A test measuring the teachers' Spanish proficiency was developed as part of a battery of tests for teachers in bilingual education programs--the CERAS Teacher Tests for Spanish/English Bilingual Education. Two independent studies indicated that the relationship between pupils' achievement in Spanish and English and their teachers' Spanish…

In order to determine the concurrent validity of the Language Assessment Scale I as a measure of English language proficiency, test scores were compared to teacher judgment as reflected in a rating scale. Scores correlated .73 with a quantitative measure of teacher judgment. (Author/CTM)

Discusses the dependency relation between oral language and reading in bilingual children. Based on a review of literature, proposes a model of monolingual versus bilingual reading and presents the results of an experiment designed to test the model on Chinese speaking students. (Author/GC)

This article discusses the controversy between advocates of the discrete-point test and the integrative test as measures of the language proficiency of students of English as a second language. (CFM)

Advocates abandoning the classroom suppression of dialects of native Spanish-speaking students in the southwestern states, and recommends using dialect as a foundation for developing native language skills. (JB)

This experiment tested college students whose first language is English with the TOEFL examination. The major conclusion was that TOEFL scores do not relate to academic aptitude or performance of domestic students and to evaluate English competency of native speakers with this test is inappropriate. (CHK)

Discusses Margaret Mead's insights on mental retardation. Her study of intelligence scores of Italian children, which analyzed correlations between test performance, language, immigration date, and social status, is used to indicate recognition of the multicultural complexities of mental retardation. Her belief in social integration is also…

This article looks into why infants learn to talk, using a series of illustrative proposals as to the short- and long-term consequences to the infant behaviors that lead to linguistic competence. The goal of the article is to encourage investigation of behavioral dispositions that nudge the child toward proficiency in the use of the spoken…

Examined whether the current entry requirement at the National University of Lesotho of a Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) credit in English helps in the selection of the most promising students. Found that performance in school-level English is hardly correlated with academic performance, when controlling for overall school…

Summarizes relevant research on bilingual language development and discusses implications for bilingual language assessment. Also discusses limitations in current language ability testing practices for bilinguals and proposed future directions for the development of assessment tools and practices with bilinguals. (SLD)

Studied the extent to which first language and second language (l2) writing proficiency can predict performance in L2 writing. Findings suggest that writing in a foreign or second language context is necessarily a language problem, not a writing problem. (Author/VWL)

Examines the impact of topic familiarity, second language (L2) reading proficiency, and L2 passage sight vocabulary on incidental vocabulary acquisition. Analyses reveal robust effects of reading proficiency, differential effects of topic familiarity, and isolated effects of passage sight vocabulary. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on logical connectives as catalysts for interactive reading. Clarifies how text comprehension can be affected by the types of logical relations and by the levels of proficiency in English as a Second Language, using Japanese university students as the subjects for experimentation and focusing on three logical connectives: "for…

Discusses theoretical and practical issues pertaining to translation or adaptation of educational assessments in the United States. These include the role of language proficiency and academic background in performance on standards-based achievement tests in different languages, factors affecting the decision to translate tests in different…

Probes the developmental process a nonnative English-speaking child experienced in the United states and how his parents and other factors influenced his bilingual language proficiency. (Author/VWL)