.…

Appropriate instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse children requires distinguishing among individual needs related to culture, language, poverty, mobility, and exceptionalities. Presented are suggestions regarding prereferral, assessment, curriculum, parental involvement, and program coordination for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and…

Learning a language is more than understanding grammar and being able to complete drills and exercises correctly. Other practice and activities which improve communications skills must be incorporated into language classrooms. (CB)

Describes a study of the development of a new oral proficiency test which could replace the existing English as a Foreign Language Oral Matriculation test in Israel. The deficiencies of the existing Oral Matriculation test are specified, and the components of the experimental test are described. (Author/SED)

EFL learners from three language institutes in Brazil answered the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning--SILL--to self-report how they go about learning English. They emerged as balanced users of various strategies with a tendency to use metacognitive and social strategies to learn the language. This tendency, further reinforced by factor…

This handbook for Iowa school districts was first published many years ago. Since that time, several significant sociopolitical and educational changes have occurred. For example, there has been an increase in the number of languages and cultures represented both in Iowa and in the political arenas of the nation. Immigrants and refugees from…

The mean scores of English Language Learners (ELL) and English Only (EO) students in 4th and 5th grade (N = 110), across the teacher-administered Grammar Skills Test, were examined for differences in participants' scores on assessments containing single-step directions and assessments containing multiple-step directions. The results indicated no…

This study investigated the types of preservice training received by Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) and assistant language teachers (ALTs) before participating in team teaching (TT), also assessing how they described their experiences with TT, the kinds of knowledge and experiences they believed should be included in teacher education,…