Cautions against adapting the Interagency Language Roundtable and the ACTFL/ETS guidelines for specific purposes. Defines "hothouse special" as a second language learner who can impressively speak on one or two higher topics but fails to transfer this level of vocabulary and grammar to other topics. Proposes new definitions of proficiency,…

Investigates the type of errors that can be shown to result from native language interference, specifically the production and perception of word juncture of American English speakers studying the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Argues that word juncture phenomena are a function of syllable structure and presents other cases illustrating this. (SED)

Examines longitudinal data from two Vietnamese learners of English to investigate syllable structure in their interlanguages. First language transfer emerged as the dominant process influencing syllable structure in interlanguage phonology. Analysis of conversational data at three points over a 10-month period showed first language transfer in…

Discusses the role of immigrant parents' attitudes toward the majority culture in their children's second-language acquisition and overall educational achievement. (EKN)

Reports on study in which students of Hebrew as a second language took four versions of oral proficiency test. Results indicate that different speech styles and topics significantly affected students' scores, and correlational analyses between pairs pointed to low reliability and lack of stability of the test. Urges caution in making decisions…

Presents some of Earl Stevick's ideas on language teaching and learning in the form of an informal interview. (EKN)

A procedure is outlined for teaching spelling to students of English as a second language. (RM)

Informational texts are useful for teaching fundamental linguistic structures, because their stylistic variables can be ignored, and because they provide information about aspects of the world which the student will encounter in literary texts. Literary texts speak directly to the reader, and have high motivational value. (IFS/WGA)

Using as an example Lesson 21 of the textbook "Lebendiges Englisch" ("Living English") (Munich, Hueber 1976), some hints are given on how to work on the lesson. The suggestions for discussion bear on the treatment of dialogs and reading texts. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

The desirability of the language laboratory as a teaching tool is argued, and productive ways to use it are described. (RM)

Discusses the relation between the linguistic and the FL-teaching aspects of grammatical problems, using as an example "parler a quelqu'un" vs. "penser a quelqu'un." Recent attempts by linguists to differentiate between the two verb groups are discussed and suggestions are given for teaching. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

The problem of looking up Chinese characters in dictionaries indexed by classifiers is simplified by identifying the 68 high frequency classifiers for memorization and leaving the least frequent to be identified from a chart. (CHK)

Factors to be considered in selecting a text for a foreign language classroom are divided into five categories--student/text relationship, curriculum/text relationship, class size/text relationship, teacher/text relationship, and internal construction of the text--are discussed. (RM)

Five ways are described in which the language laboratory can be used with students who have passed the stage at which they can profit from drills and other repetitive material. (RM)

This annotated bibliography aims to present the latest resources, published and electronic, in the field of second language learning and teaching related to English Language Learners (ELLs). Various databases, assessments, books, handouts, journal articles, papers, reports, and Web sites are included. When possible, the annotations are made…