Finnish university language centers are responsible for testing the foreign language proficiency of nearly all university students. It is important that students are assigned equitably to courses, including Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) courses. It is also important in LSP teaching for students' needs and opinions to be taken into account,…

This report presents results of a systematic analysis of an extensive database on study in the former Soviet Union assembled by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) over a period of nearly 20 years. The purpose of the report is to document in detail the data used, the analytical strategy and methods employed, and most importantly the…

A study examined the development of pragmatic competence in second language learners, focusing on the requests produced by adult non-native speakers (NNSs) of English across three settings (a university public administrative office, the private office of a university program officer, and an English as a Second Language classroom) and nine levels…

A set of materials compiled for use in British schools and designed to provide information for students, teachers, administrators, and counselors concerning the relationship between second language knowlege and careers is presented in this packet. It consists of the following items: (1) a collection of essays for teachers on languages and careers,…

The development of the Polish Proficiency Test, a standardized, nationally-normed test of listening and reading comprehension for English-speaking learners of Polish, is reported. An introductory chapter provides background information about the test's development, including discussion of the relationship between the test and Polish language…

This English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) assessment kit was designed for use by teachers and program managers who are involved in the initial interview, assessment, and referral of students and who are responsible for placement of learners in programs and classes. Its aims are to help the interviewer to: (1) identify the relative priority of…

A study examined a unique workplace literacy program designed for college preparation. Factors related to retention were studied in a group of paraprofessional health care workers who were attending the program as a step toward career advancement. The 153 participants were mainly women of minority backgrounds who spoke English fluently but not…

Some papers from a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) symposium, "Significant Russian/Soviet Cultural and Pedagogical Developments of the 1980s: Educating American Students for the Year 2000," are presented. After an explanation of the system of transliteration used in the works, the following papers and authors are included:…

This book provides a range of practical ideas for teachers of English as a first or second language for working with newspapers in the classroom. It seeks not only to provide teachers with resources and techniques for using newspapers, but also to give students practice in the skills needed to enable them to read English-language newspapers for…

This paper discusses the use of the re-broadcast of French television news (Le Journal de 20 Heures) as a tool to develop aural proficiency in college students enrolled in a business French course in the United States. Before viewing each 1- to 2-minute news segment, students complete vocabulary exercises and read a relevant newspaper article.…

A project developed at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was designed to meet the needs of secondary school teachers of French and Spanish in two areas: proficiency maintenance and improvement, and proficiency testing. The program consisted of four phases, two during the funding period and two follow-up. The first, proficiency-building, involved…

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Scholars Program is an honors curriculum for outstanding students. Based on the rationale that overseas language study in an appropriate cultural setting can be an exciting and efficient way to acquire cultural understanding and language proficiency in general, and oral fluency in particular, the new…

Holistic scoring is widely used to assess writing proficiency in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition. Written recall protocols have recently been used to investigate the relationship between how much holistic scorers comprehend of a given text and how high they rate the quality of that text. This study investigated whether readers…

A study of the relationship between language learners' attitudes and their development of language proficiency was based on a survey of 50 Yugoslavian university students of English as a Second Language (ESL). The subjects were taking English to fulfill a second language requirement. They were first administered two written attitudinal surveys in…

The instrument for Colorado's Foreign Language Proficiency Sample Project and directions for its administration are provided in this document. The project is a voluntary, teacher-designed and -administered effort to standardize high school student language proficiency assessment techniques. The materials are used in teacher workshops. The…