This guide helps parents understand how schools assess their child's English language ability and suggests ways for them to help schools place their children in the most useful language program. All districts must decide which students to test, and then how to test them. Some schools attempt to find out the English skills of all students, and…

A study compared the narrative structures in stories told by monolingual Swedish-speaking children (n=19) and Finnish-speaking immersion students of Swedish (n=19), all in fifth grade. The immersion students had been taught in immersion since kindergarten. Subjects each told a story based on a wordless picture book, which was then analyzed for a…

The testing of 32,000 students in Australia and New Zealand participating in The Australian Language Certificates (ALC) provided the opportunity to examine students' attitude and learning preferences when studying a language other than English. The ALC offered the opportunity to learn seven languages in a Languages Other Than English (LOTE)…

This study investigated the extent to which various factors play a part in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' ability to resolve pronoun-antecedent connections in reading. The subjects were 97 ESL learners with four different native languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish) enrolled in the University of Illinois's Intensive English…

An argument is made for continued and strengthened programs in foreign language instruction in business curricula. Among the points made are the following: economic and commercial development in post-World War II America established strong international ties; the Vietnam War emphasized U.S. inadequacies in cultural literacy; some higher education…

A large-scale statistical study of the predictors of language gain during study abroad is reported. Subjects were 658 American college and graduate students in the Soviet Union between spring 1984 and spring 1990. Variables examined included student characteristics (age, gender, citizenship, country of birth, place and levels of formal education,…

The Fluency First in English as a second language (ESL) project at City College (New York) began as a result of the high failure rate among ESL writing students at the college, and the fact that this kept many students from entering the regular college courses. Revision on the ESL reading and writing curricula, beginning in 1987, focused on…

A study investigated common discourse features in the Spanish of six novice-level Spanish second language learners, as evidenced in oral interviews by two interviewers. Features examined included use of cohesive devices, use of the first language, whispering to self, scaffolding with the interviewer to express themselves, and negotiation. Results…

The Bureau of Indian Affairs developed language and literacy standards for schools serving American Indian students, based on the draft national language arts standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of English. Standards for grades K-4 list abilities and knowledge that Indian students should have by the end of the fourth grade with…

The nature and development of the recently released International English Language Testing System (IELTS) instrument are described. The test is the result of a joint Australian-British project to develop a new test for use with foreign students planning to study in English-speaking countries. It is expected that the modular instrument will become…

A study investigated the disparity between the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) competence of South African black children and the competence required to comprehend content subject textbooks. Two ESL schemes and two fifth-year general science textbooks were analyzed for differences in vocabulary, syntax, speech acts, cohesion and coherence.…

This curriculum guide for Indiana's foreign language education (1) establishes what proficiency is at the end of each of four instructional levels, through sets of competencies, or learning outcomes, to be achieved throughout that level; (2) defines progress throughout the sequence of levels in terms that can be readily understood; and (3)…

This manual presents activities designed to encourage speaking in elementary and secondary school Spanish language classes at the novice and intermediate proficiency levels. Following guidelines outlined in the Utah "Foreign Language Mastery Curriculum Guide," each of the activities is identified according to the topic, level, and…

A discussion of language testing looks at the relationship between the processes of language learning and language testing, particularly from the point of view of pragmatics theory. It outlines some of the theory of Charles Sanders Pierce and its role in the evolution of linguistic theory, as well as the work of other theorists concerning the…

This study examined the loss of proficiency in English as a Second Language (ESL) by Japanese children returning to Japan after a period of time in the United States. Three children who lived in the United States with their families for between 4 and 7 years were interviewed on a monthly basis after their return to Japan. The interviewer engaged…