Outlines an oral interview format and scoring system for use with foreign language students during their first and second semesters of language study. (EKN)

Priorities developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in 1980 as the focus for activities in the near future are presented, including specific aspects of curriculum and materials development, foreign language proficiency, public awareness, research, and teacher education. (MSE)

In conversations in social settings, few nonnative speaker errors were corrected by native speakers. Discourse and vocabulary errors were corrected more frequently than errors in syntax and omission, suggesting that treatment of vocabulary in the classroom be reexamined and serious consideration be given to teaching properties of English…

The issues of language assessment and placement raise several important questions: (1) What are the basic premises upon which current language assessment instruments have been developed? (2) What is the state of the art in language proficiency assessment? (3) What implications do current research findings have for language proficiency assessment?…

Recent sociolinguistic research is used to show that the American Sign Language (ASL)-English contact situation does not result in the emergence of a pidgin as supposed. Variation along the ASL-English continuum can be accounted for by interplay of foreigner talk, judgments of proficiency, and learners' attempts to master the target language.…

The widespread problem of functional illiteracy within Canadian labor has been addressed recently by a number of agencies and the press. In times of economic difficulty the outlook is bleak but not hopeless, and the issue must now be kept before the public to encourage effective action. (MSE)

Discusses the need to be flexible and restructure foreign language departments and courses to meet student needs. Describes a four-year, second language program with a nonliterary emphasis, designed for nonforeign language majors as one way to do this. (EKN)

Two studies of the communication skills of orally educated, deaf elementary school children are reported. Severely and profoundly deaf children performed as well as hearing children on limited referential communication. Differences in performance were found among deaf children from three schools with different linguistic philosophies. (Author/DB)

An examination of studies concerning the functional organization of languages in the bilingual brain discusses several variables. Factors that may contribute to the organization of language include age, language proficiency, literacy, reading skills, type of script, language specific factors, social acculturation, teaching method, and style. (CJ)

Describes steps taken at the University of Pennsylvania to change foreign language requirement, including studies of student achievement by administering CEEB Language Achievement Tests and FSI Oral Proficiency Interview and the development of performance standards by faculty in order to make requirements proficiency-based. (BK)

Three media used in a longitudinal, cross-sectional investigation to determine the rate of artistic development in young children were clay modeling, drawing, and storytelling. The most significant result of the study reveals that artistic competence does not proceed upward across all media as the child matures. (JN)

Reports on a study of the relationship of English phonological variation to intelligibility for adult second language learners of English. Indicates that learners tested on their ability to understand working-class (New Yorkese), educated (Standard English), and Foreign-accented speakers of English found the standard more intelligible than the…

Characterizes the intermediate second language learner, taking into account the Gestalt nature of language. (HOD)

Comparability may be obtained for the Language Assessment Scale and the Bilingual Syntax Measure through a change in classification strategies which will also improve the equivalence of the tests and their correlation with achievement. Use of the tests along with teacher ratings should then provide meaningful criteria for classification.…

Examined whether toddler peers use hitting as a means of communication. Results demonstrated that hitting systematically resulted in different social outcomes for two-year-olds but not for one- or three-year-olds. The authors speculate that how gestures are used in nonverbal communication may change as verbal communication comes to dominate peer…