Reports results of a series of modified matched-guise tests measuring the attitudes of school principals, pupils, and other judges in Sweden towards foreign-born teachers' language proficiency and suitability to teach in a Swedish school. Results indicate that all groups of judges are accurate in judgments regarding accentedness. Judgments of…

Replicating earlier studies, 66 English as a second language speech students at a community college undertook content-based second language learning in psychology, sociology, and history. End-of-semester assessments showed they had improved second-language confidence and learned academic subject matter; most agreed sheltered courses were a useful…

Aimed to account for the different levels of pragmatic development among 137 university-level Japanese learners of English, as functions of their varying levels of English proficiency and amount of exposure to English. (Author/VWL)

Investigated the influence of nonverbal behavior in the context of interactive talk during the assessment of an oral proficiency interview test. Participants were Spanish- and Chinese-speaking international teaching assistants. Found interviewees who employed nonverbal behavior considered appropriate by North American evaluators and who negotiated…

Examines cooperative learning in relation to goals for second language (L2) development, first language (L1) maintenance, and content learning. Investigates how Chinese immigrant students perceive these goals and how they use the L1 and L2 to acquire content knowledge during cooperative learning activities. (Author/VWL)

Describes a process developed by the Language Training Centre at Red River College (RRC) to use the Canadian language benchmarks in analyzing the language levels used in programs and courses at RRC to identify appropriate entry-level language proficiency and the levels that second language students need in order to meet college or university…

Reviews the usefulness of proficiency models influencing second language testing. Findings indicate that several factors contribute to the lack of congruence between models and test construction and make a case for distinguishing between theoretical models. Underscores the significance of an empirical, contextualized and structured approach to the…

A study compared grade-three reading skills of two matched samples (n=47) of French immersion students: one group introduced to beginning reading in French and the other in English. Results showed no significant differences between the groups. They imply a need for better understanding of factors affecting bilingual proficiency, proficiency…

Investigates children's changing sensitivity to processing cues for identifying agent as a function of proficiency in a second language. English speaking children in an immersion school were asked to identify the agent for a set of audiotaped sentences in English and Japanese. Found children learned word order, lexical semantics, and canonical…

From an interlanguage perspective, argues that many perplexing errors in second language writing are the result of the interaction between developing linguistic competence and basic principles of ordering information in texts that learners already know. Shows how this interaction results in errors at the sentence level. These insights are applied…

Examines evidence from Expanding Circle settings that the norms for Standard English usage, teaching, and testing my not always be those of the Inner Circle. reference to recent research concerning the Expanding Circle nations indicates that in certain international and regional domains of language use in these countries, English functions as a…

Extends the line of research that has recently applied the savings paradigm from cognitive psychology to vocabulary relearning. Second language data from 3044 returnees from Japan and Korea provide evidence of the strongest savings effect yet reported in studies of lexical reactivation. (Author/VWL)

Examines the question of variation among interviewers of oral language proficiency interviews in the ways that they elicit demonstrations of communicative ability and the impact of this variation on candidate performance and raters' perceptions of candidate ability. A discourse analysis of two interviews involving the same candidate with two…

Reports the types of modification devices nonnative speakers of an intermediate level of proficiency employed during synchronous online exchanges. Results show that request for help, clarification check, and self correction were the most used strategies for negotiation among students. Data suggest these modification devices facilitate…

Discusses several characteristics of the English program as taught at Sup. de Co. Clermont in France and describes the components of its curriculum, including required courses, electives, internships, and workshops and projects. The school's English courses and instructional techniques, course materials and organization, student motivation,…