John W Oller
Biographic Data
| ID | 743873 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John W Oller |
| GIVEN NAMES | John W |
| FAMILY NAME | Oller |
| SIGNATURE | OLLER J W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of New Mexico |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7666-651X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 156 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1964 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Grounding the argument-based framework for validating score interpretations and uses
Kane’s argument-based framework is summarized and examined. He implicitly appeals to the backgrounded concepts of fairness and justice. From there it is a short distance to grounding the whole system in the mundane notion of truth. In fact, valid argument systems must depend on representations that are ‘true’ by virtue of agreement with purported facts. As a friendly amendment, therefore, I argue that (provided the ceteris paribus, all else being…
Empirical Predictions From a General Theory of Signs
General sign theory (GST) deals with how distinct sign systems are grounded, developed with increasing abstractness over time, and differentiated in efficacies in experience and discourse. GST has 3 components: The theory of true narrative representations (TNR theory) shows that TNRs are unique in being relatively well determined with respect to the real world, well connected to that world and to each other, and generalizable. TNRs provide the es…
Languages and Genes: Can They be Built up through Random Change and Natural Selection
Can natural selection operating on random arrangements of material building blocks (i.e., subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, and larger collections and structures of matter), produce the genomes of all living things, the human language capacity, and all of the world's 6000 plus natural languages? There are two polar views on this question that are widely held by practicing scientists. At one extreme there is the neo-Darwinian claim that chanc…
Testing relations between language (verbal) and nonverbal abilities in children and adults acquiring a nonprimary language
General sign theory per Oller et al. (2000a, 2000b) predicts that, to the extent that valid measurements are possible, nonverbal abilities should correlate positively with primary language abilities (Hypothesis 1). Further, nonverbal abilities of persons in the early stages of acquiring a nonprimary language should correlate significantly more positively with proficiencies in their primary language than in their nonprimary language (Hypothesis 2(…
Applying general sign theory to testing language (verbal) and nonverbal abilities
A general theory of signs shows a deep logical dependency of nonverbal/performance tests on conventional linguistic signs. Two hypotheses follow • Hypothesis 1: To the extent that nonverbal abilities can be measured, they must be positively correlated with primary language abilities • Hypothesis 2: (a) In the early stages of acquiring a second or foreign language, proficiencies in the primary (stronger or native) language should correlate more st…
Testing verbal (language) and non-verbal abilities in language minorities: A socio-educational problem in historical perspective
There is a wide-spread socio-educational problem with language testing at its heart: Speakers of minority languages are over-represented in classes for the learning disabled, disordered and educable mentally retarded and under-represented in classes for the gifted. This imbalance is owed to mental measurement practices that involve language tests both directly and indirectly. The source of the problem is a general failure to appreciate the role o…
Monoglottosis: What's Wrong with the Idea of the IQ Meritocracy and Its Racy Cousins?
For about 100 years, certain enthusiasts have claimed that IQ tests measure innate intelligence (Binet and Simon 1905, Brighman 1923, Eysenck 1971, Herrnstein 1973, Herrnstein and Murray 1994, Jensen 1969, 1980, 1984, 1995, Lynn 1978, 1979) and show racial differences. These ideas have roots in ‘social Darwinism’ (Darwin 1874) and the eugenics movement (Gallon 1869)—the aim to ‘purify’ the gene pool Linked to these racy theories are the over-repr…
Semiotic theory applied to free will, relativity, and determinacy: Or, why the unified field theory sought by Einstein could not be found
Article Semiotic theory applied to free will, relativity, and determinacy: Or, why the unified field theory sought by Einstein could not be found was published on January 1, 1996 in the journal Semiotica (volume 108, issue 3-4)
Adding Abstract to Formal and Content Schemata: Results of Recent Work in Peircean Semiotics
Content and formal discourse schemata are derived respectively from perceptual (abductive) and indexical (inductive) strategies of inference, but a third kind of schema referred to as abstract is hypothesized here for the first time and is shown to be based on deductive generalizations All three kinds of schemata are examined in relation to active interpretations of photographs, audio-visual discourse, and written text It is argued by the Peircea…
Testing a theory of photographic meaning
Can relatively perfect translation between English and Chinese be achieved
