Reviews research findings on second-language (L2) interaction from the perspective of syntactic development. The article argues that better understanding of the role of negotiated interaction in L2 syntactic development requires examining the specific grammatical structures in interaction guided by the criteria of relevance, availability,…

The association between an attitudinal/motivational factor and the acquisition of French oral proficiency is discussed. Eighty-nine Canadian students were satisfied with the intensive French language program while the 65 Americans were not. The sociocultural background of the student plays a major role in the development of attitudes. (PMJ)

Three groups of Grade 7 students participated in a study to examine the personality and language exposure factors associated with learning French as a second language. (CFM)

A study was conducted to examine the changes in students' attitudes, motivation and French achievement during a five-week, residential, summer program. Sixty-two students were administered a battery of attitude and motivation tests as well as a test of oral French proficiency prior to, and upon completion of, the course. (CFM)

Investigates relationships among measures of second-language proficiency (SLP), foreign-language aptitude, verbal intelligence and reasoning in 160 Japanese college students studying English. The factor analysis of several different SLP test scores was examined, and the relationship between a general SLP factor and a hypothetical general cognitive…

The French language competence of two groups of English-speaking pupils who are educated via French was investigated. Third and fifth grade English-speaking pupils were compared with French-speaking children of the same age. Results of the study are discussed. (Author/RM)

In an effort to find an index of development for second language acquisition, compositions written by non-native speakers of English were classified into proficiency levels and analyzed. Measures that seemed most suitable as an index of development were average length of the T-unit and number of error-free T-units. (CHK)

A study compared the Swedish tone accent acquisition of native-speaking children (N=2) and nonnative speaking college students (N=12). Both groups overgeneralized one pitch pattern to all bisyllabic words. Children used "Accent 2" (two-peaked) and adults "Accent 1" (one-peaked), analogous to the prevailing patterns of their…

Presents the results of an investigation into how native speakers of English provide corrective feedback to errors in conversation with their nonnative speaker friends. Native speakers responded to errors by using either on-record or off-record corrective feedback and several noncorrective discourse devices to repair conversational difficulties.…

Presents and assesses recent studies on the silent period, that is, the period at the beginning of second language instruction when language learners do not speak the target language. Describes a survey of the silent period of primary school children and its consequences for acquisition theory and for language teaching. (SED)

Attempts to characterize the process of first language acquisition by children. Suggests that language learning involves the acquisition of both language knowledge and language behavior, hence of the internalized representations underlying linguistic competence and also the ability to deploy this knowledge in interpreting and speaking the language…

The English of two Japanese boys acquiring English in a natural setting was observed over five months. The analysis and comparison of their language to first language acquisition data showed a striking similarity. There was no clear evidence of transfer from the mother tongue. (Author/RM)

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)

In comparing the mechanism of a native language sound change and the acquisition of a second language phonology, it is concluded that individuals approach the learning and changing of phonology in a psycholinguistically unified way; the foreign language learner is fundamentally like himself as a native language changer. (Author/POP)

Tested the predictions of three major hypotheses of relative clause acquisition in second language acquisition: the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (NPAH), the Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis (PDH) and the SO Hierarchy Hypothesis (SOHH). Analyses of data collected from 61 learners of English as a Second Language in three different elicitation…