The Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) is a semi-direct performance-based speaking test that emulates the face-to-face Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) as closely as practical, using a tape recording and printed test booklet. The prototypical SOPI contains simple personal background questions typical of an initial encounter (warm-up) and…

Findings of the testing project carried out in the course of the 1959 Summer Russian Language Learning Program at Harvard University (Massachusetts) are presented. A number of students were selected for training at the Russian School at Middlebury College (Vermont) and the Summer Workshop in Russian at Indiana University. After a 6-week summer…

The report describes a 3-year project to identify and develop appropriate assessment tools for placing adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students into the appropriate proficiency levels according to California's state ESL standards for adult education programs. This involved reviewing 18 commercially available instruments to determine their…

In describing reading proficiency--the relative difficulty or ease that an individual reader experiences reading a particular text--researchers have recognized the importance of both text- and reader-based factors. This digest focuses on the factor of purpose, as determined by the reader or the instructional context. Having a purpose means having…

A study examined the varying degrees to which learners of Spanish at the intermediate and advanced levels use paragraph-like structure in their answers during a simulated oral proficiency exam. Subjects were 24 students preparing for the Spanish Texas Oral Proficiency Test. Data from simulated oral proficiency interviews were compared to a model…

Project-based learning is an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop. For example, learners may research adult education resources in their community and create a handbook to share with other language learners in their program, or they might interview local employers…

Procedures for evaluating differential item functioning (DIF) are commonly used to investigate the statistical equivalence of items that are translated from one language to another. However, the methodology developed for detecting DIF is designed to evaluate the functioning of the same items administered to two groups. In evaluating the…

A discussion of language testing focuses on how proficiency scales are constructed and applied to communicative language assessment in Australian secondary schools. A variety of rating scale types are described and distinguished according to how they are constructed, what they attempt to measure, and what criteria they contain. A more detailed…

The final report chronicles activities for the two years of a grant to develop an intermediate-level test of Russian language proficiency based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines. The resulting test is designed to determine proficiency levels of students with two or more years of high school…

A study investigated factors in design of oral language comprehension tests and their relevance in determining actual language proficiency, focusing on the tests' decoding requirements. Task-based, interactive oral language tests were designed: (1) to elicit information about integration of first (L1) and second languages (L2) in the learner's…

The proficiency movement in second language teaching has had a wide impact because it represents not only an attempt to introduce a national metric but also an attempt to modify the nature of the second language curriculum. The curriculum has been pointed in the direction of instruction in the functional use of language. The list of languages…

This booklet presents the highlights of the 46th International Conference on Educational Exchange including the texts of three speeches given at the Conference. Conference sessions addressed global competence from the perspective of international exchanges, various professions, and the formal educational system, as well as the relation of global…

This final evaluation of the 1991-92 program year of the Latin American literacy Project, designed to foster English language literacy in Spanish-speaking families in Canada, is intended as a formative report, American Literacy Project is intended as a formative report, assessing the changes in the students' language proficiency and the progress…

A theoretical framework for an integrated second language writing plan is proposed, and concrete suggestions and applications around which proficiency-based writing activities can be designed, developed, and implemented are offered. Writing is defined as a thinking process that needs to be introduced and practiced early in the language course. In…

As concerns about educational planning mount, the perspectives of the foreign language teaching profession will come face to face with national policy agendas, and there may be conflict. The profession must be aware of perspectives other than its own at the same time that it sets and maintains its own goals. Public debate has arisen about the…