Second Language Proficiency Research Articles

Relationships Among Second Language Proficiency, Foreign Language Aptitude, and Intelligence: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The present study investigated the relationships among measures of second language proficiency (SLP), foreign language aptitude, and two types of intelligence (verbal intelligence and reasoning). The research had two objectives: (a) to examine the factor structure of several different SLP test scores; and (b) to investigate the relationship between a general SLP factor (G‐SLP) and a hypothetical general cognitive factor (G‐COG) that was assumed to influence foreign language aptitude, verbal intelligence, and reasoning. Several competing hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Participants consisted of 160 Japanese college students studying English as a foreign language.The results supported two models of SLP: one in which several specific trait factors were highly correlated with each other, and another in which these specific trait factors were connected to a higher‐order G‐SLP factor. Because there were only three first‐order specific factors, these two models could not be distinguished from each other. Further investi gation suggested that GSLP and GCOG were not identical, but mutually correlated k0.65). This relationship implies that students' SLP and cognitive abilities were influenced by two distinct, but mutually correlated factors. More than half the G‐SLP variance (58%)could not be explained by the G COG factor. Several suggestions for krther studies are presented.

Intergenerational Literacy Learning with Bilingual Families: A Context for the Analysis of Social Mediation of Thought

This research initiative was undertaken to examine the effects of an intergenerational literacy program, held weekly for 2 hours over a 6-month period, on the measured English proficiency of nine bilingual families (9 parents, 15 children). The research was also conducted to explore the relationships among changes in the participants' use of identified categories of discourse during literacy activities and changes in their second-language competency on tests of literacy. Program goals were to encourage the parents to read storybooks to their children in the home as well as to provide literacy-based activities to family members, including storybook reading, hands-on projects related to the stories read, formal English instruction for the parents, and free play for the children. Sixteen observations (24 hours) of participants' discourse were conducted by the researcher and an assistant using a format adapted from research of family-based literacy learning and classroom discourse; semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers were also held. Results of pre-post comparisons of children's scores on the PLS and parents' scores on the CTBS revealed significant improvements. Frequencies of identified categories of parent-and-child discourse between the third and fifteenth observations were also compared and revealed several significant differences. Significant correlations were also found between participant test scores and differences in their use of identified categories of discourse. These empirical results, as well as descriptive findings, are interpreted using Vygotsky's (1978, 1987) sociocultural theory of learning. It is proposed that teacher scaffolding strategies, as well as the parents' and children's efforts to linguistically mediate each other's learning, were integral to the gains in the families' second-language proficiency.

Measuring Second Language (L2) Proficiency in High School Level Exchange Students

L'etude dont il est question avait pour but d'identifier des instruments de mesure standardises en vue d'evaluer efficacement la performance en anglais langue seconde d'eleves de niveau secondaire dans le cadre d'une experience de contact langagier realise dans un environnement naturel d'apprentissage

The Cloze Technique as A Pedagogical Tool for the Training of Translators and Interpreters

Abstract This article focuses on the versatility of the cloze technique, as a tool not only for measuring second-language proficiency, but also for selecting and training both translators (written cloze) and interpreters (aural cloze). When presented auditorily, the cloze test discriminates pass and fail interpreter students, given the external pacing and speed stress experienced by simultaneous interpreters in real life. The article offers several ways to administer the cloze technique as well as examples of such doctored material.

