Research on error analysis indicates that the learner develops an ordered system of language which is frequently erroneous, but which represents a transitional stage in his progress towards mastery. A brief analysis of some textbooks provides information about the selection and presentation of material to the learner. (SW)

Students of French are now more fluent orally than their counterparts of a few years ago. They are using, however, a more anglicized French. The causes are three: (1) unawareness of the value of words; (2) infrequent use of reference material, specifically the dictionary; (3) lack of adequate knowledge of basic rules. (CFM)

Teachers of English as a second language can try to help students build up a listening fluency so they can detect their own errors in English when it "sounds wrong." One procedure for this is explained; it involves learning discriminations through hypothesis testing of contrasts and providing immediate feedback. (CHK)

Reaction of the target language speaker to the second language learner's errors may play an important role in developing awareness of norms of correctness. A model for corrective feedback has been developed. Its use helps isolate ambiguities, highlights features of corrective interaction effective in eliciting correct performance. (CHK)

Certain concepts of redundancy at the phonological level are mistaken or misapplied. Three "fallacies" ("string of beads," vowel redundancy, and single error) of the nature of redundancy are explored. Although learners should be sensitized to other varieties of English, teachers should also provide a model of pronunciation that conforms to a…

A study of the acquisition of rules for the placement of the negative particle and some adverbs in Swedish generally supported the results of earlier studies on favorable contexts for the correct application of the placement rules, but also revealed that some errors may result from tendencies to emphasize semantics over syntax. (Author/CB)

Discusses a test given to a group of elementary school students of English as a second language. The purpose of the test was to measure developmental errors, that is, errors which reflect a learner's competence at a given stage, and to illustrate some of the general characteristics of language acquisition. (SED)

The methodology used to determine readability of English texts (cloze procedure and word lists) is not applicable to foreign-language material. Linguistic variables are proposed as the basis for readability formulas. Contrastive and error analysis are possible strategies. (JB)

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…

Discusses how computer-assisted language learning programs can generate error messages to help students in different ways. The article points out that an easier solution is to program a computer to recognize several different kinds of generic errors not related to any particular question but applicable to many situations, in order to generate…

Discusses the question of aptitude from within an information-processing perspective, examines how aptitude is conceptualized in this framework, and discusses one possible component of L2 aptitude: working memory. (56 references) (Author/CK)

Studies the kinds of errors made by American learners of Russian, the reasons for these errors, change in error patterns, and resemblance between the errors of foreign and primary language learners. (42 references) (CK)

Provides various procedural criteria for performing error analysis, and introduces two new dimensions of error, extent and domain, which serve to differentiate errors systematically. (32 references) (Author/CB)

Studies the elicited and naturalistic speech of elementary school English-as-a-Second-Language students and argues that variability exists in the language acquisition process but is not a necessary component of mental competence. Implications for the teaching of grammar to children in an academic context are examined. (32 references) (JL)

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…