It may be hypothesized that translation is always possible among diverse languages (Lakoff, 1987) or that it is never possible (Givón, 1989). In order to provide empirical evidence, 250 speakers of English and Chinese were tested in randomly selected blocks of 25 subjects each on one version of an original and another of a translated text in their respective native languages. A fixed- ratio cloze procedure was used deleting every fifth word from …
Language and Bilingualism: More Tests of Tests
The relation of multiple-choice cloze items to the Test of English as a Foreign Language
Four categories of multiple-choice (MC) cloze items were examined in relation to the TOEFL. The object was to assess the factor structure of the TOEFL and the potential of distinguishing MC cloze items aimed at reading comprehension (defined in terms of textual constraints ranging across clauses) as contrasted with knowledge of grammar (short-range surface syntax and morphology) or vocabulary. Since it is impossible in principle to distinguish su…
Background and culture as factors in EFL reading comprehension
An experimental comparison was made between two original passages in English written for ESL/EFL consumers. Since the subjects tested were 159 Japanese women, unfamiliar, non-Japanese elements were changed to conform more to the expectations of the readers tested. Only a few terms were changed in each of two passages: e.g. names of persons and places; in one instance kissing was changed to hugging. All subjects completed two cloze tests: one over…
The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications
Language Acquisition in the Early Years: An Introduction to Paedolinguistics
When Are Cloze Items Sensitive to Constraints Across Sentences
This article, the long-promised sequel to Chihara, Oiler, Weaver, and Chavez-Oller (1977, n. 1), does two things. First, it reviews the continuing controversy about whether cloze items in general are sensitive to constraints beyond 5-10 words on either side of them. It is concluded that some are sensitive to constraints that reach even beyond 50 words on either side of a blank. The research shows that this sort of context sensitivity is inaccessi…
Consensus and controversy
Story Writing Principles and ESL Teaching
Is it possible that we ESL/EFL teachers can profit by using principles of good story-telling along with the more familiar and more traditional principles of structural analysis? Four hypotheses about language use and language acquisition are discussed. They include the textuality hypothesis, the expectancy hypothesis, Krashen's input hypothesis, and the episode hypothesis (closely related to Krashen's “net” hypothesis). These working hypotheses a…
Gardner on Affect: A Reply to Gardner 1
Language as Intelligence
The interpenetration of languagC skIws (at the deepest kwls) and intcllipnce (as the latter isdefined by psychologrstsand psychometrmans) has been a toprc of great interest for many years. However. the full extent of the relationship may easily be missed if one relies on the traditional distinction between the constructs of language and intelligence and especially if one makes the common error of assocloting language too closely with spccch. The …
English Proficiency and Factors in Its Attainment: A Case Study of Iranians in the United States
Mohammad Monshi-Tousi, Azar Hosseine-Fatemi, John W. Oller, Jr., English Proficiency and Factors in Its Attainment: A Case Study of Iranians in the United States, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 365-372
Research Notes
Oral Proficiency Scales: Construct Validity and the Halo Effect
A counterbalanced experimental design was used to investigate the construct validity of four 10-point scales of oral proficiency aimed at grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency. Interviews with 10 foreign students were tape recorded and evaluated by 15 native speakers of English. Under condition 1, on four of five consecutive hearings, the raters evaluated the performances on only one of the four scales. Under condition 2, on the remaini…
Language tests at school: A Pragmatic Approach
Attitudes and Attained Proficiency in Esl: A Sociolinguistic Study of Native Speakers of Chinese in the United States
The relations between various measures of attitudes toward self, the native language group, the target language group, reasons for learning English as a second language, reasons for traveling to the U.S. and attained proficiency in ESL were investigated. Subjects were Chinese speaking foreign students primarily studying at the graduate level in the U.S. It was hypothesized that positive attitudes, especially positive attitudes toward the target l…
Attitudes and Attained Proficiency in ESL: A Sociolinguistic Study of Mexican Americans in the Southwest
ficiency. The hypothesis that the observed relationships would be stronger for learners in a second language setting than for learners in a foreign language setting was again sustained. The learners in this study did better on the ESL proficiency test if they saw themselves and Mexicans in general as high on factors that could be interpreted roughly as willingness to receive instruction. They appeared to be anti-integratively motivated towards th…
Cloze Tests of Second Language Proficiency and What They Measure1
Data from a wide variety of sources are cited in support of the cloze technique as a global measure of language proficiency. Cloze tests as measures of readability, reading comprehension, quality of translations, pragmatic expectancies due to textual illustrations, attitudes, and ethno-linguistic background are discussed. In second language applications of the cloze procedure the effects of variations in difficulty, scoring methods, and the langu…
