A set of functional-analytic materials, entailing the study and practice of sociostylistic variation, was implemented in three eighth-grade French immersion (FI) classrooms by their respective teachers during French language arts classes over a five-week period. Pre- and posttests indicate that functional-analytic teaching improved FI students'…

Examines nonpsychological determinants of students' college major choice to challenge the premise that college major choice is not solely determined by vocational interests. Surveyed more than 300 Chinese-American undergraduates, a majority of whom are first-generation immigrants enrolled in institutions of higher education in Greater New York.…

A study was undertaken to assess the adequacy of current Master's and doctoral English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and applied linguistics program curricula in preparing administrators acquainted with administrative theories. Secondary objectives were to determine the appropriateness of such programs in preparing students for teaching, research,…

This paper reviews the traditional relationship established between teaching and learning, in which teaching and teachers' concerns take focus. The maintenance of this hierarchical relationshp has resulted in a communication breakdown between educators and students, and a situation into which students have little or no input in terms of changing…

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of research are included in this status report for the January 1 - March 31, 1979 period. The reports deal with the following topics: an articulatory synthesizer for perceptual research; the perception of an oral-nasal continuum…

A survey was completed by 194 secondary school English teachers in Switzerland. Data indicate that: (1) a relatively small number of teachers have degrees from universities outside Switzerland; (2) the study of English generally does not begin until the age of 15; (3) the great majority of English classes meet for three or four hours a week; (4)…

This study of the linguistic acts of assenting and confirming is inspired by an attempt to create instructional materials for the learning of spoken English as a second language, with communicative competence as a goal. Observations are based on several hours of informal conversation between native speakers of English, mostly students and…

Adult listeners have the ability to identify spoken samples of a language that they do not know and to discriminate among languages. In order to accomplish these tasks, listeners attend to rhythm, pitch excursions, and segmental properties of language samples. That is, they create simple representations of phonology. This study examined the…

This study reports on the development, administration, and analysis of a test of collocational knowledge for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners of a wide range of proficiency levels. Through native speaker item validation and pilot testing, three subtests were developed and administered to 98 ESL learners of low-intermediate to advanced…

A study of teacher and student attitudes about instructional materials used in a university-level English-as-a-Second-Language course in South Korea found a low negative correlation between learner and teacher views on both the usefulness and the enjoyable quality of the materials incorporated into lessons. Questionnaires used for both teacher and…

Foreign language (FL) needs is a new interdisciplinary area of research developing between applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational planning and evaluation. FL needs consist of the demands, wishes, and expectations of the whole society, its groups and individuals, reflecting the relationship of their contemporary and future existence…

A major implication in the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages concerns classroom interaction in which students should participate. Ideally, this interaction should be identical to interaction in real-life communication situations that students will encounter. A prerequisite for determining whether these situations are in…

To determine the usefulness of cohesion frequency analysis in differentiating proficiency in the oral and written composition of English as a second language (ESL) learners, 22 adult learners of ESL were asked to write and tell a story. After transcription, the data were analyzed by holistic evaluation, cohesion form and frequency count, and error…

This is the second of two volumes of working papers produced by working groups of the National Congress on Languages in Education. The papers in this volume are concerned with the relationship between the acquisition and teaching of the native language and the learning and teaching of other languages. The papers included are the following: (1)…

Addresses challenges faced by bilingual children transitioning to literacy in English when answering reading comprehension questions requiring interpretation and synthesis of information related to fictitious characters' thoughts. Notes that understanding a character's perspective may depend on inference, rather than on lexical content within a…