Modern poetry can be used as instructional material in beginning foreign language courses to offer a change of pace from the regular instructional materials and an introduction to the literature in the target language. Students also take pride in understanding original literary products of the language being taught. Modern poetry proves to be more…

The experiment reported measured the degree to which cloze tests deliberately biased on the basis of contrastive analysis would actually be harder for Vietnamese than for speakers of other languages. The experiment tested the approach to ESL (English as a second language) for Vietnamese described in a guide for teachers of Vietnamese refugees…

THIS PACKET OF MATERIALS PUBLISHED FROM 1964 TO 1967 CONTAINS ITEMS OF HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL INTEREST AS WELL AS SOME WHICH PROVIDE ADVICE ON CLASSROOM TEACHING AND LEARNING. INCLUDED ARE--(1) "A LINGUISTIC GUIDE TO LANGUAGE LEARNING" BY WILLIAM G. MOULTON, (2) "WORDS, MEANINGS, AND CONCEPTS" BY JOHN B. CARROLL, (3) "THE IMPACT OF LINGUISTICS…

Foreigner talk (FT) is the term used to characterize possible adjustments in the speech of a native speaker (NS) when he or she is in conversation with a non-native speaker (NNS). The paper examines conversations between 6 native speakers and 3 non-native speakers and characterizes the speech of the native-speakers involved. The data were…

This longitudinal study of bilingual language acquisition analyzes the order of acquisition of English grammatical morphemes in a child bilingual in English and Chichewa (a Bantu lanugage of East Central Africa). The order of acquisition obtained is compared to that obtained by Brown (1973) for monolingual English speaking children and that…

Four behavioral scientists in a colloquium at the University of Wisconsin discussed various aspects of language learning. Concerned primarily with pre-high-school pupils and addressing their remarks to language teachers, the scientists offered these proposals: (1) language teaching is more effective if taught in a natural setting, (2)…

Lwo is the name given to a group of dialects spoken by Northern Ugandans. This Lwo textbook contains 95 lessons, and was designed for Peace Corps volunteers. Lessons include pattern drills, conversations and some notes on grammar and usage. Eight model conversations are distributed throughout the text at regular intervals. The lessons are followed…

The relation of the linguistic sciences to language teaching and language learning is explored. Part 1 discusses linguistics, phonetics, and their place in the description of language. Relations between language and the people who use it are examined, as well as the place of comparison and translation in the acquisition of a second language. Part…

The transformational-generative concept of language learning as constructing a theory about language inspired this experiment. Language performance developed by a method of language learning designed to help the student study about a second language through manipulative exercises was compared to language performance developed by a method not…

Despite similarities between Hindi and Urdu and mutual intelligibility, at least on the spoken level, slight grammatical differences between the two languages do exist. The treatment of gender provides an example of such differences. Explanation of the actual differences in gender usage can be based on a synchronic, linguistic level as well as on…

The first waves of immigrants arriving in Palestine were faced with the problem of forming a new culture and creating a new language, actually, reviving Hebrew, an ancient language. The children were faced with creating their own traditions, games, and folklore; in so doing, through straight borrowing, spontaneous translation (loan translation),…

The most basic and simplest act of communicative competence in Spanish involves the appropriate decoding and selection of the pronominal address forms "tu" and "Usted." Their selection and semantic value are not, however, determined by linguistic criteria alone. Since "tu/Ud." mark the relative status of each speaker in a given context, their…

Metalinguistic knowledge, or linguistic awareness, involves the ability to focus attention upon the form of language in and of itself, rather than merely as the vehicle by which meaning is conveyed. This ability to analyze language structures lags behind spontaneous speaking and listening performance because of the additional cognitive skills…

The purpose of this learning activity packet is to acquaint students of Spanish as a second language with letter-writing in Spanish. Upon completion of the packet, students should be able to: (1) identify some of the major differences in mailing customs between the U.S. and Hispanic countries, (2) read and write mailing and return adresses, (3)…

Data from responses to a grammaticality judgement test by 26 learners of English as a second language at two proficiency levels were used to investigate syntactic acquisition. Four syntactic structures were examined. Results suggest that less proficient subjects use syntactic strategies, while more proficient learners use semantic-based…