The Dynamic Interlanguage: Empirical Studies in Second Language Variation

1: On Chameleons and Monitors.- 2: A Cognitive View on Interlanguage Variability.- 3: Does the Bioprogram Affect Second-Language Acquisition?.- 4: Assessing an Interaction-Based Paradigm: How Accommodative Should We Be?.- 5: Incorporated Repairs in Nonnative Discourse.- 6: Interlinguistic Variation and Similarity in Foreigner Talk: Illustrated with Respect to English-Speaking and German-Speaking Contexts.- 7: The Effect of Cultural Empathy on Second-Language Phonological Production.- 8: Variation and Convergence in Nonnative Institutionalized Englishes.- 9: Different Paths to Writing Proficiency in a Second Language? A Preliminary Investigation of ESL Writers of Short-Term and Long-Term Residence in the United States.- 10: Variation and Transfer in English Creole-Standard English Language Learning.- 11: Dialect Variation and Second-Language Intelligibility.- 12: Systematic Variability in Second-Language Tense Marking.- 13: Sociolinguistic Variation in Face-Threatening Speech Acts: Chastisement and Disagreement.- 14: The Social Dynamics of Native and Nonnative Variation in Complimenting Behavior.- 15: That Reminds Me of a Story: The Use of Language to Express Emotion by Second-Language Learners and Native Speakers.- 16: Classroom Foreign Language Learning and Language Variation: The Notion of Pedagogical Norms.- 17: Discourse Conditioned Tense Variation: Teacher Implications.- 18: The Colloquial Preterit: Language Variation and the ESL Classroom.

Leerlingkenmerken en Taalvaardigheid in Het Turks en Het Nederlands

Evaluation of the effect of mother tongue teaching to migrant children in the Netherlands. Data are presented on first- and second-language proficiency of the Turkish sample (n=368). The aim of the investigation was to find out to what extent learner characteristics influence proficiency scores. It is concluded that the correlation between first and second-language proficiency is particularly low, which does not support Cummins' interdependency hypothesis. Interestingly parents' interest in school is an important global factor. Age on arrival appears to be of little importance for scores on the first-language tests. This suggests that children who have lived in the Netherlands for most of their lives, still show a continued development of their mother tongue.

Note on Self-Rated Second-Language Proficiency

Self-ratings of second-language proficiency were collected from 168 bilinguals. Ratings of comprehension skills were higher than racings of production skills. The highest mean rating was obtained for listening (understanding spoken language), followed by reading, speaking, and writing, with the over-all proficiency in the language falling in the mid-die. The over-all self-rated proficiency was most closely linked to the rating of speaking proficiency ( r = 88), which seems to be related to the high social relevance of speaking skills in a nondominant language.

EFFECTS OF SECOND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY OF SPEAKERS AND LISTENERS ON PERSON PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOURAL INTENTION: A STUDY OF CHINESE BILINGUALS

Do people at different levels of second language proficiency perceive and interact with other speakers differently? Conceptual analyses suggested three possibilities. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the hypotheses derived from the conceptual analyses. Forty Chinese undergraduates (half of whom were high and half of whom were low in English language proficiency) listened to English speeches by either high or low proficiency speakers, and rated the speakers on ten personality traits and ten behavioural intention items. High and low proficiency listeners did not differ in their impressions of the speakers or the behavioural intention towards them. However, speaker proficiency strongly affected the listeners' person perception and behavioural intention. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression supported the hypothesis that speaker proficiency influenced person perception, which in turn influenced behavioural intention.

Variation in Children's Nonverbal Communication as a Function of Listener and Second-Language Development

Abstract Nonverbal behavior of 50 children attending bilingual kindergarten programs was recorded during children's conversations with a puppet on three separate occasions. To determine the influence of the listener's language on children's code selection, the puppet spoke a different language on each occasion. Of particular interest was the extent to which children made pragmatic adjustments in their nonverbal code in response to different listener needs. Differences in code selection that could be attributed to variation in second-language proficiency were also explored by the contrasting behavior of children classified as monolingual, limited second-language speakers, or bilingual. Distinctive variations in nonverbal communication were found to be associated with the listener's language and the children's proficiency in a second language.

Bilingual Cognitive Development: Addressing Three Gaps in Current Research

DIAZ, RAFAEL M. Bilingual Cognitive Development: Addressing Three Gaps in Current Research. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1376-1388. 100 Spanish(L1)-English(L2) bilingual children attending kindergarten and first grade bilingual education programs were tested at 2 points in time, 6 months apart. Children in the sample (ages 5-7 years) represented extreme groups of high and low secondlanguage proficiency. At each time of testing, children's proficiency in Spanish and English was assessed and a battery of cognitive tasks measuring visual and verbal abilities was administered. The findings indicate that observed cognitive differences between second-language-proficiency groups can be attributed to group differences in socioeconomic variables. The relationship between degree of bilingualism and cognitive abilities was positive and rather strong for children of low secondlanguage proficiency. This pattern of results questioned the validity of Cummins's threshold hypothesis and suggested a new, alternative hypothesis-namely, that degree of bilingualism is related to variability in cognitive measures only before a certain threshold of proficiency in the second language is attained. In addition, 2 sets of statistical analyses on the longitudinal data gave support to a cause-effect model in which degree of bilingualism appears as the causal factor affecting children's cognitive abilities.

