The educational status and English proficiency of immigrants to Sweden at the end of their compulsory schooling was investigated. Questionnaires were completed by 26 schools in 10 Swedish cities regarding the problems associated with the study of English as a third language by immigrant students in the comprehensive school. Schools in districts…

This handbook outlines procedures for placing recent immigrants into linguistically comprehensible school programs at Ocean View Junior High School (Oxnard, California). First, a chart is presented which breaks down the placement process into three stages (identification, assessment, and placement) and identifies the site or person responsible at…

Oral tests for speaking skills evaluate two major skills: linguistic competence, including accuracy of pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure, and communication ease. Four factors affect students' oral performance: verbal intelligence, short-term auditory and visual memory, sound-symbol association skill, and grammatical analysis. Personality…

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has been engaged in oral language proficiency testing theory and practice for more than 20 years. The FSI test has been consistent during this time in format, evaluation criteria, performance standards, and level definitions. Current concerns about the degree of standardization of the format and the strength of…

In Holland, it recently has been recognized that minority students are underrepresented in schools for learning disabled (LD) and are overrepresented in schools for the educable mentally retarded (EMR). In 1983, a study was begun in Rotterdam to determine why some students of Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan origin were placed in schools for the…

Oral responses of black youngsters are no more limited than those of whites. (JH)

This paper discusses certain problems that can arise with respect to the selection of content in the preparation of a test to measure language proficiency for some specific purpose. Forty employees in a defense plant in Montreal, Canada were interviewed in order to specify language needs, to arrive at a precise interpretation of the required…

The Langugage Proficiency Assessment Committees (LPACs) authorized by Congress were given the responsibility of assessing limited-English-speaking students within a school district and making placement recommendations regarding these students to the local school board. This packet consists of a variety of materials, mostly handouts to assist in…

The symbolic representational block constructions of twenty 4-year-olds and twenty 7-year-olds were analyzed from Werner and Kaplan's (1963) theoretical perspective. Each child was read a story and then asked to use the blocks to represent the story. Older children included in their representations a larger number of features that were central to…

Several factors come into play in the discussion of foreign languages and improved prospects for employment. With regard to the question of proficiency, it seems that prospective employers are more realistic than teachers in their expectations. If an employee is good in the field he or she is in, further language training is often made available.…

This paper deals with two experiments whose purposes are to investigate the linguistic competence of young children and their receptivity to adult speech. In the free response experiment, imperative sentences were presented to 1 1/2- to 2 1/2-year-olds. The sentences were minimal (a single noun), telegraphic, or full adult sentences. The youngest…

This bibliography is divided into four main sections. The first section cites bibliographies dealing with language testing, while the second and third sections deal with books and articles in the same area. A fourth section lists test distributors' catalogues. Entries include publications from many countries. Most entries have been published since…

The linguistic state-of-the-art relevant to the construction of a battery of tests intended to yield language proficiency profiles of preschool children is surveyed in this paper. A basic assumption is that language data can be structured with a model that reflects stages in the development of control over phonological features, morphological…

Foreign language students often find themselves unable to produce appropriate responses in certain social situations. A contributing factor is that until recently, linguists and foreign language educators have concentrated on the student's acquisition of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon), and have not concerned themselves with…