Two studies examined the extent to which there would be differences in native language skills, foreign-language aptitude, and final foreign-language grades among high-school students completing a second year of a foreign-language course and identified as high-, average-, and low-proficiency learners. Oral and written proficiency measures in Spanish, French, and German were designed and administered by trained evaluators. The first study involved 60 females who attended a private, single-sex suburban high school; the second involved a coeducational population of 36 students in a suburban public2 school. Results showed overall differences among the three proficiency groups on native-language and foreign-language aptitude measures. Most group differences were between high- and lowproficiency learners, although high vs average and average vs low groups differed on some measures. There were also group differences in final grades at end of both first-year and second-year foreign-language courses. Discriminant analyses showed that two testing measures in the first study and one testing measure in the second study were significant in distinguishing the three groups. Conclusions and implications about connections among foreign-language proficiency and native-language skills, foreign-language aptitude, and end-of-year grades are presented.

Research findings suggest that most students who have foreign language learning problems have language-based difficulties and, in particular, phonological processing problems. Authors of the present study examined pre- and posttest scores on native language and foreign language aptitude tests of three groups of at-risk high school students enrolled in special, self-contained sections of first-year Spanish. Two groups were instructed using a multisensory structured language (MSL) approach. One of the groups was taught in both English and Spanish (MSL/ES), the other only in Spanish (MSL/S). The third group (NO-MSL) was instructed using more traditional second language teaching methodologies. Significant gains were made by the MSL-ES group on measures of native language phonology, vocabulary, and verbal memory and on a test of foreign language aptitude; the MSL/S group made significant gains on the test of foreign language aptitude. No significant gains on the native language or foreign language aptitude measures were made by the NO-MSL group. Implications for foreign language classroom instruction of at-risk students are discussed.

Best predictors of overall proficiency in a foreign language were examined in 2 experiments. Experiment 1 involved 60 10th-and llth-grade girls attending a private, single-sex high school; Experiment 2 involved a coeducational population of 36 lOth-grade students in a public school. Best predictors in both experiments were end of Ist-year grade in the foreign language and a measure of phonology-orthography, foreign language word decoding. In 1 experiment, native Language vocabulary skill was also a predictor of overall proficiency. Heretofore, foreign language grade and word decoding had not been considered as predictors of foreign language proficiency. The finding that foreign language word decoding was a good predictor of both oral and written proficiency suggests its importance as both a predictor variable and an important component of foreign language proficiency.

In this study, the benefits of multisensory structured language (MSL) instruction in Spanish were examined. Participants were students in high-school-level Spanish attending girls" preparatory schools. Of the 55 participants, 39 qualified as at-risk for foreign language learning