Empathy, or the immediate emotional apprehension of the affective experience of another person, plays an important role in the developmental acquisition of a first language. It is hypothesized that a capacity for empathy contributes to the mastery of the pronunciation of a second language. An operational redefinition of empathic skill as the…

Though the need for a language or languages to describe teacher behavior has been recognized for some time, few systems of analysis exist. A conceptual framework and a set of terms have been developed to describe the messages students and teachers send and receive in second language classrooms. This system is called FOCUS (an acronym for Foci for…

The purpose of this study was to obtain quantitative nonevaluative data about verbal behavior used by instructor and students in the foreign language classroom. Two beginner and two intermediate German classes were tape-recorded for two weeks, then coded according to patterns. Frequencies of various verbal behavior patterns were analyzed. A…