Foreign Language Research Research Articles

Toward an Information Processing Perspective in Foreign Language Readin

The Modern Language JournalVolume 68, Issue 4 p. 322-331 Toward an Information Processing Perspective in Foreign Language Readin ELIZABETH BUCHTER BERNHARDT, ELIZABETH BUCHTER BERNHARDTSearch for more papers by this author ELIZABETH BUCHTER BERNHARDT, ELIZABETH BUCHTER BERNHARDTSearch for more papers by this author First published: Winter 1984 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1984.tb02508.xCitations: 21AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume68, Issue4Winter 1984Pages 322-331 RelatedInformation

Preface

The Journal of Popular CultureVolume XVII, Issue 1 p. 99-102 In-Depth Section: Japanese Popular Culture Preface Seiji Shibata, Seiji Shibata Prof. Seiji Shibata is Associate Professor, Foreign Guest Hosting Committee Center for Foreign Language Education and Research, Nagoya Gakuin University, 350 Kamishinano, Seto City, Aichi Pref. 480-12 Japan.Search for more papers by this authorKazuo Yoshida, Kazuo Yoshida Prof. Kazuo Yoshida is Associate Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University Kamigamo-Motoyama, Kita-Ku, Kyoto, Japan.Search for more papers by this author Seiji Shibata, Seiji Shibata Prof. Seiji Shibata is Associate Professor, Foreign Guest Hosting Committee Center for Foreign Language Education and Research, Nagoya Gakuin University, 350 Kamishinano, Seto City, Aichi Pref. 480-12 Japan.Search for more papers by this authorKazuo Yoshida, Kazuo Yoshida Prof. Kazuo Yoshida is Associate Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University Kamigamo-Motoyama, Kita-Ku, Kyoto, Japan.Search for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1983 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1701_99.xCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature VolumeXVII, Issue1Summer 1983Pages 99-102 RelatedInformation

The Cities of the Western Hemisphere and Spain: Some Global Activities for Spanish

ABSTRACT This article describes the findings in foreign language research and the goals of global education that motivated the use of cities as a point of departure for activities and materials development. The cities of the western hemisphere and Spain are focused on as a context for the Spanish class, but the approach is applicable to other areas and languages. Suggestions are made for integrating city‐based contextual information into activities for introductory classes and sources of information and topics for study at intermediate and advanced levels are identified. The paper closes with a call for the establishment of a clearinghouse to facilitate the acquisition and distribution of global materials for language teaching.

Defending the FL Requirement in the Liberal Arts Curriculum

The writer recently sat on a university committee formed for the express purpose of considering the role of modern and classical languages as a required part of the liberal arts core curriculum. The arguments here presented—both pro and con foreign language requirement—reflect the ideas and opinions primarily of colleagues outside the foreign language profession and provide numerous insights into the thoughts of those very individuals to whom we must repeatedly justify the foreign language requirement. An awareness of these arguments can prove most beneficial to foreign language teachers, administrators, and researchers at virtually every level of education.

Foreign Language and Area Research Program

Foreign Language and Area Research Program

An Innovative Structural Plan for Future Second Language Institutes

speech reflected real knowledge of the current issues in foreign language research. He challenged the student teachers to teach other than as they had been taught. While making note of the need for more widespread instruction in foreign languages, he posed critical questions with regard to the causes of achievement and underachievement in language classes. The conference continued with a text book display and individual sessions in each language. Ten teachers from around the state gave demonstration of methodology in each of four languages on three curricular levels. They brought their own students with them for demonstration purposes. Their expenses were paid for by the State Department of Education and by the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers' Association. The general session at noon ended the conference, with the exception of afternoon interviews which candidates were invited to schedule with nine school superintendents who had come in search of new staff members.

What Does the Pennsylvania Foreign Language Research Project Tell Us?

ABSTRACT: Although the design of the study was exemplary, the number of classes and teachers was barely satisfactory, and “strategy” effects may have been confounded with text variables. The “traditional” strategy tended to be a “traditional‐modified” one and may not have been as distinct from the “functional skills” strategies as might be desired. Technical flaws in the statistical analysis included failure to take account of repeated measures and questionable use of criterion‐type variables as covariates, but the main results regarding “strategy” and language laboratory system are valid. Sometimes the analysis was not deep enough, as where there was a failure to rule out variation in student characteristics in connection with correlations between class means on achievement tests and teacher FL proficiency. The study is interpreted as showing that functional skills strategies and materials fail to put enough emphasis on linguistic content. The results on correlations between teacher FL proficiency and class achievement are not persuasive enough to justify abandonment of FL proficiency tests in teacher selection and certification.

