The development of the English as a Second Language Assessment Battery (ESLAB) was based on needs indicated by achievement and placement statistics. The selection of the proficiency skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) was supported by changing views in language assessment and by legislation. Andrew D. Cohen's language model was…

Results of an experimental study in India comparing two alternative procedures for teaching the set English text for class IX are examined against the background of the general mental ability, verbal reasoning ability, numerical reasoning ability, and general intelligence of the pupils. Other variables considered in the analysis are sex, age, and…

Five papers on testing in English as a second language are included in this volume. "A Preliminary Diagnostic Test for Adult Immigrants" by Johan I. Arthur presents the first stage in a project to develop a test for limited English speaking adults in the Colchester, Essex area. "An Initial Testing Battery on a Course for Air Traffic…

A study was undertaken in order to provide current data and comprehensive information about Chinese language instruction in United States higher education. This report is based on the responses to a survey in 1979. In addition to the discussion of the survey responses, an examination of changes that have taken place since a previous report in 1969…

A study of Spanish-speaking children in the first and third grade showed that English proficiency was least fostered by reading instruction in Spanish only, followed by bilingual instruction, with those students receiving instruction in English only becoming most proficient but still far less so than their English-speaking peers. Besides…

Language laboratories are especially neglected at the intermediate and advanced levels of foreign language learning. Teachers fail to avail themselves of an important teaching tool at a critical point, when the more mechanical aspects of assimilating the target language should give way to gaining an actual communicative competence in it. At the…

Studies were conducted to help determine criteria for describing the stages through which second language learners pass as they acquire a new language. The ability of 24 beginning adult students of English as a second language to supply ten morphemes in obligatory contexts was predicted on the basis of contrastive analysis between English and each…

The work reported here is part of an ongoing project to develop a language comprehension assessment instrument that: (1) is sensitive enough to pinpoint the particular language phenomena that are causing difficulty or have not been mastered, and (2) is also broad enough in scope to provide a credible and useful description of language proficiency.…

Two English language proficiency tests commonly given by universities and colleges to non-English speaking applicants were administered to 338 students in 5 Toronto high schools. The purpose of the testing was to relate test scores to students' background (language, immigrant status) and to school marks (English marks and others). Both tests…

The question of whether educational technology can be of assistance to the public school teacher who is in the position of having to teach the rudiments of a second language that he himself has not mastered is addresed in this paper. A series of teaching and learning units were constructed and experimented with for two years in teaching English as…

Designed to develop over five years a model bilingual program for nursery school through grade 6, the demonstration program provided early bilingual education intervention to facilitate the simultaneous learning of two languages and thus develop the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills of children with limited English speaking ability from…

A multiple-choice test of English vocabulary and grammar was administered to college-bound Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking students studying English in Finland. Erroneous responses were analyzed to determine differences in learning strategies between the two groups. Swedish speakers were found to choose incorrect alternatives based on…

This report is a continuation of a research project, begun by B. Spolsky and E. Migliazza in the English as a Foreign Language Program at Indiana University, designed to show that foreign students whose overall integrative motivation is high (+IM) have achieved a higher standard of English proficiency than those whose integrative motivation is low…

Achievement of former FLES students is compared with a matched group of non-FLES high school students completing an intermediate French course. The Modern Language Association (MLA) Cooperative French Tests were used to determine proficiency in the four language skills. Special attention is given to data analysis and the matching of groups in…

In order to investigate the hypothesis that the conceptualization of sequence precedes that of simultaneity in child development, and to explore the use of elicited imitation in studying lexical acquisition, 32 subjects between 3 and 5 years of age were asked to verbally imitate a list of sentences. The constructions combined simple and reverse…