A semantic-relatedness test and a cloze-type/sentence-completion test compared meanings ascribed to spatial prepositions by adult native English and advanced English-as-a-second-language speakers. Non-native speakers differed from native speakers in the semantic boundaries ascribed to the words, with the differences deriving from weighting…

Evaluation of a half-day French immersion kindergarten program assessed the English and French language development of participating students and found that pupils who spent half their academic time in foreign language classrooms progressed just as well in English as did matching controls who spent all day in English language classrooms.…

Analysis of the performance of 257 adult English-as-a-second-language students on six language tests (multiple choice, cloze, listening, reading, structure) indicated that age was a significant factor on listening and structure tests and high school graduation affected performance on all tests but one listening test. (Author/CB)

Study of the reading achievement of nonnative speakers of English enrolled in a basic skills college reading course indicated that those students receiving computer-assisted instruction (CAI) made higher reading achievement gains than students not receiving CAI. An annotated list of CAI reading software is included. (CB)

Summarizes five theories explaining the relationship between word knowledge and comprehension of text in native language acquisition and explores possible implications for second language researchers and practitioners. (Author/CB)

A survey exploring important aspects of language learning as perceived by university students (N=1,135) enrolled in required foreign language courses revealed that, while students most highly valued oral proficiency, teachers appeared to value testing and evaluation practices most highly. (CB)

Investigation of the relevance of student background discipline (185 college students studying science and technology, biology, and humanities and social science) on tests of reading comprehension in English as a foreign language found that content area passages do affect student performance on reading comprehension tests but not as greatly as…

Historical forces and factors affecting the development of Canada's bilingual programs for ethnic minorities include changing immigration policies, a decline in Anglo-conformism and growth in multiculturalism, fears about native language maintenance and second language learning, and language and cultural attitudes in second language learning. (MSE)

Explains the language program options available for Hispanic students. Defines bilingual education and its purposes. Explains the following aspects of the Integral Education model: primary curriculum focus on English, primary opportunities for oral Spanish, intermediate classes in the Spanish language, and transitional assistance. (DMM)

The development of the concept of word is discussed in terms of specific advantages that might be available to bilingual children when compared with their monolingual peers. Three studies are reviewed in which bilingual children show more advanced understanding of some aspects of the concept of word than do monolingual children (Author/LMO)

Some aspects of second language referential communication are analyzed in an experimental setting. The experimental task required subjects, who were visually separated but allowed to converse freely, to reach agreement on the ordering of a set of abstract shapes over a number of trials. (Author/LMO)

Study of the relationship between attitudes of native speakers and improved nonnative performance in Spanish and the relationship between increased degree of bilingualism and positive evaluations of nonnative speech suggested that language background has some influence on the perception of others' level of fluency. (CB)

Using a new method, 48 children in an elementary school in Rome, Italy, were taught a foreign language (26 English, 22 German) and tested after three years. The authors attempt to explain the variation in test results in terms of the students' attention, memory, and phonetic discrimination. (CFM)

Considers current research on reading in a second language from five points of view: (1) the reader's role in light of new models of language and textual meaning; (2) revised definitions of textual meaning and reader processing; (3) reader processing of schemata; (4) relationship between second-language competency and reader strategies; and (5)…

Shows that native-speaking Arabic readers produce search functions that are radically different from the search functions of readers whose script uses the Roman alphabet (RAs). The processes used by Arabic readers are more akin to the processes used by RAs when searching arrays of shapes. (Author/LMO)