Mid-20th-century scholars argued that second language (L2) instruction should be rooted in a comparison of the structural characteristics of the first language (L1) and L2. Their enthusiasm for a "scientific" approach to errors reflected the view, based on the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH), that learners' difficulties could be…

Certain concepts of redundancy at the phonological level are mistaken or misapplied. Three "fallacies" ("string of beads," vowel redundancy, and single error) of the nature of redundancy are explored. Although learners should be sensitized to other varieties of English, teachers should also provide a model of pronunciation that conforms to a…