The usefulness of the Preschool Preposition Test (PPT) as a cognitive screening and diagnostic tool for handicapped children is demonstrated through results of eight independent studies. The subjects were 354 children and youths, aged two to 20 years, with various handicaps: mentally retarded, autistic-like, moderately emotionally disturbed,…

This paper describes the experience of two children, native-speakers of Hebrew, in a language center in England. The language center provides a total immersion program in English for a multi-lingual population of children aged 5 to 12 years. The small-group and individualized instruction, the instructional materials and facilities, and the close…

This collection of papers on teaching English as a second language includes the following: (1) "Testing: A Case for Cooperation," by Paul A. Angelis; (2) "Developing a Learning Syllabus in ESL by Teacher Consensus," by Donald Byrd; (3) "Using Debate in ESOL," by Janet Constantinides and Mary Fry; (4) "Non-Verbal Films for Discussion," by Stephen…

An intensive course in English for business communication, offered at an institute for graduate-level teacher training in Ukraine, is described. An introductory section examines the need for and approaches to English-as-a-Second-Language teaching in Ukraine. The course consists of two main parts: a 14-week intensive general English class, titled…

Arkansas law requires that each student aged 7 through 16 years in a home school program be tested annually using a nationally recognized standardized test chosen by the students' parents from a list of tests approved by the state. Achievement for home schooled and public schooled students in Arkansas was compared for grades 4, 7, and 10 using 6…

The appropriateness of the Angoff method (W. H. Angoff, 1971) for setting standards on tests was studied. Evaluators (judges) from California school districts and teacher training institutions reviewed 15 NTE (National Teacher Examinations) Program Specialty Area Tests published by the Educational Testing Service for their appropriateness in…

Three main issues relating to the question of silent speech in reading are considered: (1) How do Chinese speakers process Chinese ideographs in short-term memory? (2) How is Chinese students' learning of written English affected by the transition to an alphabetic language? (3) Are the strategies for encoding written words in short-term memory…

The paper reports some of the results of a preliminary survey of the language proficiency of matriculation students of French in Britain and Australia. The technique used (especially the use of Chief Examiners' reports) is justified and the deficiencies that exist in current matriculation examinations are noted. In particular, the examinations are…

This study examines the relationship between an open-ended cloze test and its multiple-choice versions generated from three sources: (1) interlingual learner-generated distractors--distractors selected from one language group and administered to a different language group, (2) intralingual learner-generated distractors--distractors selected from…

This study compared three reading skill areas (recalling details, understanding a main idea not explicitly stated, and making inferences) in Spanish, the subjects' native language, and American English, their second language. The sample consisted of 47 adults from nine Latin American countries and Puerto Rico who were completing an intensive ESOL…

This report discusses the importance of bilingual reading instruction for limited English speaking ability (LESA) students, and careful testing of their language dominance and reading levels. Bilingual students, and English- and Spanish-dominant students from the Fabens Independent School District, Grades K-13, were tested for the data reported…

Most instructional materials developed in the past 10-15 years do not provide for sufficient activities to allow the student to become involved in anything other than drill and memorization. Furthermore, in those situations where "communication activities" do occur, they are designed to teach the sentence as a structural, grammatical…

The issue of using language proficiency or language dominance to assess programs for high school students with limited English speaking backgrounds is addressed. The development and initial analyses of the Competency Based Oral Language Assessment (COLA) are discussed. Three components of oral language are rated separately: semantics; syntax and…

Whether teachers, in the absence of standardized test scores, can adequately identify students who require remedial services or are at risk of failing a literacy test was studied. During the 1987-88 school year 22 fourth-grade teachers were asked to identify which of 530 students of various ethnic backgrounds would score in the top or bottom…

The public schools reform movement has led to a proliferation of minimum competency testing programs by states. At the 11th/12th grade level, the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS), mandated by Texas House Bill 72, is an exit exam, divided into two sections which measure minimum competencies in math and language skills.…