This is a small scale, inductive, ethnographic study whose objective is to explore the language learning strategies used by the students of different languages at a language program at the university level. Students of English, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and German participate in the study. Three instruments are used…

The main purpose of this research is 1) to establish a framework for the test development and the constructs of writing performance test, 2) to implement a developed writing performance assessment, and 3) to examine the degree of reliability and validity of the assessment tasks and rating scales. Construct-based processing approach to testing…

It is now generally agreed that "output" functions to promote language learning through focus on form. Empirical studies reveal that oral communicative tasks can arouse learners' negotiation of meaning, but they are not so effective in bringing about focus on form. Hence, researchers have suggested using collaborative writing tasks to…

The obligatory use of the preposition a with animate, specific direct objects in Spanish ("Juan conoce a Maria" "Juan knows Maria") is a well-known instance of Differential Object Marking (DOM; Torrego, 1998; Leonetti, 2004). Recent studies have documented the loss and/or incomplete acquisition of several grammatical features in Spanish heritage…

Academics preparing students for experiential placements within professional programs require considerable curriculum planning and pedagogical expertise. Communities of practice involving workshops and online processes provide opportunities for collaborative work in developing quality curriculum materials and also in supporting widespread…

This discussion of validation procedures for learning hierarchies based on an analysis of a target skill of instruction to aid in the instructional development process indicates that there is no catalog of validated hierarchies available for this use, and that the literature provides little assistance to the developer seeking practical procedures.…

This document consists of the California State Department of Education Right to Read quarterly report form and a task time sheet. The quarterly report form asks for information on the participating school--grade levels of the school, current position, special funding, a brief description of the progress of each participating school in the program…

The report reviews a number of schemes designed to describe the human behaviors occurring during task performance. The purpose of the review is to assess whether such schemes will be useful in classifying tasks per se. Included in the review are schemes which employ such conceptual units as functions, abilities, and overt behaviors. In general,…

A program was conducted to develop a reliable, uniform recording system to describe activities of consultation, mental health education and community organization for program description and assessment which can be used in management and planning. 25 of 47 functioning programs, including regional branches of three county programs, were studied.…

The article describes a structured approach to teaching sign language to severely disabled students through task analysis. The approach emphasizes four basic principles from developmental and behavioral theories: (1) environmental influence, (2) imitation, (3) reinforcement, (4) practice. A functional sign vocabulary of 250 words grouped according…

The article identifies and describes the various dimensions of tasks in task analysis and cautions against an exclusive focus on content. A distinction between the subtasks of learning to do a task and actually doing it is made and the relationship of task analysis to evaluation and instruction presented. (Author/CL)

An overview of Robert M. Gagne's theoretical position of learning and instruction is presented with a discussion of possible applications and usefulness of the theory toward the development of technical instruction. (Author/AG)

In contrast to their instructional use, games may also be used for operational purposes. TAG deals with the process of task anslysis which is an important preliminary activity in instructional development. The game is designed for use by teams of instructional developers. (Author/JA)

Many of the difficulties in organizational structure studies could be attributed to the failure to distinguish between specialized (semi-skilled) and specialist (professional) workers. The concept of role variety, derived from information theory and designed to take account of the varying degrees of interchangeability of personnel at a particular…