Discusses the lack of motivation in the United States for learning foreign languages. Suggests that starting second languages earlier will produce more people both proficient in a second language and sensitive to other cultures. (EKN)

Discusses the benefits of short answers and how they differ in German and English. Provides hints on how to teach students to produce reduced answers that are grammatically acceptable in spoken German. (EKN)

A 1977 survey of 24 United States foreign correspondents who had covered the Middle East suggested that they believed that news media coverage of the Middle East had improved since 1973; however, the results also pointed up problems with correspondents' knowledge of local languages and reporting techniques. (GT)

Overseas doctors working in the United Kingdom fall into two groups: those who studied medicine in English and those who did not. This article details the active and passive language skills that doctors working in England need and those in which the overseas doctors are deficient. (Author/PJM)

Discusses the present state of assessing students' oral language proficiency. Includes a comparison of achievement and proficiency test formats, an explanation of the ratings system, and a discussion on the need for a common standard. The adoption of frequency ratings by the academic community is a way off. (PJM)

Responds to some of the arguments in Firth and Wagner's (F&W's) article appearing in this issue. Argues that whether one uses a psychological or sociological paradigm, it makes sense to follow the practice of assigning preference to experimental rather than naturalistic settings and agrees with F&W that other factors besides one's proficiency in…

Investigates variability in interlanguage consonant cluster simplification strategies within the four factors--style, gender, proficiency, and interlocutor. Examined how these factors determine Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) speakers' production of English word-initial consonant clusters. (Author/VWL)

A study evaluated the language production of 12 children (ages 5-8) who continued stuttering for 36 months or more after onset, 10 who recovered 18-36 months post onset, and 10 who recovered within 18 months of onset of stuttering. The majority of the children performed in the average range on measures of language production. (Author/CR)

Discusses the work of Seiichi Makino, a scholar of Japanese, noting that his work in establishing the Japanese proficiency guidelines helped make it appear that Japanese language teaching was part of mainstream American language teaching. (Author/VWL)

Examined whether beginning second language (L2) learners who focus on Spanish derivational morphology learn more vocabulary than learners who do not, if they can apply morphological knowledge respectively and productively, and if their success depends on their L2 proficiency. (Author/VWL)

Ten native Chinese speaking children and adolescents who immigrated to the United States between the ages of 5 and 16 were studied for 3 years. Changes in their language preferences, language environments, and proficiency in English (their second language), as well as Chinese (their first language), were measured quantitatively and qualitatively.…

This research project examined the foreign language reading process of students of French faced with expository French-language texts. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of analogies in reading passages on the reading comprehension of novice and advanced French learners. (VWL)

Examines resolution of referential conflicts in second-language (L2) interaction in two different pairings of L2 learners. Pairs where the higher proficiency member was in the dominant role engaged in little interactive behavior, whereas pairs where the less proficient member was dominant engaged in substantial negotiation and interaction and were…

Examination of differences in the language-learning strategies of monolingual and multilingual adults found no clear evidence that multilinguals were superior in language-learning abilities overall, although they were more able to adjust their learning strategies according to language task requirements. (Author/CB)

Examines the production of yes/no questions by native speakers of English and speakers of Singapore English, a non-native regional variety. The findings suggest that what constitutes target-like use remains ill-defined as long as native speaker behavior is assumed, or intuited, rather than documented. (40 references) (GLR)