The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is the most widely used measure to determine the extent to which international students have developed the English language skills necessary for successful college‐level study in the United States and Canada; a number of studies have examined the relationship between TOEFL score and academic success. In the study reported in this article, the records of 376 international graduate students at the State University of New York at Albany were analyzed for relationships among TOEFL score, grade point average, graduate credits earned, and academic major. TOEFL score was not found to be an effective predictor of academic success, as measured by grade point average, for this group of graduate students. However, there was a significant correlation between TOEFL score and graduate credits earned, and there were substantial differences among academic majors in the correlation between TOEFL score and grade point average. Directions for further research are discussed.

This paper examines the interlanguage (IL) phonology of Malay‐speaking Bruneian students attending Universiti Brunei Darussalam. A complete year group of 55 students with different proficiency levels was recorded interacting communicatively and the data analyzed in order to explore the extent to which markedness relationships in phonology can be used to predict learning difficulties and to investigate the extent to which this particular IL phonology has stabilized. The focus of the study was on consonant clusters, both final and initial, and the voicing contrast. The analysis of the data suggests that markedness can explain why some features of the (target language) TL phonology are more easily acquired than others. However, there was no significant difference between the IL phonology of the less proficient and more proficient students when lexical roots were examined. This suggests that the IL phonology in question has stabilized. Finally, this paper relates the findings to research into new varieties of English and suggests reasons for phonological stabilization.

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This report presents preliminary research concerning a specific population of learners: learners whose native language is not English and who attend school in the state of New York. Our research focused on how English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in the state view and use technologies to help develop their students' literacy skills. Data from a statewide survey and from initial interviews with fifty-six ESL teachers who use technologies in their teaching are discussed. TECHNOLOGIES AND ESLThe number of non-native English speaking children in U.S. public schools continues to rise dramatically. By one estimate, public school enrollment is projected to rise by forty-four million by the year 2000 with nearly all of this increase being in minority, especially Hispanic, enrollment [1]. New York State is *The work reported here was supported by the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA, http://cela.albany.edu) through the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), grant number R305A60005. The contents expressed here are those of the authors' and not necessarily those of the CELA or OERI. 265Ó 2000, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.representative of this increase both in terms of sheer numbers and in terms of demographic distribution in urban areas, small and large. In the last decade, New York demographics of non-native speakers of English have followed the national trend with a 100 percent increase in the number of ESL learners in the public schools (from 96,666 in 1988-99 to 200,553 in 1995-96). Moreover, the state of New York is third in the nation in the number of ESL learners it serves.One consequence of this ever growing population of children in need of language and literacy support is increasing interest on the part of administrators, teachers, and publishers in the use of technologies in ESL instruction. The past five years have seen a substantial increase in the number of ESL software products on the market and, as indicated in our statewide survey responses, growing recognition of various roles technologies can play in supporting the language and literacy development of ESL learners. Many new software products currently marketed for ESL capitalize on both the capacity of multimedia to engage non-native speakers in language development activity and the widely perceived need for efficient, supplemental materials to meet the challenge of serving this population. LITERACY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: WHAT IS AT ISSUE?Children who enter U.S. schools with limited English-speaking abilities face the dual challenge of learning how to read, speak, write, and understand a new language while at the same time mastering grade-level content that is most often in that new language. That is, in addition to acquiring literacy and communication skills to function at a basic social level within the school setting, they must also, like their native-speaking counterparts, master cognitive academic skills such as dealing with abstract concepts, problem solving, critical thinking, and exp...