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,…

Examines the general challenge of proficiency-oriented methodology as applied specifically to beginning Russian-as-a-Second-Language teaching. (Author/OD)

This article shares some learning concepts and activities which have been found to be successful in teaching college courses in basic health issues, drug education, and human sexuality to a varied multi-ethnic student population at the City College of New York. (IAH)

The computer and its attendant software, in combination with cooperative learning principles, provide all students, regardless of English-language proficiency level, greater opportunities for peer communication than are available within the traditional classroom setting. (IAH)

Discusses recent research about contesting the deficit models of language and class. Criticizes the work of Barbara Tizard and Martin Hughes, claiming that, in fact, they create a new version of the deficiency model and fail to analyze the differentials in access to schooling. Notes that such a model ignores social circumstances. (KO)

Uses data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to examine the speaking skills of 21-25 year olds. Finds that 15 to 20 percent of those examined cannot adequately communicate orally. Suggests that speaking proficiency is inversely related to minority status, and positively related to education, occupational status, and age. (MS)

Analysis of four adult Quechua speakers' acquisition of clitic pronouns in Spanish revealed that educational attainment and amount of contact with monolingual Spanish speakers were positively related to native-like norms of competence in the use of object pronouns in Spanish. (CB)

Integrated schools that stress learning among students in two languages are called two-way schools. They provide a singularly rich educational environment and avoid the negative effects of educational segregation by tracking. A Chelsea, Massachusetts, bilingual elementary school focused on team building to use existing resources more effectively.…