Language Proficiency, 1990 Defining, Teaching, and Testing

Louis A. Arena University of Delaware Newark, DE This monograph contains select, revised, and invited papers which deal with the topic, Language Proficiency: Defining, Teaching, and Testing. This topic was the theme of the eighth annual symposium held at the University of Delaware. The papers contained in this volume are invited papers or were originally scheduled for presentation and/or presented at the eighth annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies. The papers combine research con­ ducted in the areas of teaching, testing, and defining second language pro­ ficiency within the profession of applied linguistics. They are divided into three principal sections: "Applied Linguistics and Language Pro­ ficiency", "Language Proficiency in Reading and Writing", and "Testing for Language Proficiency". In Part I, Paul Angelis' "Applied Linguistics: Realities and Projections re the Teaching Profession'; sketches a historical portrait of Applied Linguistics, its definition, presence, and role in the profession that teaches second language proficiency. Angelis concludes that Applied Linguistics is still a young discipline in terms of substance, organization, and strategy, and that these three components will determine the prospects for the future of applied linguistics re the teaching profession. The next six papers address the issue of second language proficiency from various points of view. Kensaku Yoshida's essay "Knowing vs Believing vs Feeling: Studies on Japanese Bilinguals" concludes that some Japanese bilinguals are actually not necessarily bilingual because they very often face problems requiring other kinds of proficiency, i. e.

Applied Linguistics and Language Proficiency.- Applied Linguistics: Realities and Projections Re the Teaching Profession.- Knowing vs Behaving vs Feeling: Studies on Japanese Bilinguals.- Understanding Interactive Competence in L1/L2 Contrastive Context: A Case of Back-Channel Behavior in Japanese and English.- Using Cognitive Grammar, Natural Phonology, and Item Response Theory to Explain ESL Subjects’ Control of the [D] and [Z] Morphemes.- The Affective Filter and Pronunciation Proficiency — Attitudes and Variables in Second Language Acquisition.- Proficiency Without Support: “My Parents Never Spoke It to Me”.- Proficiency in Technical English: Lessons from the Bridge.- Language Proficiency in Reading and Writing.- Training Formal Schemata — Replication Results.- Issues in Defining and Assessing Reading Proficiency: The ACTFL Guidelines.- What Composition Theory Offers the Writing Teacher.- Syntax and the Evaluation of College Writing: A Blind Alley.- Discourse Analysis and Embedded Depth of Utterances: Clause Analysis Technique as a Measure of Complexity.- The Role of Literature in Teaching ESL: Still Viable in the 21st Century.- Testing for Language Proficiency.- Communicative and Cognitive Language Proficiency: Implications for Testing in the L2 Classroom.- The Pragmatic Demands of Placement Testing.- A Comparison of Bayesian and Traditional Indices for Measuring Information Gain Sensitivity in a Cloze Test.- The C-Test: A Viable Alternative to the Use of the Cloze Procedure in Testing?.- Testing Language Proficiency in India: Some Problematic Issues.