Analyzes an innovative and optional French language proficiency certificate designed to test proficiency in oral and written language on the undergraduate level at the University of London. (AM)

A description of a method of designing pattern drills for use in the laboratory which will not only keep students alert but will also provide meaningful contexts. The use of drill-oriented drawings and multiple operation exercises is analyzed. (AMH)

Use of classroom improvisations and role-playing can help the second language learner speak quickly, naturally, and spontaneously. The technique is discussed and illustrated. (CHK)

The Guichard technique is a response to the need for lively, sustained conversation in the language class. Referring to simple blackboard drawings by the non-artist teacher, students create people and situations involving an imaginary French family. (Author/SW)

Presents a strategy for using an expanded version of Total Physical Response (TPR) as one tool for teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. Variations of TPR are suggested for the purpose of implementing the technique within the foreign language curriculum. (Author/CB)

Language Lotto is a game to sensitize second language students to a variety of conversational strategies and to what is implicit in spoken discourse. (MSE)

Discusses predictive and conceptual validity, reports on two experiments on each type of test validity with relation to language tests, and indicates some problems posed by these two forms of evaluation. (AM)

Summarizes research on self-assessment in second-language testing using a meta-analysis on 60 correlations reported in second-language-testing literature. Self-assessments and teacher assessments of recently instructed English-as-a-Second-Language learners' functional English skills revealed differential validities for self-assessment and teacher…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

This article stresses the idea that teaching communicative competence and the ability to deal with a variety of language situations should be the goal of foreign language teaching, with grammar instruction in a secondary position. Teaching by means of "dialogues with options" is discussed and sample dialogues for Italian instruction are given.…

The work in second language education of the Assessment of Performance Unit, established by the Department of Education and Science of England and Wales to monitor certain areas of the public education curriculum is described. The focus is on the development of a rationale for testing, the elicitation procedures used in the assessment of speaking…

The materials in this volume are intended to supplement existing tape materials in the lessons of the basic course in French. The exercises begin with lesson 13 of the Basic Course and continue through lesson 63. Each unit in this manual concentrates on a grammatical point and contains the following elements: (1) learning objectives, (2)…

DESPITE THE GENERAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE IDEA THAT LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOR AND COMMUNICATION ARE FIRST OF ALL SPOKEN, LANGUAGES ARE NOT ALWAYS TAUGHT ON THAT BASIS, AND CONFUSION STILL EXISTS ABOUT THE NATURE OF SPEECH AND WRITING. THE GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD WAS THE BASIC SYSTEM UNTIL WORLD WAR II, WHEN IT BECAME NECESSARY TO TRAIN MANY PEOPLE TO…

Lack of emphasis on oral aspects of language in the Irish Leaving Certificate foreign language examinations has long been considered by teachers to be the chief reason for their inability to implement the aims of modern language teaching in Ireland. These aims are stated in the Department of Education's "Rules and Programme for Secondary…

Language teaching typically reflects current research, and, until quite recently, grammatical competence (e.g., in the Chomskyan sense) was the major target of linguistic research. Emphasizing the spoken language, the term "fluency," as applied to the foreign language performance of a language learner, is correlated to foreign language…