A study observed a significant curvilinear relationship between speaking rates and accentedness and comprehensibility judgments of utterances produced by users from a variety of first language backgrounds. A second study manipulated rates with speech compression-expansion software established that this effect was due to the rate differences rather…

Research has suggested child but not adult immigrants to the U.S. and Canada make regular progress learning English as their length of residence (LOR) increases. Compared groups of Chinese adults living in the United States who differed in length of residence LOR to assess the role of input in adult's naturalistic acquisition of a second language…

Investigates the effect of middle-ear infections on phonemic awareness on first-grade Bedouin Arab elementary school children in northern Israel. Divides 49 children who were screened according to their infant medical records into two groups: one with repeated middle-ear infection and one without. Indicates a nonsignificant effect of middle-ear…

Examined the variables related to U.S. immigrants' long-term attainment in English, their second language (L2), and their native language (L1). Differences in language proficiency among different groups studied were associated with differences in language use, language learning motivation, and cultural identification between the two groups.…

The Cummins model of language proficiency is applied to analyzing communication tasks for hearing-impaired students. The model has been found to facilitate individualization in situations where teachers are required to modify lessons spontaneously. (DB)

Describes a taxonomy of real-world listening tasks as a conceptual framework for teaching listening in a second language, and discusses the implications of the taxonomy for the design of listening instruction and the selection of authentic texts. The key elements of the taxonomy are listener function and listener response. (26 references)…

Examines three curriculum models for teaching second languages. Each model represents a particular form of teaching, either analytic "skill-getting" (microlanguage learning), experiential "skill-using" (macrolanguage use), or a combination of the two. (57 references) (GLR)

Analyzes linguistically "naive" native Spanish speakers' evaluations of American students' performance on oral Spanish interviews. Results found considerable divergence in how evaluators viewed particular candidates' proficiency, although evaluators were consistently more strict in their evaluations than was a trained rater. (Author/CB)

Assumes that adult second language learners cannot achieve the same degree of proficiency in a second language as children learning a second language. An information-processing approach is presented, and the aspects of utilization, faulty or incomplete declarative knowledge, and limited working memory space are used to account for deficiencies in…

A follow-up study contrasted the performance of adult second language learners on phonological perception tasks with their performance in articulatory production. Native speakers of French (N=12) and second language learners of French at two levels of French proficiency were tested on three perception and four production tasks to identify the…

Reviews the various definitions of communicative competence, and argues for a view of communicative competence as language use, a lesser but more readily achievable ambition for both theory and pedagogy. (Author/CB)

Makes a case for a sequential approach to teaching foreign languages middle schools and suggests that in the middle school must encompass both the goals of proficiency and exploration; the integrated exploratory model is more compatible with child development; exploratory can be a launching pad into sequential courses; after an exploratory…

Describes a test aimed at investigating the rule knowledge stored in foreign-language learners heads and at determining the relationship between rule knowledge and second-language performance. (CK)

Examined the oral performance of midcourse and endcourse adult American learners of Russian to determine the accuracy order of Russian cases and demonstrated an order of accuracy common to both groups. According to decreasing accuracy, the Russian cases cluster in three rank orders: (1) prepositional and accusative; (2) genitive and instrumental;…

Discusses the purpose of a French-as-a-Second-Language (FSL) placement test designed for students enrolling in FSL at the postsecondary level. The test measures proficiency level in French and consists of three parts: comprehension of a short paragraph, selection of the appropriate statement in a situation, and a fill-in-the-gap part. (JL)