A Hungarian teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) chronicles her research on the use of the cloze procedure in her native country's EFL classes. The research began as an effort to convince other teachers of the test format's usefulness, and ultimately led to further study of the factors affecting responses and scoring and the…

Results of a 1983 survey of Texas foreign language teachers reveal their views and concerns about a new state law requiring all prospective language teachers to pass an oral proficiency interview for certification beginning in 1986. Of the 142 respondents, most were Spanish teachers, high school teachers, and teachers with more than 10 years…

The purpose of this study was to review and evaluate the Basic Inventory of Natural Language (BINL) to help determine whether it should continue to be used in Honolulu's Students of Limited English Proficiency (SLEP) Program. The study looked at four critical aspects of the BINL: its content validity, its test-retest reliability, its effectiveness…

Inconsistencies develop in the educational system both because teachers receive "mixed signals" and because theory and practice become discrepant, a situation which creates dilemmas in language assessment. Some current dilemmas include: (1) the difficulty in determining whether teacher-made and standardized tests measure what they are supposed to;…

The preliminary work of the Scottish "School-Based Assessment of Communicative Foreign-Language Skills in Secondary Classes 3 and 4" to train teachers to undertake increased testing responsibilities under recent educational reforms is explained. The models of communicative competence and performance being developed for use with classroom…

Eight commercially-available listening and note-taking courses are reviewed and a matrix for comparing their characteristics is presented. "Listening and Note-Taking" (Virginia Yates) was written for college-bound high school students and college students who need to improve listening and note-taking skills, while the "Sack-Yourman Study Skills…

The sample for this study included 496 students admitted to a large midwestern university through the special admissions program. Validity coefficients of the Descriptive Tests of Language Skills (DTLS) subtests, the Academic Tests of the ACT Assessment Program (ACT), and high school percentile rank were calculated with cumulative grade point…

Two studies are presented: one study to complement previous empirical investigations in the field of English as a second language (ESL) concerning test anxiety by having examinees reflect on sources of stress during major examinations, and a comparison between anxiety factors in content and skills courses. In the first study, nine university…

Designed to provide information and guidelines for the formation of policy on English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction in the California community colleges, this report to the Board of Governors offers policy recommendations and reports on the findings of a survey of community college ESL offerings. Section I provides background information,…

This paper examines the usage of testing instruments to identify the language and dialect dominance of children. In order not to misuse language assessment tests, a careful distinction must be made between the terms "language proficiency,""language preference," and "relative language proficiency." Differences in the several types of language…

Studies were conducted to help determine criteria for describing the stages through which second language learners pass as they acquire a new language. The ability of 24 beginning adult students of English as a second language to supply ten morphemes in obligatory contexts was predicted on the basis of contrastive analysis between English and each…

The work reported here is part of an ongoing project to develop a language comprehension assessment instrument that: (1) is sensitive enough to pinpoint the particular language phenomena that are causing difficulty or have not been mastered, and (2) is also broad enough in scope to provide a credible and useful description of language proficiency.…

In order to investigate the hypothesis that the conceptualization of sequence precedes that of simultaneity in child development, and to explore the use of elicited imitation in studying lexical acquisition, 32 subjects between 3 and 5 years of age were asked to verbally imitate a list of sentences. The constructions combined simple and reverse…

Describes advantages and disadvantages of computer-assisted foreign language testing, including unique capabilities of the computer, types of tests possible, limitations, problems, and language skill testing. The Spanish Computer Adaptive Placement Examination, developed at Brigham Young University (Utah), is described. (CB)

This paper describes efforts to devise a more effective method of assessing oral proficiency in English using a computer-based testing and computer-based test result management system. This new test would be designed to directly operationalize the second language constructs it measured, and would be developed with reference to the best practices…