A description of language acquisition and second language learning by adults in terms of method and achievement. Some socio-psychological and neurophysiological reasons for the possible differences between children and adults are briefly discussed. There is a sizable bibliography. (AMH)

A brief discussion of the role of contrastive linguistics and transformational generative grammar in studying transfer and interference in language learning. The base language is not necessarily the mother tongue. It is the language known by the learner which most closely resembles the new language being learned. (AMH)

A report on the state of the research in bilingualism among children to determine whether or not first and second languages are acquired in the same way. Several studies are described and classified; usage, pronunciation, interference and the question of dominant language are discussed. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Authors present a critical, historical overview of research on second-language acquisition. Outlines four analytical approaches--contrastive, error, performance, and discourse analysis--traces the shifts among these approaches, and demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of each. Also shows how the different approaches reflect changing…

Reviews the general trends of research concerned with second language phonology, citing several principal factors involved in foreign accent such as age and native language interference. More recent investigations show that pronunciation of a foreign language is influenced by factors of stylistic variation and stages of development unrelated to…

Discusses the social and linguistic problems of children living in Sweden who have at least one Italian immigrant parent. (CFM)

Reports a study of native Spanish speakers' acquisition of the ability to discriminate lexically in English between similar items with different characteristics. The study also examined the role of first-language interference in the process. (MSE)

Presents the results of an experiment which examined the temporal characteristics of voiceless plosives in American English, Arabic, and Arabic-accented English. Results showed that Arabic-accented English departed from the target language goal and constituted an articulation type characterizable as more Arabic than Arabic itself. (Author/SED)

Discusses an alternative framework for handling language testing and proposes some tentative hypotheses concerning principles of language testing. Suggests that taking account of both interlanguage domain engagement and contextualization in testing research, production, and interpretation allows for a richer conceptualization of the language…

Presents results of two case studies involving the acquisition of English in a natural environment, as well as the results of two judgment tests in which subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of sentences containing both correctly and incorrectly used dative verbs. (SL)

Paper read at the Pacific Conference on Contrastive Linguistics and Language Universals, Honolulu, Hawaii, January 11-16, 1971. (VM)

Appears in "The Florida FL Reporter special anthology issue "Linguistic-Cultural Factors and American Education. (FWB)

Reasons that Mexican American children have difficulty learning to read include: (1) Learning to read and learning a new language simultaneously is difficult; (2) Mexican American students experience alienation in the school culture; (3) Low self-esteem contributes to the inability to read; and (4) Certain minority groups do not expect as much of…

Describes a study undertaken to assess interference from two languages for learners of French. Suggests that susceptibility to interference is related to a number of factors, such as level of proficiency in the target language, and the degree and type of similarity between the target and the base language. (MES)

Attempts to demonstrate the strategies used by the second language learner in deciphering unfamiliar linguistic material. (AM)