Investigation of the extent to which young bilingual children's code differentiation correlated with language mixing revealed that children who avoided using their other language when naming pictures of objects which were not known in one of the languages showed significantly less mixing in their speech than children who freely substituted words…

Students of German need to be made aware of the pragmatic contrasts between American English and standard German to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. Examples are given of contrasts such as power relationships between speaker and listener, affecting choice of verb; the uses of "bitte" and "danke" versus "please"…

Attempts to establish a practical approach to teaching the various meanings of the German verb "handeln". Exercises that aid advanced students in understanding the verb's meaning include a complete list of all possible meanings of the verb, as well as sample sentences using the verb in a wide range of contexts. (LMO)

Much research in second language reading uses a free written recall task to measure comprehension. The significance of differences in research design is analyzed. Sixteen groups of college Spanish students (N=20 each group) were given a recall task (in appendix). Research variables, including level of study, language of recall, and pre-reading…

Trends affecting the shape and scope of foreign language major programs involve: (1) accountability and explicitness of instructional goals; (2) the dichotomy between the pragmatic, market-oriented perception of language and the profession's view of the humanistic value of language study; and (3) a sense of realism in the climate of foreign…

More than 1,500 high school foreign language students were tested for comprehension of authentic texts. First- through fifth-year French, German, and Spanish students read texts of the types mentioned in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines at the intermediate and intermediate high levels. All students captured some meaning from each of the texts.…

Assessment of fourth-year pupils in two neighboring London schools (one grammar, one comprehensive) over a full academic year indicated that student attitudes, motivation, and proficiency, often influenced by placement in ability groups, significantly affected second-language learning. (Author/CB)

Questionnaire responses of college students revealed that those pursuing modern language or linguistic degrees (N=63) were significantly more aware and knowledgeable of traditional grammar than were students pursuing other degrees (N=175), although many had studied a foreign language at the secondary school or college level. (CB)

Analysis of responses to two cloze tests administered to native and non-native speakers of English revealed that non-natives were far less capable of coping with the loss of redundant cohesive data than were natives. Nonnatives were more reliant on text in comprehension process than were native speakers. (Author/CB)

A review of recent classroom research regarding writing processes reveals ways in which contextual factors affect student learning. Teachers should investigate the relationship between teaching and writing development in their own classrooms. (Author/CB)

Presents the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language's language proficiency guidelines for Japanese, encompassing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills for novice, intermediate, and advanced learners. (CB)

Offers an annotated bibliography featuring citations regarding introductory materials on psycholinguistics, language acquisition, classroom learning, learning styles, communicative language teaching, instructional methods, testing, and curriculum development. (CB)

Assesses the influence of religious-specific background knowledge on adult ESL listening comprehension. Sixteen Moslems, 20 Christians, and 28 religion-neutral students listened to two passages, one on prayer rituals of Islam and one on those of Christianity. Students better recalled and understood the passage related to their respective religious…

Discusses the design and interpretation of instrumental phonetic studies of second language (L2) speech production. The speech of L2 learners is evaluated to determine to what extent it diverges from the differing phonetic norms of L1, which are estimated from the speech of a small number of native speakers. (Author/LMO)

Recent research has shown that effective second-language reading involves an interaction of the reader with the text. This interactive view has relevance for other areas of second-language processing, including listening comprehension, writing, and English for special purposes. Future research is needed in metacognition, relationships among…