Oral‐Proficiency Testing: A Critical Analysis

surface within the language teaching profession over the last five years is the attempt by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Educational Testing Service (henceforth, ACTFL/ETS) to establish and implement second-language proficiency guidelines for testing and for organizing the language teaching curriculum. The ACTFL/ETS Guidelines are based in large part on the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) oral-proficiency test that has been in use in the federal government for nearly thirty years. While a history of the FSI and ACTFL/ETS Guidelines is an interesting study in itself, our concern in this paper is with what we perceive to be serious, if not insurmountable, problems with the ACTFL/ETS Guidelines.' Although we perceive difficulties with the Guidelines established for all four language skills and cultural performance, we will focus the present discussion on the oral-proficiency Guidelines only. To date, only minimal skepticism has been expressed toward oral-proficiency testing (OPT) as defined by ACTFL/ETS. Savignon, however, at least cautions that perhaps the profession is moving too quickly toward implementation of the ACTFL/ETS Guidelines when she

Evaluation of Communicative Competence: The ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines

THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION, more than any other it seems to me, is in perpetual search for new slogans.' I recall the comment of a colleague back in 1971, when I was a newcomer to the profession and interested in exploring the concept of communicative competence.2 Communicative competence, he said to me, that'll be a good topic for a year or two. Then what are you going to do? My colleague did not foresee the exploration and discussion that would ensue. Today, more than a decade later, interest in the concept of communicative competence has not only not waned, it continues to grow and has led to the elaboration of descriptive models that have in turn provided frameworks for further research into the nature and acquisition of second-language proficiency.3 The pre-eminence of communicative competence as a focus of discussions of second-language teaching and evaluation was nowhere more apparent than at the October 1984 TOEFL Invitational Conference at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton. The conference was held to consider revision

Evaluation of Communicative Competence: The ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines

THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING PROFESSION, more than any other it seems to me, is in perpetual search for new slogans.' I recall the comment of a colleague back in 1971, when I was a newcomer to the profession and interested in exploring the concept of communicative competence.2 Communicative competence, he said to me, that'll be a good topic for a year or two. Then what are you going to do? My colleague did not foresee the exploration and discussion that would ensue. Today, more than a decade later, interest in the concept of communicative competence has not only not waned, it continues to grow and has led to the elaboration of descriptive models that have in turn provided frameworks for further research into the nature and acquisition of second-language proficiency.3 The pre-eminence of communicative competence as a focus of discussions of second-language teaching and evaluation was nowhere more apparent than at the October 1984 TOEFL Invitational Conference at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton. The conference was held to consider revision

Het Meten van Culturele Oriëntatie in Relatie met Taalvaardigheid.

Recently, numerous studies evaluating bilingual education programs have shown that cultural orientation and language attitude play an important role in achieving sufficient proficiency in both first and second language. Despite a long tradition . of research in the field of attitude measurement, no test is readily available measuring cultural orientation in young second language learners. In the present article a description is given of the development of such a test for Turkish and Moroccan children learning Dutch as a second language in primary school. The test is based on Zirkel and Jackson's (1974) Cultural Attitude Scales. The reliability and validity of the test have been investi-gated in two studies. In the first (Buster et. al. 1985) 850 children were tested, and their scores on the cultural attitudes scales were compared to other measures that might reflect cultural orientation (questionnaires, sociograms) and to language proficiency tests. The reliability appeared to be fairly high, but there was no significant relation between cultural attitudes and language proficiency. In the second study (Verhoeven & Extra 1983) cultural attitude scales were used with individuals rather than with groups. Test scores were compared with data from interviews with the children tested, their parents and their teachers. On the whole this study suggests that the validity of the cultural attitude scale is sufficiently high. If certain requirements (e.g. regular revision because of the changing socio-cultural setting) are met, the cultural attitude scales appear to be a useful instrument in bilingual education research.

