A stage of research is reported in which teachers assessed the performance of 15 boys and girls who participated in group discussions as part of the General Certificate of Secondary Education English oral examination. Teachers were found to use different criteria to evaluate the contributions of boys compared to girls. (nine references) (Author/LB)

A model for assessing communicative ability is presented that is prompted by the fact that most error analysts in the past concentrated on morphemic and syntactic levels. It is suggested that emphasis must shift from acquisition of linguistic competence per se to communicative competence. (23 references) (LB)

In a study of aural skills, this paper investigates the relationship between second-language learners' aural comprehension of fast, spoken English and their exposure to systematic listening instruction and to television and radio broadcasts. Data from 709 university-level Korean students show that systematic listening instruction has a powerful…

A study investigated differences in English word recognition in native speakers of Indonesian (an alphabetic language) and Chinese (a logographic languages) learning English as a Second Language. Results largely confirmed the hypothesis that an alphabetic first language would predict better word recognition in speakers of an alphabetic language,…

Examines the process of developing an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) cloze test by computer based on a language corpus. Two such tests developed and pilot-tested in Hong Kong were found to have test items that were not as good as they would have been if designed by a competent human, but better than expected. (Author/MSE)

Empirical studies are essential to improving our understanding of the relationship between accent and pronunciation teaching. However, the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can…

A study investigating the discrepancy between potential and actual use of computer software in elementary education is described. Fifth- and sixth-grade students participating in a computer literacy program in one school were surveyed by questionnaire and interview about the feedback provided in a specific piece of cartooning and creative writing…

This paper describes a coding system devised to analyze conversations of graduate students in applied linguistics at Edinburgh University. The system was devised to test the hypothesis that as shared knowledge among conversation participants grows, the textual density of in-group members has more cues than that of strangers. The informal…

A collection of working papers examining the underlying principles of language teaching, learning, and research includes the following titles: "Some Notes on Krashen's Learned/Acquired Distinction" (Stan Jones); "How Teaching Writing Can Affect One's Own Writing Process" (Toni Miller); "Sentence Combining: Some Questions" (Aviva Freedman);…

The first volume of this series is divided into reports, studies, and preliminary results of work in progress. All were presented at a meeting on contrastive linguistics held in Romania. The project is intended to reveal the specificity of the structures and systems of Romanian and English with a view to comparing them and, on that basis,…

The sixth volume of this series contains eight contrastive studies in the syntax and semantics of English and Romanian. They are: "Criteria for the Contrastive Analysis of English Nouns," by Andrei Bantas; "Adjectives as Noun Modifiers in Post-Verbal Position," by Ioana Poenaru; "Towards a Semantic Description of 'Tense'…

Designed to interpret and synthesize the existing research and related information about dialects for those people who are involved in teaching a standard English to speakers of other dialects, the information in this report is based on an analysis and synthesis of over 1,250 articles and reports dealing with dialects and dialect learning. The…

This paper discusses bilingual education and argues for an interdisciplinary approach to language-related problems. Linguists are becoming aware of the moral and social implications of their efforts in the field of bilingual education within the larger context of social engineering, and they need to explore language-related issues in a broader…

This report, prepared for the September 1975 UNESCO Meeting of Experts on the Diversification of Methods and Techniques for Teaching a Second Language, examines major achievements and recent trends of second language teaching in the United States. English is learned as a second language for several purposes - as a cultural acquisition, for…

This article investigates how 120 teenage bilingual Chinese/English readers comprehended a verb and a noun in a Chinese text. The data are parallel translations made by examination candidates, all in the British educational system. A brief justification of the use of the data is given. This is followed by an overview of approaches to the theory of…