Describes the Australian Language Certificates project, an initiative which provides incentives to students studying second languages by offering external recognition of achievement and enhancing the status of secondary school language learning. It includes listening and reading assessment tasks in six languages. Students receive certificates…

Compared 719 first-, second-, third-grade students enrolled in partial-immersion (PI) programs in Japanese, Spanish, or French to 3 comparison groups. Outcome measures used were a mathematics test, Metropolitan Achievement Test in Reading, and Student Oral Proficiency Rating. PI students scored at least as well as, and to some extent better than,…

A study of adults learning French as a second language showed that enhancing the pedagogical environment through development of a French phonetic training program resulted in improved discrimination and production ability among the students. (39 references) (LB)

Sixty Korean speakers of English who had lived in the United States were tested for their ability to judge the grammaticality of English sentences in 12 grammatical categories in a reaction-time task. Findings suggest that a sensitive period exists in second-language (L2) acquisition as evidenced by faster performance by early-learner L2 groups.…

This study presents evidence for the psychological reality of the Subset Principle as a determinant of the acquisition of Governing Category Parameter settings for English anaphors and pronominals. Prelingual deafness was used as a natural experiment in the acquisition of English in the presence of variably impaired access to English language…

Examination of the impact of English Natural Form Instruction (ENFI) Project activities on deaf students' performance on an English placement test revealed that ENFI students performed better than non-ENFI students in expressive English skills and that ENFI activities seemed to benefit most those students with higher receptive language skills and…

A discussion of the benefits and reasons for incorporating literature instruction into beginning and intermediary, as well as advanced foreign language programs, presents suggested prereading, reading, questioning, and postreading activities to help students enjoy and appreciate authentic foreign literature. (CB)

Offers guidelines on the development of nontraditional study abroad programs (i.e., those open to sophomores and seniors as well as juniors and to students without foreign language proficiency). Discusses program promotion, and student recruitment, selection, orientation, and reentry to the U.S. Stresses the need for a full-time program director.…

Analysis of a writing lesson delivered to 22 children in their first year of school shows that instruction in grammar occurs without the use of a metalanguage for the concepts under instruction. Teacher control of knowledge through contingent question and answer is analyzed. (SLD)

Examined the validity of aural and oral self-report scales for determining the Fiji Hindi proficiency of new adolescent immigrants in New Zealand. Participants completed self-reports and performance tests (oral interviews, listening-comprehension tests, and vocabulary tests). Performance tests correlated strongly with self-reports. Respondents…

Reviews interlanguage pragmatics studies with a focus on learning in a liberal sense; in addition to studies with an explicit focus on development, investigations that examine the effect of proficiency as an independent variable on pragmatic performance are also considered. Two lines of inquiry are suggested for further research. (Author/VWL)

Leaders possess certain intelligences. They are linguistically gifted; they can tell good stories and usually can write well. They have strong interpersonal skills, have a good intrapersonal sense of their abilities, and can help others address existential questions and feel engaged in meaningful quests. However, intelligence is no guarantor of…

A study examined levels of learning strategy use in 149 Hong Kong university students of English-as-a-Second-Language, and the relationship to language proficiency, using the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The appropriateness of using SILL and proficiency measure in tandem to establish a clear relationship between strategy use…

Investigates the effect teachers trained with American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages oral proficiency interview-type training has on student performance, instructional methods, and classroom materials in the secondary foreign-language classroom. Results of teacher interviews and questionnaires supported the hypothesis that trained…

Discusses why culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom. Focuses on survival and cultural proficiency, background knowledge, the elements of culture that should be taught and how, the goals of teaching culture, conventions and social amenities, connotation, integrating culture in the foreign language curriculum, and techniques and…