An online writing center developed at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, called Calliope, provides a modular platform aimed at enhancing learners' professional writing skills in five different languages: Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish. It supports courses in business and technical communication. The current version includes modules…

One aspect of the development of a performance assessment is addressed--the field testing of the tasks. In a performance-based assessment, the tasks must allow each examinee a fair and equal opportunity to give the best possible demonstration of his or her ability, and must elicit a performance sample that enables scorers to evaluate each examinee…

A study examined the production of lateral consonants in seven male university students bilingual in Spanish and Catalan who had studied French in elementary and secondary school. A questionnaire elicited information about the subjects' use of each language with parents, with friends, at home, and in school. Each subject then read a 775-word text…

A study investigated the role of attitudes and motivation in second language learning by administering a semantic differential measure to college students studying Spanish in three different tracks (linguistic, cultural, and bilingual, or native-speaker). The student's track was determined by grades and language experience. Findings suggest that…

The primary objectives of the Mexican American Project at Sacramento State College are to prepare "agents of change" through the applied social sciences, to work within the culture of the schools, to increase the opportunities for the Mexican American learner, to further the concept of involvement of the Spanish-speaking community in the…

Compares students in two English-as-a-Second-Language writing environments: a networked computer-assisted classroom and a traditional oral classroom. Results indicate that while the writing environment has no effect on attitudes toward writing with computers or writing apprehension, writing quality improves in the computer-assisted classroom and…

Examined preschool and primary school students' ability to recognize differences between spoken samples of languages foreign to them. Results found that, although both groups performed as well as adults when the languages within a pair differed, preschoolers performed significantly worse than primary school and college students when the speakers…

This paper reports on a telecollaborative exchange between university language learners in Spain and the USA and analyses the effects of the different institutional and sociocultural contexts on its development. While the socioinstitutional dimension of German-American exchanges has already benefited from extensive study in the literature, this…

The major purpose of this study was to explore, in a phenomenological tradition, factors that lead some students to persist in foreign language study past the usual 2 years in high school. Factors that have been prevalent in the literature include language aptitude, motivation, grades, intellectual and cultural curiosity, language learning…

Research on beliefs about second language learning based on a model designed by Elaine Horwitz is reviewed. The model is incorporated in the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed for students of English as a Second Language, college students of commonly taught languages (French, German, Spanish), and college teachers of…

This book contains 10 papers on solutions and barriers to improving the access of Hispanic American students to higher education. Following an introductory essay on: "Advances in Assessment and the Potential for Increasing the Number of Hispanics in Higher Education" (G. D. Keller), the papers are organized into four parts. Papers in…

This monograph digest addresses Chicano participation in higher education to date and pressing issues for increased participation in the 21st century. An exploration of how Chicanos relate generally to the national education system cites low academic achievement which contributes to relative social and cultural isolation. Isolation coupled with…

The primary data source for a study oF entry into postsecondary education was the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. From this data it was seen that almost one-third of high school seniors enter four-year colleges within two years of graduation, and nearly half are in either two- or four-year institutions at that time.…

The study identified variables contributing to success in college for low prior educational attainment students from differing cultural backgrounds; described the nature and operation of COPE (College Opportunity Program for Enrichment); described the background characteristics of the COPE students; compared the COPE students' attitudes toward…

Foreign language teaching methodology is confronted with the problem of teaching Spanish to English-dominant native Spanish speakers. Linguistic documentation is lacking to accurately evaluate the linguistic competence of the bilingual student, documentation also useful in the preparation of adequate instructional materials. This paper describes…