High school students studying French as a second language in Toronto were administered a questionnaire and a variety of achievement tests in French. Results were analyzed to determine the effects of learner characteristics on the development of second language competence. Four factors in learning success were posited: attitude, strategy, aptitude,…

This is a report of a study in two parts, one on teaching and the other on learning. The subjects of the first part were sixth graders in two different programs, one a core program and the other an immersion program. The subjects of the learning study were secondary school students and adults. The purpose of the study was: (1) to develop…

This study investigates the role of inferencing in cloze test performance and the factors that facilitate that inferencing. Four groups of high school students learning French as a second language completed sets of cloze passages under four treatment conditions. Three conditions provided a potential cue to inferencing, while the fourth was a…

The present study offers a model of second language learning and examines aspects of the model in two experiments with high school students learning French. The model describes learning in terms of three parameters - learning processes, learning strategies, and learner characteristics. These three parameters together may be used to explain both…

A framework for second-language acquisition (SLA) features cognitive processing components: process of analysis and process of control. These processes lead to changes in mental representations that are the basis of learning. The framework can be applied to similarity of first- and second-language learning, the starting point for SLA,…

A study was conducted to measure the extent to which three learning strategies--practicing, monitoring and inferencing--affected student performance in three grade 10 (ages 14-15) and three grade 12 (ages 16-17) classes of French as a second language. (Author/HP)

A grammaticality judgment test based on five structures of English grammar was administered in oral and written form. Two groups were formed by separating participants who began learning English at younger and older than 15 years of age. Performance patterns were different for the two groups, the linguistic structure tested affected participants'…

An observable feature of learner language, linguistic variability, is described and used as the basis for speculating about an aspect of the process of second language learning. It is hypothesized that variation in correct use of target language forms varies as a function of the demands placed on the learner to produce these forms. Three groups of…

Two hundred and four 5- and 6-year-olds who were monolingual English-, bilingual English-Chinese-, or Chinese-speaking children beginning to learn English (2nd-language learners) were compared on phonological awareness and word decoding tasks in English and Chinese. Phonological awareness developed in response to language exposure and instruction…

The Aural Grammar Test was designed to assess aural grammatical competence for language presented in a formal situation. The subjects used in this initial development of the test were 147 Toronto high school students learning French as a second language. The test is described and the results are interpreted in terms of both the explicit and…

This study examined the conditions for the selection of certain communication strategies in terms of the inferencing ability of the learner, the formal proficiency level attained, and the features of the communicative situation (task requirements). Two groups of 17-year-olds--one studying advanced French and the other French as part of a "core"…