The documents listed in this selected bibliography on language teaching and learning appeared in the January through November 1974 issues of Research in Education (RIE). The entries are divided into three categories: (1) documents concerning language acquisition and development, (2) documents dealing primarily with the theoretical aspects of…

This book is a summary of the reports received from the various countries which participated in a conference on native language learning and teaching. The reports are based on questionnaires sent out by the Unesco Institute for Education prior to the meeting. Chapters include a general review of the pre-conference reports, extracts from one of the…

Investigates the relationship between bilingualism and metalinguistic awareness in Puerto Rican Spanish- and English-speaking children. Findings indicate that native language proficiency, as well as the degree of bilingualism, affect metalinguistic awareness, and that these effects interacted with the types of items in the metalinguistic tasks.…

Focuses on nativist theories of language learning and how they apply to second-language acquisition (SLA). The article is seeking a nativism that goes beyond the scope of Universal Grammar and explains the human cognitive capacity for language learning, the learning of all language structures found in natural languages, and SLA. (95 references)…

An overview is given of semantic research in adult Second Language Acquisition (SLA), focusing particular attention on undirected SLA. Several studies on child SLA are mentioned, and suggestions for further research on SLA semantics are offered. (35 references) (GLR)

The development of the expression of grammatical categories in German in Turkish and German children attending a bilingual day care center in a multilingual speech community in Berlin is examined. Results indicate no evidence that pragmatic categories precede syntactic ones, but some evidence shows that grammatical markers develop first as…

Examines controversial interactions between children, a group generally overlooked in second-language acquisition research. Specifically, the research focuses on (1) whether children can negotiate for meaning, (2) what strategies they use, and (3) whether there are differences between the ways adults and primary school children negotiate for…

Examines the assumptions behind three attempts to introduce formulaic language into second language teaching. Contextualizes the discussion by briefly outlining the nature of formulaic language as a phenomenon. (Author/VWL)

This paper examines the nature of finite and nonfinite main declarative sentences produced by L2 child learners. It claims that two of the main proposals on the root infinitive (RI) phenomenon, the Truncation Hypothesis (TH) and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH), are not mutually exclusive in child SLA because they are hypotheses on…

Four recent volumes on acquisition of French by different populations cover a range of areas, particularly the development of verbal tense/agreement and nominal gender/concord in first language (L1) acquirers, as opposed to second language (L2) learners; the generalizability of grammatical deficits (e.g. difficulty acquiring parametrized features…

The aim of this article is two-fold: to test the Aspect Hypothesis, according to which the early use of tense-aspect morphology patterns by semantic/aspectual features of verbs, and Tense is initially defective (e.g. Antinucci and Miller, 1976; Bloom et al., 1980; Andersen and Shirai, 1994; 1996; Robison, 1995; Shirai and Andersen, 1995;…

A study is made of ways in which three children forgot a foreign language in which they had been immersed. Specifically considered are whether the last things learned are the first things forgotten, and whether forgetting entails unlearning in reverse order from the original learning process. (Author/RM)

Tests to discover the nature of the second language learner's language are discussed. Such tests are based on the assumptions that the development of the system of the foreign language in the learner follows certain regular patterns, and that the learner's grammar is essentially systematic at any stage of his learning. (RM)

Major concepts and findings related to the acquisition of early childhood bilingualism among Mexican American children are examined. Results are reported for empirical studies of bilingual acquisition, bilingual mother-child discourse, contextual and input parameters, interlanguage transfer, interactional language switching, and bilingual…