Reviews research literature on the effectiveness of bilingual education programs. Argues that scientifically valid evaluation studies offer no consistent support for transitional bilingual education as a superior practice for improving the English-language achievement of limited English proficient (LEP) children and, in fact, suggest evidence of…

Investigation of the monitoring behavior of Turkish children speaking Dutch as a second language found that subjects' use repairs increased or decreased with a certain age. A positive relationship was found between monitoring use and subjects' cognitive skills and second language proficiency. (27 references) (Author/CB)

Responses of 118 Cantonese-speaking students at Hong Kong English-medium secondary schools to a questionnaire indicated those factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of the English-medium education include: (1) lack of exposure to English outside the classroom; (2) absence of the Hawthorne effect on the immersion programs; and (3)…

Outlines an application of theoretical understandings of institutionalized or nativized varieties of English to the practical concern of English-as-a-Second-Language programs, including testing, placement, and pedagogy. (29 references) (Author/OD)

Effects of instructional level, teacher's knowledge of children's ability, amount of teacher-initiated activity, and age on language ability were investigated. The subjects were 597 three- to six-and-a-half- year old Head Start children--40 percent White, 38 percent Black, and 20 percent Hispanic. All variables assessed had a direct effect on…

Explores the problems of international teaching assistants (ITA) in graduate education programs, stemming mostly from cultural, language, and educational philosophy differences. A case study of one university's attempts to investigate problems connected with ITA training identifies objectives for selection, admission, training, and retention of…

Reports on two studies designed to prove three hypotheses: (1) five-year-olds can successfully learn a second language (L2); (2) early L2 learning has a positive effect on the development of children's cognitive and first language linguistic abilities; and (3) early L2 learning assists socio-economically disadvantaged children in overcoming…

Questions the plausibility of the unitary competence hypothesis, which assumes a universal structure of second language competence. New evidence, showing divergent structures in language ability subgroups and different influences of teaching styles on different language components, better supports a multidimensional model of foreign language…

Reviews second-language teaching methods and classroom practices in Arab countries as well as the general proficiency of secondary school leavers. The article proposes a teaching method in which the learning activities play a key role. Results of the implementation of this method are discussed. (18 references) (Author/CK)

Overviews differences regarding goals and approaches for foreign language (FL) education and identifies obstacles to consensus. The author situates the different discourse communities interested in FL education, and the contexts providing the "raison d'etre" for these differences. Two responses to this overview and the author's reaction to them…

Conversational and narrative language samples were elicited from 16 school-age individuals with mental retardation and 16 typically developing children matched for mental age. Analysis demonstrated that both groups produced more syntactically complex language during narration, whereas they were more talkative during conversation. Results support…

Investigates the effectiveness of two types of computer feedback: one is traditional computer feedback that indicates only missing or unexpected words in the learner's response, and the other is intelligent computer feedback that provides further information about the nature of the errors in the form of metalinguistic rules. (17 references)…

Reports on an experiment in electronic mail and computer-assisted classroom discussion among 41 college-level French students. Describes the research design and the results as they relate to students' attitudes and motivation. Finds that local area networks seem to encourage discussion among students. (CFR)

Infants' visual recognition memory (VRM) at seven months was associated with their general intelligence, language proficiency, reading and quantitative skills, and perceptual organization at six years. Infants' VRM, object permanence, and cross-modal transfer of perceptions at one year were related to their IQ and several outcomes at six years.…

This study examined linguistic interdependence in 98 bilingual Turkish/Dutch children of Turkish background living in the Netherlands since birth, to determine whether language and literacy skills can be transferred from 1 language. The results indicated that, although the transference of lexicon and syntax skills was limited, pragmatic,…