The Cloze Technique and Esl Proficiency
The variety of fill-in-blank test known as the "cloze" procedure is discussed as a device for teaching and testing ESL proficiency. Research with native speakers and the sparse literature available concerning studies with non-native speakers are explored briefly. An experiment is conducted to attempt to partially determine the discriminative power of a cloze test (scored by the exact-word method) and its validity as a device for measuring ESL ski…
Intelligence and Language Proficiency as Sources of Variance in Self‐reported Affective Variables 1
Self‐reported attitude data over the last decade have often been used as predictors of attained second language proficiency and for other purposes. Three possible sources of non‐random but extraneous vairance in self‐reported attitude data are considered: self‐flattery, response set, and the approval motive. It is suggested that some of the variance in verbal intelligence is common to variance in first and second language proficiency, some of whi…
Are Cloze Items Sensitive to Constraints Across Sentences?1
To determine whether or not cloze items are sensitive to constraints across sentences, two passages of prose were selected and two types of tests were constructed over each passage. In the sequential type, items were inserted in the normal prose by a standard word-deletion procedure. In the scrambled type, the sentences of each passage of prose were systematically shuffled. Each cloze item appeared once in the sequential condition and once in the…
Rule Fossilization: A Tentative Model1
A cybernetic model of factors involved in the fossilization of grammatical and lexical forms in learner grammars is offered. A distinction is made between affective and cognitive dimensions of a multidimensional channel of human communication. A distinction is also made between expected and unexpected feedback. It is argued that expected negative feedback on the cognitive dimension of language usage is the principal de-stabilizing factor in the d…
The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis and Spelling Errors
The implications of three versions of the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) are explored. The strong and weak forms are rejected in favor of a more moderate version which predicts the results of a spelling error analysis on the dictation section of the UCLA placement examination in English as a second language. Spelling errors of foreign students whose native language employed a Roman alphabet (Group H) were compared with spelling errors of f…
Cloze, Dictation, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language
The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was taken by 159 non-native speakers of English in Tehran, Iran. They also took a cloze test and two dictations. The former was scored for both exact and contextually acceptable responses. A correlation of.94 between the two methods recommends the exact method for non-native teachers of ESL and concurs with the result of a study by Stubbs and Tucker (1974). Cloze scores correlated with the combine…
Cloze Tests in English, Thai, and Vietnamese: Native and Non-native Performance
A passage in English was translated into Vietnamese and Thai, and a passage in Thai and one in Vietnamese were each translated into English. Speakers of English (35 subjects), Thai (122), and Vietnamese (115) were tested on the cloze passages in their native languages, and the Thais and Vietnamese, all of whom had studied English as a foreign language (EFL) for at least six years, were tested in the English passages. Response types of natives and…
Language as Intelligence
The interpenetration of languagC skIws (at the deepest kwls) and intcllipnce (as the latter isdefined by psychologrstsand psychometrmans) has been a toprc of great interest for many years. However. the full extent of the relationship may easily be missed if one relies on the traditional distinction between the constructs of language and intelligence and especially if one makes the common error of assocloting language too closely with spccch. The …
A Cloze Test of English Prepositions
The cloze technique is explored as a basis for measuring the skill of non-native speakers in handling English prepositions. Three groups of subjects are tested on an English cloze passage in which only prepositions have been deleted: the three groups consist of 19 native speakers of English (G-I), 53 native speakers of Turkish (G-II), and 110 foreign students entering UCLA from a wide variety of language backgrounds (G-III). An item analysis and …
Article Usage and Other Language Skills
Scores on a test of article usage are correlated with scores on the U.C.L.A. ESL Placement Examination in order to determine the extent to which article usage relates to other English skills. Comparisons of article usage scores are made among various groups of non-native speakers according to native language. Implications for the contrastive analysis hypothesis are explored. Results show that skill in article usage is closely related with overall…
When Are Cloze Items Sensitive to Constraints Across Sentences
This article, the long-promised sequel to Chihara, Oiler, Weaver, and Chavez-Oller (1977, n. 1), does two things. First, it reviews the continuing controversy about whether cloze items in general are sensitive to constraints beyond 5-10 words on either side of them. It is concluded that some are sensitive to constraints that reach even beyond 50 words on either side of a blank. The research shows that this sort of context sensitivity is inaccessi…
