This paper treats methodological issues involved in assessing linguistic competence in the field, specifically in bilingual fieldwork situations. First, the various means of assessment of linguistic competence that have been described and/or used are listed and commented on. Then the authors explain the choice of assessment methods for fieldwork…

Bilingual speakers report experiencing stronger emotions when speaking and hearing their first language compared to their second. Does this occur even when a second language is learned early and becomes the dominant language? Spanish-English bilinguals who had grown up in the USA (early learners) or those who were first exposed to English during…

Every year, thousands of students worldwide leave home for the purpose of participating in an educational experience in a different country. Israel is one of the many destinations offering study abroad programs. Yet, being a Jewish country and a homeland for the Jewish Diaspora (Jewish communities outside Israel), Israel constitutes a unique study…

This paper develops a scalar or quantitative measure of the "distance" between English and a myriad of other (non-native American) languages. This measure is based on the difficulty Americans have learning other languages. The linguistic distance measure is then used in an analysis of the determinants of English language proficiency…

In this selective look at research on test-taking strategies over the last 25 years, brief mention is made of the beginnings of test-taker strategy research, and then important developments in its evolution to the present are discussed, focusing on conceptual frameworks for classifying strategies, first and second language-related strategies,…

This study represents a first effort to identify sociocultural background variables that predict the successful mastery of a heritage language by adult learners. While there are well-documented sociocultural models for other second language learners, thus far there are no similar published models for heritage language learners. We focused on…

English is hot in many foreign language schools abroad, and as the trend accelerates, so too has debate over the value of English in a global society. English-only countries steadfastly cling to their strong historical connection to imperialism, and monolingualism at the risk of losing their share of the world marketplace. While advocates of…

This study explored a holistic model of English reading comprehension among a sample of 135 Spanish-English bilingual Latina and Latino 4th-grade students This model took into account Spanish language reading skills and language of initial literacy instruction. Controlling for language of instruction, English decoding skill, and English oral…

The relationship between the frequency of African-American English (AAE) features used by African-American adolescent males (n = 16) and their performance on the seven clusters comprising the "Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised" (WLPB-R) was investigated. All participants were between the ages of 15 and 19 years who had a…

Action Research has been used in many fields of endeavour as a useful means of improving practice. This article describes how this methodology was used to develop a programme of language learning at the University of the Free State. The researcher was tasked with the development and implementation of an English language access programme for…

The emphasis on research-based instructional methods makes it especially important for educators to be using instructional strategies known to be effective for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. Unfortunately, the literature base that addresses instructional strategies for diverse populations of students with varying language…

The Greek community in Australia attempts, with reasonable success, to maintain Greek language proficiency in succeeding generations, but attitudinal barriers within the community may be impeding the process. A study of the stakeholders (primary and secondary staff, parents, students and management) of one Greek independent school in Melbourne…

The concept of "communicative competence" is one of the most influential theoretical developments in language education as it helped redefine the objectives of L2 instruction and the target language proficiency. While acknowledging these contributions, this paper asks if the conceptual formulation of "communicative competence" has other…

This study, a partial replication of Bruhn de Garavito (1999a; 1999b), investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals by French- and English-speaking adults at an advanced level of proficiency. The L2 acquisition of Spanish reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals by native French and…

In order to investigate second language (L2) processing at ultimate attainment, 20 first language (L1) English and 20 L1 Dutch advanced to near-native speakers of German as well as 20 native Germans were tested in two experiments on subject-object ambiguities in German. The results from a self-paced reading task and a speeded acceptability…