Error analysis has consistently neglected to give any treatment of the phonological aspects of non-native linguistic performance. Using Selinker's Interlanguage model as a starting-point, an attempt is made here to develop a descriptive apparatus capable of accounting for the phenomena of "foreign accents." The data of one such…

This article discusses the various dialects of English spoken in Liberia and analyzes the problems of Liberian students in writing compositions in English. Errors arise mainly from differences in culture and cognition, not from superficial linguistic problems. (CFM)

It is suggested that the static model of language which is prerequisite for contrastive analysis is inadequate in pinpointing potential difficulties in second language learning. The student learning graphemic-phonetic correspondences encounters two types of difficulties not exposed by contrastive analysis: dialectal difficulties and reading…

Progress in the teaching of oral comprehension depends partly on the isolation of factors which block comprehension. Research in conjunction with an experimental course in English as a second language led to the definition of errors due to: (1) insufficient knowledge of the language and the cultural context of its use, and (2) a failure to…

Errors can be considered concrete representations of stages through which one must go in order to acquire one's native language and a second language. It has been discovered that certain errors appear systematically, revealing an approximate system, or "interlanguage," behind the erroneous utterances. Present research in second language…

The question of teaching a standard dialect to Chicano students who are studying abroad has implications for teaching any standard versus nonstandard dialect. The University of Colorado has a program at the Universidad Veracruzana in Jalapa, Mexico, in which the policy is to teach standard Mexican Spanish (the cultivated norm of Mexico City) as an…

This issue of the workpapers includes the following reports and papers: "The ESL Service Courses at UCLA: A Progress Report," by Kathleen M. Bailey; "A Comparison of Item Analysis Programs," by Earl Rand; "Stereotypes in Media - or - How to Avoid Functional Fixedness," by James Heaton; "The Search for a Second Language Acquisition Index of…