Studies the early childhood classroom as a setting for the continuing development of communication, cognition, and social skills for language minority students. Because the integration of language and content is best done through the use of children's literature, weekly literary selections motivate student interest and stimulate oral and written…

Investigates Communicative Effectiveness (CE) and Grammatical Accuracy (GA) in fifth-grade students in intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes. Using different types of elicitation tasks in a cross-sectional study, results showed CE and GA are not independent, but the relation between them differs as a function of task type. (28…

Examines the emergence of English writing among 31 kindergartners. Concludes that stages of writing development are similar in native and nonnative speakers. Suggests that the relationship between oral and written language is transactional, and that language transactions benefit nonnative English speakers. Also suggests that personality influences…

Evolution of the intensive summer oral language proficiency institutes held at the University of Texas at El Paso, beginning in 1984, is discussed. Benefits for participants, including knowledge gained about language testing and improved personal language skills, are noted, and areas for further consideration or improvement in the program are…

Explores developments in the United Kingdom with regard to the recent endorsement in the national curriculum of the importance of speaking and listening skills (oracy). Observations in six inner-city London schools reflect ambiguities in policy and practice. The results of an oracy policy regarding assessment are still unclear. (SLD)

Suggests that, to provide effective guidance in developing competent speakers of English, it is necessary to examine the factors affecting adult learners' oral communication, components underlying speaking proficiency, and specific skills or strategies used in communication. (Author/VWL)

Compares conversational styles of intermediate and advanced learners of English as a Second Language in language proficiency interviews. The article describes differences in amount of talk and rate of speaking, extent of context dependence and ability to construct and sustain narratives, but not in frequency of initiation of new topics nor…

Focuses on factors influencing the mastery of a foreign language and one's native tongue. Both the child-mother relationship and the teacher-student relationship greatly influence the desire and propensity of an individual to acquire fluency in the language being taught. To learn to speak signifies a wish to use a language and become immersed in…

Assesses the speaking, reading, listening, and writing proficiency of students of Russian after one, two, three, four, and five years of study using tests based on the proficiency scale of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Results indicate that the correlations among the four skills were not strong, suggesting that they…

Discusses new approaches in assessment development and describes two examples of English-as-a-Second-Language assessment recently developed in Australia. The article places these approaches within the context of state responses to linguistic and cultural diversity and demonstrates the implications of the differences between them. (85 references)…

Explored the effects of a number of affective and social variables on learners' engagement in oral argumentative tasks. The assumption underlying the investigation was that students' verbal behavior in oral task situations is partly determined by a number of nonlinguistic and non-cognitive factors whose examination may constitute a potentially…

Reports successful outcomes for a Teaching English as a Foreign Language module based on simultaneous oral translation from Arabic into English. Learners worked individually in a traditional language laboratory. Results show that simultaneous interpretation significantly improves learner performance and is an excellent tool for diagnosing learner…

Four short articles provide teaching tips for the English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language classroom, including the use of Moos, a video jigsaw, practicing oral language skills with interviews and student-read dictations, an ask the expert activity which builds learner confidence in speaking in front of groups of people. (Author/VWL)

Highlights the history of Californian (Luiseno), the native language of Baja California, including how the language was recorded by a young Mexican student at the Vatican's missionary school, the Collegium Urbanum in Rome. Discusses the political impact of the grammatical recording and subsequent translation of the language during the mid-19th…

Miscue analysis and eye movement analysis are used to explore the reading process of first-grade beginning readers as they use pictures and print in a picture book designed for instructional purposes. Eye movement miscue analysis (EMMA) is also used as a tool to gain insights into the reading strategies of the beginning readers in this study.…