The ways that children and adults use their limited cognitive processes in comprehending the complex input of a second language are discussed, and an information-processing approach to second-language learning is proposed and supported in a number of areas of second language research. Implications for research and teaching are examined. (MSE)

Studies employing or investigating the metalinguistic judgments of native and nonnative speakers are reviewed. Their results and methodologies are compared to stimulate reliable and informative applications of such judgments in future research. Metalinguistic judgments are found useful in language acquisition studies, given appropriate controls…

Argues for a dual approach to the study of second language acquisition, incorporating a nomothetic and a hermeneutic mode of inquiry. (Author/AM)

Four positions concerning foreign and second language learning ability in adults are summarized with attention to the "critical period" hypothesis. An argument is made for a shift from macro-correlational studies to controlled micro language learning research free of extralinguistic variables. (PMJ)

Describes a research project carried out in Sweden to study the acquisition of Swedish syntax of negation by adult second language learners. (CFM)

This study examined bilingual children's performance in reading Persian and English at grades one, three, and six. Indications are that the bilingual children performed not quite as well as their monolingual counterparts in either of the languages despite the high degree of variation among the subjects. (Author/POP)

Examined the role of phonological memory and phonological awareness in foreign language word learning. Measures of phonological memory and phonological awareness were administered to 58 Chinese-speaking 4-year-olds four times over 2 years. Results suggest phonological memory may support foreign language word learning but phonological awareness may…

Discusses the theory that the second-language processing of subordinate clauses and of anaphora is affected by the basic word order of a learners native language. This phenomenon, believed to be a prediction of universal grammar, is explored. (54 references) (Author/VWL)

Investigated the nature of second-language proficiency with respect to its divisibility and components. The correlated-traits and second-order hypotheses were evaluated using 354 students learning English-as-a-Second-Language, a wide range of language proficiency measures, and comfirmatory data-analytic techniques. (36 references) (Author/OD)

Focuses on one particular psychological dimension, extraversion-introversion. The relatively small number of linguistic studies in which extraversion is focused on as an independent variable suggests that applied linguists believe it unrelated to speech production or language learning. Argues that this suspicion is based on a misunderstanding…

Evaluated the effect on French language proficiency of an integrated formal, analytic and functional, communicative approach to second language teaching in the immersion classroom. Impetus for the study arises from previous research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent,…

Attempted to address two methodological problems found in current investigations of the role of awareness in second language behavior: defining what constitutes awareness and operationalizing and measuring different levels of awareness and their effects on second language behavior. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the interpretation of research data of Berthier, Starkstein, Lylyk, and Leiguarda (1990) reporting a case of faster recovery, after selective sodium amytal injection, of the patient's second language than his native language. Paradis (1990) argued that these results do not support Ojemann and Whitaker's (1978) hypothesis. (five…

Responds to Paradis's (1990) argument that these authors misreported the facts presented by Berthier, Starkstein, Lylyk, and Leiguarda (1990) regarding the recovery by a bilingual patient of his second language earlier than his native tongue subsequent to injection of a narcotic drug. The article argues that Paradis is incorrect. (nine references)…

This review article analyzes the results of several representative English morpheme-order studies conducted in the 1970s in light of current functional-category theory. Comparative analysis found significant discoveries related to category-specific development of functional projections in first language acquisition and cross-categorical…