In one approach to French second-language instruction, students use free writing assignments to express themselves in their newly learned second language. The primary objective is to encourage students to use the language in a nonthreatening context; it also offers the teacher insights into student problems and needs. (MSE)

Research and practice in detecting and controlling for cheating on objective tests are reviewed and a small survey of attitudes and practices is reported. Potential of two computer programs to detect error similarities and use of multiple answer-sheet forms to control cheating are discussed. Teacher cheating is also addressed. (Author/MSE)

A discussion of errors made in second-language learning focuses on the control that the speaker himself exerts over mistakes and argues that this would be a useful area for further research. Implications of such analysis for second-language instruction are considered. (MSE)

Findings of four investigations involving five through seven year olds suggest that, even though children can make relatively accurate judgments of their knowledge states, they tend to overestimate their competence when assessing their knowledge in relation to performance on a task. (RH)

Using simulation, the effect that misspecification of elements in the weight matrix has on estimates of basic parameters of the linear logistic test model was studied. Results indicate that, because specifying elements of the weight matrix is a subjective process, it must be done with great care. (SLD)

Describes how to use intonation and dialog context to improve the performance of an automatic speech-recognition system. Experiments utilized the DCIEM Maptask corpus, using a separate bigram language model for each type of move and showing that, with the correct move-specific language model for each utterance in the test set, the recognizer's…

Article dispels the following myths about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): it has neurobiological base that can only be treated with medication; it must be treated with contingency management procedures; the children do not perform well under partial reinforcement schedules; and students must receive special-education services.…

This study evaluated an experimental articulation testing instrument for differentiating child speakers (N=21, ages 5:0 to 6:6) of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) with atypical and typical phonologies. Significant group differences were observed, suggesting that the measure can differentiate typical and atypical development in this…

Discusses the significance of causation/reasoning patterns in Korean. Presents crucial examples of acquisition errors of the patterns collected from students learning Korean as a foreign language and proposes an alternative explanation and analysis of these patterns.(Author/VWL)

Examined developmental changes in time estimation among 5- to 99-year olds. Found that older adults and young children performed at lower levels than young adults; identified qualitative differences in error patterns of older adults and children. Proposed model of temporal generalization and bisection assuming developmental changes in noisiness of…

Examined whether a detailed analysis of age-related changes in error patterns could reveal the mechanisms underpinning development in short-term memory. Tested developmental changes among 7- to 11-year-olds in their serial recall of lists of 6 letters, finding developmental differences in the patterns of errors. (JPB)

Addresses the lack of data on procedures used to recruit subjects in marital research by examining the effects of different sampling techniques. In Study One, couples recruited through newspaper advertisements were found to be at greater risk for marital discord. In Study Two, couples who responded to mailed solicitation were found to be less…

First-language attrition and loss of noun-phrase gender agreement were studied for 22 months with two Puerto Rican sisters, beginning at ages 6.6 and 4.6 years. Analysis of taped mother-child conversations suggests that Spanish gender agreement morphology is vulnerable to language loss. Subjects' gender errors were related to their language…

Weak English-as-a-foreign-language students adopt several mistaken strategies to understand text or to perform text-based tasks. This article describes mistaken strategies, provides examples of each, explains the cause or causes of such mistaken approaches, and suggests possible solutions. (Author/VWL)

This article proposes a new approach to the statistical analysis of pairwisepresent covariance structure data. The estimator is based on maximizing the complete data likelihood function, and the associated test statistic and standard errors are corrected for misspecification using Satorra-Bentler corrections. A Monte Carlo study was conducted to…