Investigates the degree to which potential users of language reading proficiency scales acquire the standard for accurately grading reading passages of foreign-language learners. A five-day workshop helped users of the guidelines rank reading passages for levels of difficulty and rate them accurate according to the ACTFL scales. (Author/CB)

Significant test concepts are discussed and guidelines are given for planning and constructing test items. Examples are given for evaluating reading comprehension and suggestions are made for pre- and post-test activities. (Author/RM)

The dicto-comp, an exercise consisting of a passage to be read several times by the student and then reproduced, usually taps a student's ability to write dictation and composition. Here the emphasis is on composition rather than auditory memory expansion, with the idea that each dicto-comp has a specific teaching point to convey. (PJM)

This article introduces the reader to two online sources of materials for working on improving listening and reading skills. The materials are intended for learners already at Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 (Superior) proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Spanish, who desire to reach Level 4 (Distinguished, or…

Reports on the first phases of an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages project to develop a computerized adaptive test of reading proficiency. The theoretical multidimensionality of the construct is clarified, and its implications for test development, item calibration, and validation procedures are discussed. (Author/SED)

Presents the results of research designed to examine language acquisition within the four skill areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as it is affected by both non-distorted retardation and repetition of speech. (CLK)

There is a tendency for students studying a French lesson to lose the positive effects gained during the listening and speaking phase when they read the "Lecture" sections of their texts. A study of six beginning level French texts shows that the "Lecture" is difficult for students and not systematically graduated in difficulty. (PJM)

The new language program at Loyola University of Chicago is interdisciplinary, with a linguist giving lectures relating a specific language to the study of language itself. Goals emphasize reading as a key to culture. Options include courses in linguistics, literature, or oral and written expression. (CHK)

Documents strategy, affective reactions, and metacognitive assessments of beginning French students encountering their first French reading exercise via think-aloud and recall protocols. Findings suggest that beginning second language readers transfer strategies from the first language and other reading experiences to new reading situations and…

Describes a study that investigated the types of rhetorical structures that beginning-level Spanish students encounter in their textbook reading materials. The intent of the study was to determine whether there was a match between the types of structures that English-speaking students are most typically able to demonstrate awareness of and the…

Examples of worksheets are given and their use discussed in teaching an audiolingual course in French on the junior and senior high school levels. Activities on the worksheets involve auditory discrimination and reading and writing skills. Tape recordings are used. (RM)

Describes a strategy for teaching second-language listening comprehension by adapting several aspects of a successful reading model, explores the processes underlying listening and reading as well as pedagogical implications of current research in receptive skills. Specific guidelines for integrating listening skills are presented. (Author/CB)

Presents the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' provisional generic descriptions for nine levels (novice-low, novice-mid, novice-high, advanced, advanced plus, and superior) in the following areas: (1) speaking, (2) listening, (3) reading, (4) writing, and for six levels in culture. (SED)

Responds to Michael Canale's paper, "Considerations in the Testing of Reading and Listening Proficiency." Approaches Canale's three points of discussion from a textual point of view. Discusses the kinds of language materials likely to be encountered in texts at selected proficiency levels and how this material may be tested. (SED)

The miscues of thirty randomly chosen third-year French students in four high schools were examined and analyzed to discover the strategies they used. (Author/RM)