Assesses the effects on second language learning of written feedback that either suppressed student errors or made them salient. Planned comparisons showed achievement was consistently superior under salient error conditions and with constructively critical feedback. Relevance of the findings for instructional theory and second language teaching…

This study examined the sensitivity of adult second language learners to deviance in English sentences. The subjects were 18 Egyptian, Arabic-speaking students attending classes at the English Language Institute of the American University in Cairo. (Author/CFM)

Presents study of Japanese- and German-speaking children who were tested on the Sentence Comprehension Test to investigate understanding of various English grammatical structures. Concludes that learning of English as a second language in a natural milieu seems to pass through stages similar to those exhibited by monolingual English children.…

Presents the rationale for and the results of a pilot study attempting to document in detail how automatization takes place as the result of different kinds of intensive practice. Results show that reaction times and error rates gradually decline with practice, and the practice effect is skill-specific. (36 references) (CK)

Reports a study of the written English of native Arab learners which investigated: (1) the extent to which judgments of intelligibility and naturalness differed; (2) the extent to which error type and linguistic context affected the intelligibility, naturalness and interpretability of devian utterances; and (3) the basis for native speakers;…

Reviews the results of research in language acquisition, interactional analysis, pragmatics, repair, error, and social and affective factors. Extracts four language teaching principles relating to acquisition activities in the classroom, the importance of affective factors, the communicative capacity of learners, and the nature and treatment of…

Discusses the influence a first language can have on the acquisition of a second language. Includes some tentative proposals on the interaction of prior first-language knowledge and the creative construction process. (EKN)

Presents three interrelated theses on the mechanisms underlying developmental and transfer errors, and exemplifies these with reference to a number of English L2 developmental structures. Proposes a framework where linguistic factors play a major role in protracting the restructuring of the preverbal negation rule by Spanish learners. (Author/MES)

Describes the design of the International Corpus of Learner English, outlining the learner and task variables in the corpus of texts written by English-as-a-Foreign-Language university undergraduates. The design of the corpus and sampling of students with different native languages make contrastive interlanguage analyses and error analyses…

Describes the development and organization of the Colt (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) observation scheme and Lyster and Ranta's (1997) error treatment model, instruments including predetermined categories to describe features of instructional input and interaction in second language classrooms. Concludes that the choice of…

Limitations of language acquisition research are: the restricted linguistic scope of studies; lack of data in cognitive processes and learning strategies, the role of individual variables, second language acquisition, and the role of social and environmental variables; and undeveloped methodology for data collection and data analysis. (SCC)

Discusses academic writing as it is learned by Chinese students of English as a second language (ESL), and critiques Kaplan's claim that ESL students writing expository prose in English will show organizational patterns different from those of native speakers. Developmental factors in second language learners' writing are discussed. (SED)

Reports on the progress being made in an attempt to establish a second language acquisition index of development that would gauge a learner's second language proficiency. A project was undertaken involving the analysis of 212 compositions written by university students of English as a second language. (CFM)