A method for examining intelligibility is studied that involves recording undergraduates' immediate feedback on communication breakdowns, and then analyzing those breakdowns with English-as-a-Second-Language specialists. Pronunciation was found to be the major cause of unintelligibility. (10 references) (Author/LB)

A college advanced speaking course designed with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines is described. Students prepared and performed many communicative tasks, including narrating, describing, hypothesizing, supporting an opinion, debating, and interviewing for a job. Other components include pair and small-group work, audio and videotaping, and pre-…

To study the adequacy of the brief oral examination format as a basis for assessing oral skills, the study compared samples of 15-minute oral exams with 3-hour written exam results by the same students. The resultant average size of oral samples was about 77% of that of written samples, with good comparability, leading to useful conclusions about…

Presents data from validation study of American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency (OPI). Distinctness of OPI ratings from scores generated by Test of English as a Foreign Language and one other examination is assessed on basis of comparisons among 70 sets of scores from students of English as Second Language who…

A task given to equal numbers of high- and low-achieving machining students and electrical fitting students tested their ability to form sets and set hierarchies. Electrical fitting students had higher achievement. Results suggested that low achievers in technical math may have difficulty with sets because of lack of language facility. (SK)

Examination of syntactic complexity in the movie retellings of 77 elementary school-age Spanish-speaking children revealed developmental differences in the length of T-units, index of subordination, use of relative clauses, and prepositional phrases. Analysis underscores the significance of subordination as a cohesive device and as an indicator of…

Distance learning (DL) is proposed as one means of providing in-session language classes for non-native-speaking postgraduate students at English-medium universities. A DL preparatory language program at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok is described. (48 references) (Author/LB)

A study of 1,586 francophone students in northern Ontario (Canada) found 3 attitudes (either believing French unimportant, believing English practically dominant, or believing their French inadequate) lead students to continue postsecondary education in English. Believing French pleasurable was found to be positively related to continuing…

"False beginners" are students who are ethnically Chinese but are not native speakers of Chinese, and their mixture in language classes with true beginners is problematic. Merits of an individualized teaching program in elementary Chinese for false beginners offered at Ohio State University is described. (JP)

Compares the degree to which pupils in the French immersion and regular English school programs speak French and initiate contact with French people. Attitudes and motivations were significantly more positive, and social tolerance and self-rated competency in French were much higher in the immersion than in English program subjects. (29…

This article asserts that language assessment practices and policies directed toward recent immigrants should be evaluated on the basis of whether or not they facilitate immigrants' participation in Canadian society. Such an evaluation needs to address institutional barriers, the scope of language assessment, and accommodation to immigrant groups.…

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.…