The history and rationale for entry and exit tests devised to meet Pennsylvania's standards for certifying foreign language teachers are outlined and discussed. The involvement of the Educational Testing Service in developing and validating tests in a variety of subject areas is described, and the need for institutional rather than standardized…

The McDonald's Executive English Course was developed by Carleton University's Centre for Applied Language Studies in response to a francophone supervisor's request. As a basis for course development, information was gathered on English language use on the job, the level of English proficiency needed, and the personalities, backgrounds, and goals…

Singapore's grammar-based English language syllabus and the wide range of native languages and English oral ability among secondary school students make the second language teaching situation complex and the use of the communicative approach challenging but not impossible. While grammar is an essential element of second language proficiency, it is…

A study was designed to develop a number of tests of oral proficiency and to compare those tests with the existing, highly subjective testing method used at the end of secondary school in Israel. The study used four experimental tests: the oral interview, role playing, reporting task, and group discussion. The experimental tests were analyzed for…

The Basic English Skills Test and its supplement (Best Plus Supplement), a structured oral interview, were administered to 72 of 119 limited English proficient 12th grade students in the Dade County (Florida) Public Schools, to determine their oral proficiency. The students were native speakers of Haitian-Creole, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Oral…

For language minority children who have acquired English through another culture, opportunities to learn in U.S. schools are not equal, either at the point of entry or at any time thereafter. Children's ability to participate meaningfully in school learning activities is intimately linked to cognitive and social skills that presuppose specific and…

A study was carried out to assess the French language proficiency of kindergarten students enrolled in a French early immersion program and two "classes d'accueil," that is, a special program for non-French speaking immigrant children. The particular focus of the study was to investigate whether the level of proficiency in French is…

This collection, including the proceedings of a colloquium at TESOL 1979, includes the following papers: (1) "Classification of Oral Proficiency Tests," by H. Madsen and R. Jones; (2) "A Theoretical Framework for Communicative Competence," by M. Canale and M. Swain; (3) "Beyond Faith and Face Validity: The Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix and the…

The background, methodology, and results of the Children's English and Services Study, a national investigation of educational needs and services of language minority students of limited English proficiency, are reported. This volume provides information on educational needs and services for the target population, while an earlier volume reports…

The results of a national longitudinal survey on the language proficiency of bilingual Hispanic American high school students are reported. Graphs and tables display language proficiency data for sophomores and seniors, language background data by ethnic origin, and family and educational background data by proficiency level. The survey addressed…

An ethnographic study of language proficiency in the home and school languages of bilingual children was conducted. From a qualitative sociolinguistic perspective, language proficiency, the relation of linguistic performance to community language use and attitudes, and the correlation of the sociolinguistic findings on language repertoire with…

This ten-page booklet provides a general assessment of the job situation for people who know foreign languages and a description of how to plot out a personal profile and a job profile. Two basic categories of jobs are presented, with listings of types of jobs in each: (1) jobs based mainly on language skills, (2) jobs requiring language skills…

This paper discusses a research project carried out to study and compare the reading processes of native and second language speakers of English. The procedure developed for the observation and description of the reading process and related language experience included initial diagnostic testing and taped inventories, a sequence of tutorial…

A study was carried out to ascertain whether language instructors or naive judges were more reliable in judging oral proficiency. Fifteen students were chosen from the ESL (English as a second language) center at Southern Illinois University to record a tape while reading passages in English. The tape and a questionnaire were administered to 70…

This study was undertaken to examine the suspicion that a young Greek girl in the short time span of two years had become more fluent in a second language (English) than in her native tongue. To provide a basis of comparison the tests used in this study were also given to the child's older brother who had been in the United States for…