Expectancy for Successive Elements: Key Ingredient to Language Use
Language is viewed as an abbreviatory system whereby human processing of information is facilitated through sequential coding. The key ingredient to successful use of language is the ability to anticipate elements in sequence. This is true for encoding operations as well as for decoding. It is argued that the element of expectancy is the underlying factor which accounts for the overlap in variance on language tests requiring various modes of verb…
Contrastive Analysis, Difficulty, and Predictability
Contrastive analysis (CA) is recognized as a useful technique for research into the nature of human information processing but is rejected as a foundation for second language instructional programs. CA is neither a necessary nor a sufficient basis for program design. The language teacher does not need to know how a target structure contrasts with a native structure as much as he needs to know how speakers of the target language use the structure …
Conceptual restrictions on English: A psycholinguistic study
Assessing Competence in ESL: Reading
Results from research with Eye Movement Photography (EMP) are discussed with a view to defining differences between native speakers and non-native reading processes. The greatest contrast is in terms of the duration of eye fixations; non-native speakers at the college level require about as much time for a fixation as an average native speaker at the third grade level. Various tests of reading skill are discussed and correlations with other tests…
A basic circularity in traditional and current linguistic theory
Testing a theory of photographic meaning
The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications
On the Relation Between Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics
Primer nivel: El espanol por el mundo-La familia Fernandez
A basic circularity in traditional and current linguistic theory
Conceptual restrictions on English: A psycholinguistic study
Toward Consistent Definitions of Some Psycholinguistic Terms
The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis and Spelling Errors
The implications of three versions of the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) are explored. The strong and weak forms are rejected in favor of a more moderate version which predicts the results of a spelling error analysis on the dictation section of the UCLA placement examination in English as a second language. Spelling errors of foreign students whose native language employed a Roman alphabet (Group H) were compared with spelling errors of f…
A Cloze Test of English Prepositions
The cloze technique is explored as a basis for measuring the skill of non-native speakers in handling English prepositions. Three groups of subjects are tested on an English cloze passage in which only prepositions have been deleted: the three groups consist of 19 native speakers of English (G-I), 53 native speakers of Turkish (G-II), and 110 foreign students entering UCLA from a wide variety of language backgrounds (G-III). An item analysis and …
The Cloze Technique and Esl Proficiency
The variety of fill-in-blank test known as the "cloze" procedure is discussed as a device for teaching and testing ESL proficiency. Research with native speakers and the sparse literature available concerning studies with non-native speakers are explored briefly. An experiment is conducted to attempt to partially determine the discriminative power of a cloze test (scored by the exact-word method) and its validity as a device for measuring ESL ski…
Article Usage and Other Language Skills
Scores on a test of article usage are correlated with scores on the U.C.L.A. ESL Placement Examination in order to determine the extent to which article usage relates to other English skills. Comparisons of article usage scores are made among various groups of non-native speakers according to native language. Implications for the contrastive analysis hypothesis are explored. Results show that skill in article usage is closely related with overall…
Induction, mind, and contextualization of materials to be learned
Preview this article: Induction, mind, and contextualization of materials to be learned, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/itl.18.02oll-1.gif
Assessing Competence in ESL: Reading
Results from research with Eye Movement Photography (EMP) are discussed with a view to defining differences between native speakers and non-native reading processes. The greatest contrast is in terms of the duration of eye fixations; non-native speakers at the college level require about as much time for a fixation as an average native speaker at the third grade level. Various tests of reading skill are discussed and correlations with other tests…
Transfer and Interference as Special Cases of Induction and Substitution
Contrastive Analysis, Difficulty, and Predictability
Contrastive analysis (CA) is recognized as a useful technique for research into the nature of human information processing but is rejected as a foundation for second language instructional programs. CA is neither a necessary nor a sufficient basis for program design. The language teacher does not need to know how a target structure contrasts with a native structure as much as he needs to know how speakers of the target language use the structure …
