Interest in and support for language study has been strengthened in the United States in recent years by the growing recognition that proficiency in more than one language benefits both individual learners and society. For the individual language learner, research has found a positive link between second language proficiency and cognitive and…

This document provides environmental educators with background information on English language development theory and practices. Information was derived from a series of workshops that focused on the objectives of increasing facilitators' familiarity with the theory and practices of English Language Development (ELD) and demonstrating how the…

This digest describes the implementation of a successful district-wide elementary school foreign language (FLES) program that resulted from the superintendent's vision to have all students in the district study a common foreign language throughout their schooling. This vision was based on the superintendent's belief that American secondary school…

This statement examines the nature and impact of foreign language proficiency and personnel shortages in the Army, State Department, Central Intelligence Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), discussing strategies used to address these shortages and efforts made to address current and projected shortages. All four agencies reported…

The new emphasis on communication of ideas and problem solving in mathematics teaching places an additional burden on limited English proficient (LEP) students with relatively poor language skills and their teachers. This research addresses the question of how students' language proficiency affects teachers' assessment of students' mathematical…

The process and results of a project to develop a Turkish language proficiency test are described. The project was undertaken by the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages, and involved development of two sample tests for intermediate and advanced levels in four skill areas (speaking, listening, reading, writing) using…

The variety of theories relating to teaching ESL learners leads to contradictory ideas about teaching a second language. This paper focuses on the continuing importance of grammar in teaching and the current resurgence in interest in returning to grammar as an important component in the classroom.

Reviews the difficulties teachers face in evaluating the competence of their students in using English, and suggests recognition of the influences that may inhibit language performance in the classroom when the speaker comes from a minority sub-culture. (Author/JM)

Investigates a reversed cloze procedure in which high information words are deleted from a passage. Concludes that this procedure is both reliable and unique. (VJ)

Special issue devoted to foreign language instruction in adult education. (WB)

Highlights the complex relationship between earnings, nativity, and national origin among Hispanic men. States that human capital characteristics, notably education, work experience, and English language proficiency, significantly influence annual log earnings for all groups, but the patterns of effects depend on nativity and national origin.…

Seven personality traits are examined as they relate to the speed of English acquisition among 13 children. Contrary to previous conclusions, faster learners did not seek to befriend or identify more with English-speaking children than slow learners, but were more talkative, responsive, and gregarious. Implications are discussed. (MSE)

English-speaking Canadian students were asked why they were learning French and why French-speaking Canadians wanted them to learn it, and the results were compared with their language proficiency and use. Students' expectations of motivational support from the French-Canadian community was a significant and sometimes unique predictor of…

In an investigation of how different types of topic reinstatements affected second language learners' recognition and recall of sentence topics in lectures, it was learned that repeated structures were more easily recalled and recognized than simple ones, and low English proficiency learners have poorer recall of complex structures. (MSE)

Informal interviews with educators, administrators, employers, researchers, and civil rights attorneys indicated that three general areas of focus were apparent: conceptual variables (about what language learning and maintenance actually means); social variables (family, socioeconomic status, sex, age, region, politics); and attitudinal variables.…