An attempt is made to describe second language behavior and language transfer in cybernetic terms. This should make it possible to translate language into machine language and to clarify psycholinguistic explanations of second language performance. (PMJ)

A test administered to 73 adults learning English as a second language revealed a highly consistent order of relative difficulty in the use of eight functors across different language backgrounds. This study also confirmed earlier results indicating that children and adults use common strategies and process linguistic data similarly. (Author/KM)