Suggests that psychological and educational testing of members of linguistic minority groups should take into account the diverse social, political, and economic realities moderated by educational opportunities, which in turn are closely linked to standardized testing. Discusses conceptual and operational issues in the area of minority group…

Examines the likelihood of the dominant position of English coming under serious challenge as a world language. Discusses factors such as writing systems, standardization, and modernization.(Author/VWL)

A study examined the interactive effects of accounting students' language background (English as a first or second language) and test item format on test scores. Items on the same material were in four formats: multiple choice quantitative, multiple choice theoretical, open-ended quantitative, and open-ended essay questions. (Author/MSE)

An exploration of linguistic racism in inner-city schools and neighborhoods is offered, with strategies describing how work in schools and communities can help overcome it. (seven references) (Author/LB)

Reports on the experiences of five Cantonese-dominant secondary English teachers in Hong Kong during their first year of teaching after graduation from a BA course in Teaching-English-as-a-Second-Language (TESL). The report investigates the extent to which the teachers implemented the principles they were exposed to in their university education.…

The core idea that we argued for in the target article was that grammatical processing in a second language (L2) is fundamentally different from grammatical processing in one's native (first) language (L1). Our major source of evidence for this claim comes from experimental psycholinguistic studies investigating morphological and syntactic…

An item content criterion, independent of the test psychometric characteristics, of classifying items as biased is described. It was used with a sample of female adults in a training program for administrative secretaries. The minority group in the study were Hispanic immigrants. The majority group was a mixture of Blacks, English speaking…

The present paper describes results of a study that investigated 209 bilingual Puerto Rican college students' ability to solve verbal deductive reasoning problems administered in Spanish and English in relation to their reading comprehension skills in either language. A series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the data on reasoning and…

A collection of tests measuring language proficiency and/or language dominance is described; twenty-eight of the tests are commercially available and twelve are available from non-commercial sources. There are no evaluative judgments made. The descriptive information for each test includes: title; author; where to order (or where to inquire, for…

Presents a theory that all developing and developed bilinguals have a preferred and a second language (L2) and that the bilingual increases L2 competence through fluctuating activity between bilingual preferred L2 medium-oriented communication and monolingual L2 message-oriented communication. Discusses implications of the theory for language…

Refutes earlier ideas that encouraging bilingualism at a young age retards learning and causes behavioral problems, confusion and anxiety. Considers as sources of learning problems, long overlooked factors such as socioeconomic status, minority affiliation, and society's attitude toward the language of instruction or the dominant language.…

True bilingualism is defined as having two mother tongues and a level of linguistic performance in both such that one is a full-fledged member of two linguistic communities. A survey of conference interpreters focuses on how one becomes a bilingual person and remains one, and what the advantages and disadvantages are. (MSE)

Spanish/English bilingual 5 to 11-year-old children were interviewed in both languages to assess the reliability of their language background self-ratings. (CM)

Suggests that the degree of acceptance of lexical change in English in Puerto Rico is dependant on both the type of lexical deviance from established norms and on speakers' self-evaluation of language dominance. Of the types of lexical deviance identified, descriptive cognates had the highest acceptance. (Author/JL)

Explores the drug use patterns of a sample of Southwestern Mexican American middle school students using language preference as a marker of acculturation status. Spanish monolingual students were found to use significantly less alcohol and other drugs than bilingual or English dominant students. Recommendations for social work practice are framed…