Linking as a Marker of Fluent Speech

A two-dimensional, speech dynamic analysis of natural speech identifies linking (liaison) as a prominent class of phenomena at the phonetic syllabic level. Consonant Attraction, the specific feature under experimental observation, is highly prevalent in casual English speech both in terms of absolute frequency and in a ratio of potential to actualized link points. A statistically significant difference between native and nonnative speech can be noted for this fluency phenomenon. It points to the role this and related processes can potentially play in a taxonomy of the oral language and suggests the use of this feature as one of the parameters of fluent speech, valuable particularly in second-language proficiency assessment. There are strong indicators that the degree of alteration due to this and similar processes of absorption in phonated speech has significant repercussions on canonical shape in English.

School psychology and limited-English-proficient (LEP) children: New competencies

Children with limited-English-proficiency (LEP) and special education needs will be more numerous in the public schools of certain states. This article presents a set of competencies that are relevant to the practice of school psychology with LEP special pupils. Although the focus is on Hispanic children, the competencies apply to bilingual special education in general. They cover the following areas: second-language proficiency of the psychologist, cross-cultural awareness, assessment, knowledge of language development, skill in working with interpreters, and knowledge of bilingual education curriculum.

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW1

The present research tested the hypothesis that predictions concerning second language (SL) achievement and use would be improved by considering the motivational support the learner expects from the target language group (TL) in addition to considering the learner's own motivations for learning the language. The hypothesis was tested by asking adolescent English‐speaking Canadian students why they were learning French as a second language and why French‐speaking Canadians wanted them to learn French. Regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the motivational predictors and the respondents' SL proficiency and use. In support of the hypothesis, it was found that the respondents' expectations of motivational support from the TL group emerged as significant and in some cases unique predictors of SL performance. It is concluded that social psychological models of SL learning need to consider the role of intergroup factors more seriously.

An invited article: Bilingual education of majority-language children: The Immersion experiments in review

ABSTRACTSecond-language “Immersion” school programs that have been developed in Canada and the United States during the last two decades are described and the results of evaluative research pertaining to them are reviewed. Major Immersion program alternatives (i.e., Early, Delayed, and Late variants) along with their theoretical bases and pedagogical characteristics are described first. Research findings are then discussed with respect to the impact of participation in an Immersion program on the students' native-language development, academic achievement, second-language proficiency, and on their attitudes and second-language use. Also, the suitability of Immersion in different geographical/social settings and for students with distinctive, potentially handicapping characteristics is considered. It is concluded that second-language Immersion programs are feasible and effective forms of education for majority-language children with diverse characteristics.

Peer Interaction, Language Proficiency, and Language Preference in Bilingual Preschool Classrooms

Classroom interactional patterns by language choice and speech partner of six 4-year-old Spanish-preferring children enrolled in a bilingual preschool were observed over the course of 1 year. It was found that those children who used relatively more English with peers in the classroom and who increased their English usage over time generally showed the greatest increases in English proficiency as measured by mean length of utterance. Rank order correlations of increased language proficiency and various measures of classroom interaction suggest that interaction with peers who speak English relates directly to second-language proficiency and that there is a closer relationship between children's interactional patterns with peers than between such patterns with teachers in regard to increased second-language proficiency. In addition, increased proficiency in English led to a change in language preference in the context of the preschool classroom.

The direct testing of academic writing in a second language

In recent years, second-language proficiency testing has become increasingly concerned with testing the ability to actually use a language. Despite widespread interest, however, there has been surprisingly little discussion of how to estimate the validity of a language-use test, how to construct one without losing control over what is being tested, or how to evaluate one after it has been constructed. The present paper is an attempt to derive, use and partially validate, for one small area of language use, a theoretical approach to the design of language-use tests, which will be called explicit direct testing.