Tom Cox, department of French, SDSU, is the principal researcher. This project is developing new elicitation techniques via video for group oral proficiency testing in Spanish. The results of the SDSU VOCI and traditional live Oral Proficiency Interviews will be compared, as well as measures of students' attitudes toward both modes. Theodore Higgs, department of Spanish and Portuguese, is the principal researcher. In the movement toward communication-based curricula in foreign language programs, the past decade has witnessed a movement toward learning through listening, often to the exclusion of written reinforcement.
Research is needed to evaluate the effects of such practices on language outcomes.
LARC is comparing the relative effectiveness of various strategies for developing listening comprehension, in particular, strategies which respectively include and exclude the use of written scripts related to oral passages, both in the language laboratory and in the classroom. Gail Robinson-Stuart is the principal researcher. Improving Pronunciation In Chinese Through Hypermedia Current pedagogical literature on Chinese language teaching indicates that little interactive, computer-aided activity has been incorporated formally into regular language teaching. This research project examines the effectiveness of using interactive computer-based pronunciation practice in Chinese language programs and provides a model for integrating such programs in language curricula in general. Zheng-Sheng Zhang, Department of Linguistics and Oriental Languages, SDSU, is the principal researcher.