A guide to the adaptation of oral proficiency testing for classroom language instruction contains excerpts of projects by participants in an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) workshop. The excerpts are examples of proficiency based curricula and materials designed to personalize instruction and simulate real-life…

Americans generally lack foreign language competence, and their exposure to foreign languages in the United States is inadequate. Foreign language instruction is deficient in both quality and quantity, and although there are indications of improvement in both areas, it will be many years before the effects of improvements are clear. The…

In its first extension year following a 3-year funding cycle, Project GET SET served 108 Bronx junior high school students with limited ability in both English and Spanish, in two schools located in economically depressed, predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. The project's major goals were to develop both English and Spanish language skills and…

Academic socialization is a process whereby students acquire the competencies necessary to function in the classroom. Academic competencies include not only a high level of proficiency in English, critical thinking skills, and the ability to control the relationship between language and logic, but also social and cultural skills. Although academic…

Iowa's guide to developing and implementing programs for the state's limited-English-proficient (LEP) school population addresses issues in developing policies, identifying student needs, and planning educational programs. The first chapter discusses the legal and educational rationale for providing equal education to the LEP population, outlining…

An overview of classroom and administrative issues related to the education of language minority students in the United States is presented in two sections. The section on classroom issues focuses on four topics: teaching methodologies for English as a second language; the features, titles, and sources of language proficiency assessment…

This is the fourth report of the evaluation of the French-Hebrew immersion programs at the Hebrew Foundation School and the Solomon Schecter Academy in Montreal. Students in the study were those who had started in the project in kindergarten and grade 1, and, at the time of the fourth evaluation, were in grades 3 and 5 respectively. Two pilot…

This report describes an evaluation of the effects of the early and grade 7 immersion programs on the English and French language skills of students at the end of grade 7 in Montreal. Tests of English language skills were administered to early immersion, grade 7 immersion, and English control students. Tests of French language skills were…

Sixty grade four pupils of the Philippine Normal College Laboratory were involved in a study to determine the effect of language of material, type of material, and ability level on their reading comprehension. The materials were either unilingual English (E/E), unilingual Pilipino (P/P), or consisted of a text in English followed by questions in…

This bulletin is intended to help classroom teachers who have Indochinese refugee children in their classes. In many places where there is no English as a second language (ESL) program, it is the classroom teacher and auxiliary personnel who must teach the children English sentence patterns, pronunciation and vocabulary. When more than one teacher…

This manual attempts to provide practical and useful linguistic information for classroom teachers and classroom aides in bilingual programs, K to 12. It stresses the importance of teamwork in any bilingual program, a team consisting of teachers, aides, volunteers and student tutors. The goal of the manual is to help teachers and aides become more…

The development, administration, and evaluation of a national survey to determine college students' understanding of world affairs are described in 12 articles that focus on survey measures, procedures, and results. Stephen F. Klein and Sheila M. Ager describe the issues examined by an assessment committee, their choice of an issues framework for…

This text is the first of a series of four levels sequenced as a continuum of language skills for Spanish speakers of limited English speaking ability in grades six through nine. Levels one and two emphasize the development of oral language skills. Levels three and four emphasize the development of written language skills. The text is divided into…

An investigation was undertaken to assess student attitudes toward learning and using French and their reasons for studying it. It was felt that a more thorough investigation of these issues might help to broaden knowledge of some of the non-educational, social consequences of immersion programs. English-speaking students in sixth and eleventh…

This handbook is a compendium of communication testing techniques submitted by French teachers from the United States, France, and Canada. The majority of the handbook consists of sample oral communication tests. The introductory section defines communication, outlines communications testing, and discusses listening comprehension, oral expression,…