The Pennsylvania Foreign Language Research Project: Teacher Proficiency and Class Achievement in Two Modern Languages

ABSTRACT: Since 1960 the MLA Foreign Language Proficiency Tests for Teachers and Advanced Students have been used to measure teacher achievement in language skills and allied professional areas. The tests are suggested as prerequisites for teacher certification In Pennsylvania, where the tests were mandatory from 1963 until 1969, a comparison was made between teachers' Proficiency Test scores and the subsequent achievement of their classes on standardized tests.No important significant relationships occurred between eighty‐nine French and German teachers' proficiency and class achievement after one year. No significant correlation could be found between teacher and student scores in forty classes after two years of French or German instruction with the same teacher nor in twelve intact German classes who maintained the same teacher through Level III Regression Analyses also failed to show that teacher Proficiency Test scores contributed substantially to individual student achievement. It is suggested that the MLA Proficiency Tests are valuable as advanced achievement measures or alternate criterion but should not be required for teacher certification until their contribution to student achievement is more fully defined.

A Methodological Review of the Pennsylvania Foreign Language Research Project

ABSTRACT: An attempt is made to give a methodological review of the Pennsylvania Foreign Language Research Project. The history of evaluation and assessment is reviewed. The distinction between conclusion‐and decision‐oriented research is made and applied to the notion of evaluation. The implications of these notions for the design of evaluation studies are specified. These implications are employed in reviewing the research project. The main criticisms of the study concern (1) lack of random assignment of units for the main comparison, (2) possible lack of validity of the analyses of covariance, and (3) use of inappropriate analyses for testing certain hypotheses. Some commendable features of the project are (1) use of more powerful statistical techniques than are ordinarily used, (2) greater effort than that usually given to improve external and internal validity, and (3) monitoring of treatments to improve inferential validity. Given that the main press of the evidence is for no detectable differences in the treatments, it is concluded that the sensitivity of the comparisons should be ascertained in order to see if this finding is due to lack of statistical power or small true differences.

Foreign Language Learning, Research and Development: An Assessment, Reports of the Working Committees

Foreign Language Learning, Research and Development: An Assessment, Reports of the Working Committees

Biophysical AV data transfer

The subject of perception has long been an area of sharp controversy among psychologists and biophysicists. The current diversity of these views is exhibited with dramatic force in English and foreign language research reports. Most of these papers have some common area of agreement, but one is more impressed by their differences which reflect a set of contrasting assumptions within the common field of investigation. This holds true especially in the biophysical field: in a sense, it holds the key to effective audiovisual instructional technique, as distinguished from other instructional methods in general. Unfortunately, as it stands, the increased AV-type research activities supported in the past several years both by major educational foundations and by the Federal Government-especially under the provisions of Title VII of the National Defense Education Act-include no elaborate studies on the instrumentation philosophy and application of biophysical-type systems to audiovisual use. Instead, due to a lack of something better, responsible personnel continue to wring out the semifixed possibilities of antiquated machines and Gestalt-type psychological concepts. It is in this connection that this paper-which, however, is not intended to be completely definitive or inclusive

Correlation of Foreign Language Speaking Competency and Grades in Ten Midwestern Liberal Arts Colleges*

IN THE Fall of 1960 the Associated Colleges of the Midwest1 embarked upon a program of experimentation and research in modern foreign languages to study different approaches to language learning as well as to improve teaching materials and raise proficiency levels of foreign language students. The program involves standardized testing and evaluation, preparation of special materials and test instruments and a comparison of results achieved by the use of a variety of teaching materials and teaching methods. Various types of electromechanical, textual and visual materials are being tested. Because of the keen interest and concern

Space Communications by the Use of Lasers: An Enumerative Bibliography

This paper traces the history of lasers in relation to communication and other applications from their inception to early 1962. Documentation includes books and periodicals including foreign language research.

Prognosis and Its Alternatives in Relation to the Guidance of Students

A TEST which would predict accurately the achievement of a student in a foreign language would undoubtedly be very helpful to teachers, counselors, administrators, and parents in guiding pupils with respect to foreign language work in school. The many advantageous uses to which an infallible prognostic test could be put have fascinated research workers and teachers of foreign languages for nearly three decades. No phase of foreign language research, with the possible exception of studies in the field of reading and achievement testing, has received attention from so many investigators as the measurement of linguistic aptitude or language talent. Foreign language achievement has been correlated with almost every ability and faculty conceivable to man. A comprehensive survey' reported in 1931 revealed that even seven years ago achievement in foreign language grammar, reading, and vocabulary had already been correlated by 48 investigators with 67 bases, including such factors as ability to think in abstract grammatical terms, memory span for visual and non-visual material, general intelligence, etc. In 1933 a doctor's dissertation completed at Stanford University2 reported the results of one of the most comprehensive and detailed pieces of research in the field of foreign language prognosis. The author selected from the vast number of investigations reported between 1900 and 1933 those bases which seemed to yield the most promising correlations with subsequent success in the several phases of foreign language work, and combined them into a multi-