A study compared two methods for assessing English proficiency of limited-English-proficient school-age children, for purposes of placement in bilingual and monolingual education programs. The two instruments used were the Idea Oral Language Proficiency Test (forms C and D) (IPT), which assesses oral English proficiency, and the Woodcock-Munoz…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first and second language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out and evaluating their work. The task for eighth grade students…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first- and second-language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out, and evaluating their work. Three separate lesson plans in the…

Achievement approaching mastery in the use of at least one modern foreign language on the part of a large portion of tomorrow's citizens is an objective which is new in American education. Language programs in the high school are therefore undergoing basic modifications in order to establish learning conditions that can develop communication…

Models the spread of linguistic change by taking account of the ages of the acquirers and transmitters of change. The article focuses on three interlocutor combinations: parent-infant/young child, peer group-preadolescent and older adolescent/adult-adolescent. Findings suggest that borrowings are the easiest to acquire, while lexically…

Examines children's uses of nominal determiners ("local markings") and utterance structure ("global markings") to introduce new referents through the use of narratives elicited from preschoolers, elementary school students and adults in English, French, German and Mandarin Chinese. Findings reveal that local markings emerge first, and local and…

Explains how a learner-centered approach works on "Talkbase," an eight-week workshop in language and technology. This article describes how participants coped with a new educational experience in which participants carried out tasks, learned through active investigation, developed concepts and skills and gained confidence to express…

Using a small corpus of classroom discourse from graduate business administration seminars, some language features of student-led discussion are identified, then considered in relation to syllabus content. The fruitfulness of a discourse-based approach to both description of formal spoken-language genres and to classroom methodology is discussed.…

Describes a program for teaching oral communication in large English-as-a-Foreign-Language classes that focuses on the link between listening and speaking; accuracy, fluency, interaction, and meaning; authentic language use; feedback and correction; opportunities to initiate oral communication; development of speaking strategies, and motivating…

Focuses on the use of inexplicitness by native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) engaged in English conversations, for example impromptu, uninstitutionalized discourses. Shows that a characteristic of NNSs spoken language is the inappropriate level of inexplicitness used and the ways in which inexplicitness is manifested in the…

Provides background information on Japanese writing system and how most Japanese learn to read Japanese at school, discusses history and practice of typical English-language education in Japan, presents review of recent research on word recognition and the effects of first-language reading on English-as-a-Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL), and…

Examines differences in oral narrative discourse of adult second-language learners of English on narrative tasks simulating the ability to describe events in the Here-and-Now versus the There-and-Then. Results indicate that complex tasks elicit less fluent, but more accurate and complex narration than do simpler tasks. (90 references) (Author/CK)

Studies learners' second-language (L2) oral proficiency, incorporating an interview, a narration, and a read-aloud. Results show that the nature of the L2 oral construct is not constant. The article concludes that proficiency researchers should use dimensions empirically derived according to the specific elicitation task and audience. (53…

Presents four misconceptions surrounding communicative language teaching (CLT) and discusses the reasons for their existence. These misconceptions are: (1) CLT means not teaching grammar; (2) CLT means teaching only speaking; (3) CLT means pair work, which means role play; and (4) CLT means expecting too much from the teacher. (13 references)…

In this paper, the authors report the results of a study that compared differences in the linguistic gains made by native English-speaking students from the United States who were studying Spanish in one of two different contexts of learning. One was a regular university classroom situation in Colorado; the other was a study abroad program in…