On the Relation Between Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics
Cloze Tests in English, Thai, and Vietnamese: Native and Non-native Performance
A passage in English was translated into Vietnamese and Thai, and a passage in Thai and one in Vietnamese were each translated into English. Speakers of English (35 subjects), Thai (122), and Vietnamese (115) were tested on the cloze passages in their native languages, and the Thais and Vietnamese, all of whom had studied English as a foreign language (EFL) for at least six years, were tested in the English passages. Response types of natives and…
Cloze Tests of Second Language Proficiency and What They Measure1
Data from a wide variety of sources are cited in support of the cloze technique as a global measure of language proficiency. Cloze tests as measures of readability, reading comprehension, quality of translations, pragmatic expectancies due to textual illustrations, attitudes, and ethno-linguistic background are discussed. In second language applications of the cloze procedure the effects of variations in difficulty, scoring methods, and the langu…
Expectancy for Successive Elements: Key Ingredient to Language Use
Language is viewed as an abbreviatory system whereby human processing of information is facilitated through sequential coding. The key ingredient to successful use of language is the ability to anticipate elements in sequence. This is true for encoding operations as well as for decoding. It is argued that the element of expectancy is the underlying factor which accounts for the overlap in variance on language tests requiring various modes of verb…
Cloze, Dictation, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language
The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was taken by 159 non-native speakers of English in Tehran, Iran. They also took a cloze test and two dictations. The former was scored for both exact and contextually acceptable responses. A correlation of.94 between the two methods recommends the exact method for non-native teachers of ESL and concurs with the result of a study by Stubbs and Tucker (1974). Cloze scores correlated with the combine…
Pragmatic mappings
Rule Fossilization: A Tentative Model1
A cybernetic model of factors involved in the fossilization of grammatical and lexical forms in learner grammars is offered. A distinction is made between affective and cognitive dimensions of a multidimensional channel of human communication. A distinction is also made between expected and unexpected feedback. It is argued that expected negative feedback on the cognitive dimension of language usage is the principal de-stabilizing factor in the d…
Research Notes
John W. Oller, Jr., Alan J. Hudson, Phyllis Fei Liu, James M. Hendrickson, Tetsuro Chihara, John Oller, Seid M. Ziahosseiny, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Research Notes, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 105-108
Attitudes and Attained Proficiency in ESL: A Sociolinguistic Study of Mexican Americans in the Southwest
ficiency. The hypothesis that the observed relationships would be stronger for learners in a second language setting than for learners in a foreign language setting was again sustained. The learners in this study did better on the ESL proficiency test if they saw themselves and Mexicans in general as high on factors that could be interpreted roughly as willingness to receive instruction. They appeared to be anti-integratively motivated towards th…
Attitudes and Attained Proficiency in Esl: A Sociolinguistic Study of Native Speakers of Chinese in the United States
The relations between various measures of attitudes toward self, the native language group, the target language group, reasons for learning English as a second language, reasons for traveling to the U.S. and attained proficiency in ESL were investigated. Subjects were Chinese speaking foreign students primarily studying at the graduate level in the U.S. It was hypothesized that positive attitudes, especially positive attitudes toward the target l…
Are Cloze Items Sensitive to Constraints Across Sentences?1
To determine whether or not cloze items are sensitive to constraints across sentences, two passages of prose were selected and two types of tests were constructed over each passage. In the sequential type, items were inserted in the normal prose by a standard word-deletion procedure. In the scrambled type, the sentences of each passage of prose were systematically shuffled. Each cloze item appeared once in the sequential condition and once in the…
A Further Comment on Language Proficiency as a Source of Variance in Certain Affective Measures 1
Intelligence and Language Proficiency as Sources of Variance in Self‐reported Affective Variables 1
Self‐reported attitude data over the last decade have often been used as predictors of attained second language proficiency and for other purposes. Three possible sources of non‐random but extraneous vairance in self‐reported attitude data are considered: self‐flattery, response set, and the approval motive. It is suggested that some of the variance in verbal intelligence is common to variance in first and second language proficiency, some of whi…
Psychology (45 works) · Linguistics (41 works) · Computer Science (23 works) · Philosophy (22 works) · Mathematics education (18 works) · Cognitive psychology (12 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (12 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (9 works) · Mathematics (9 works)