Reports on a study into the perceived problems that foreign graduate students in engineering pose to engineering faculty, as well as the solutions to those problems. Summarizes survey responses relating to communication and language difficulties, program and academic performance, and social and cultural factors. (TW)

English-as-a-second-language programs must have as their central intent the enabling of people to make meaning in English. Dimensions of context and vision and the tensions which may exist between them are explored, and an effort is made to point the way to curriculum as human praxis. (Author/CB)

The English section of the Canadian government's advanced language training program uses andragogy through such activities as an authentic weekly review and planning meeting, where French-speaking managers and professionals practice their language skills while participating in the management of their own learning. (Author/CB)

Describes advantages and disadvantages of computer-assisted foreign language testing, including unique capabilities of the computer, types of tests possible, limitations, problems, and language skill testing. The Spanish Computer Adaptive Placement Examination, developed at Brigham Young University (Utah), is described. (CB)

Analysis of content area writing of Arab university students (N=96) studying English for Academic Purposes revealed problems in three major categories: sentence structure, paragraph structure, and content. Weakness in foreign language writing skills appeared related to weakness in mastery of Arabic writing skills. (Author/CB)

Suggests that business communication students learn a foreign language, concentrating on conversation more than reading, in order to interact more effectively with foreign clients. (SRT)

Reports on evaluation studies of the French proficiency of graduates of early- and late-entry immersion programs in Ottawa and Carleton, describes the tests used, and interprets results. The report also examines the students' perceptions of their ability to participate effectively in out-of-school situations using all four language skills. (MSE)

Study considers teachers' evaluations of students who perform equivalently in written academic work but who have distinct speech varieties including Spanish-influenced English. Despite length of teaching experience and teacher ethnicity, all teachers favored the non-Spanish-influenced speakers. (SL)

Writing, speaking and listening are communication skills that are important in all subject areas in the curriculum. Hence, literacy should have a central position in the curriculum. Even so, differences between students' levels of literacy mean that some students fail to acquire the verbal foundations for learning. For this reason, increasing…

Under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act ([NCLB], 2001b) every state needs to show linkage between state content standards and state English language development (ELD) standards as input to the development of state English proficiency tests. This paper argues that Title III presents a unique opportunity to explore how different content…

Background: Over the past twenty years, many investigations have been carried out to identify factors influencing second language (L2) learning. Specifically, investigations of the relationship among first language (L1) reading skills, L2 reading skills, and L2 proficiency have been variously conducted, to contribute to the overall growth of L1-L2…

In recent years, the rate of Chinese immigrants to the United States has been increasing. Chinese parents desire that their Chinese-American children learn Chinese as a second language. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects on four American-born Chinese children when the researcher, as an instructor, employed whole language…

The demographics of U.S. elementary and secondary schools are changing rapidly as a result of record-high immigration. These demographic shifts are occurring alongside implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the landmark 2002 federal law that holds schools accountable for the academic performance of limited English speaking children…

This study examines whether Spanish-English bilingual children's phonological awareness (PA) performance reflects specific contrasts between English and Spanish by focusing on children's segmentation of vowels treated as single units in English but as two units in Spanish (/eI/ and /aI/). The role of oral language proficiency, specifically…

This report describes demographic characteristics and educational experiences of New York City's elementary and middle school students by English language proficiency and home language. It compares the characteristics and achievement of students who are limited English proficiency (LEP), most of whom: live in homes where a language other than…