Classic studies in second language (L2) learning offer little evidence for the validity of the notion of universals in L2 learning. The present study investigates this notion in data collected from 15 observational studies of 40 L2 learners who acquired the L2 naturally, that is, they were not taught the language in any formal ways. Interpretation…

This paper compares the tone systems of Vietnamese and English, with emphasis on the teaching of English as a second language. Rising, level, high, low, and falling tones are identified for English. Vietnamese has all of these except the last. While in Vietnamese, tones are predictable in the sense that tones and words go together, English tones…

This is a 195-item bibliography for prospective teachers of English to speakers of other languages and dialects. It includes recent references in seven major areas: (1) general linguistics, psychology, pedagogy and cultural studies; (2) teaching and testing language skills; (3) contrastive studies; (4) bilingual education; (5) English as a second…

The author considers the issues of linguistic diversity (distribution of variation within communities) and linguistic distance (degree of variation between varieties within a system or between variety systems). He seeks to emphasize the usefulness for further development of distance studies of the concept of language area (Sprachbund), the…

This volume is a collection of papers presented at the second annual meeting of the American Council of Teachers of Uncommonly-taught Asian Languages (ACTUAL) held in Boston, Massachusetts. The following papers are included: (1) "Passives as Reflections of Thought: A Case in Indonesian" by S. Dardjowidjojo, (2) "Acquainting Language…

This paper considers the differences in the initial education and financial situation between industrial and developing countries. Programed learning (PL) techniques and PS research cannot be taken over wholesale from industrial countries, but techniques have to be adapted and the emphasis of research has to be changed. These principles are…

English-speaking monolinguals named colors as quickly as possible when the color stimuli were color names written either in English or a number of other languages. Color naming was found to be slowest for English words and increased in speed as the foreign color names become less similar to their English equivalents. In a second experiment,…

This introduction to Levantine Arabic pronunciation is designed to teach the student to recognize the major points of phonological interference between Levantine Arabic and American English, as well as the significant phonological contrasts within the dialect of Arabic itself, and to provide the student with a model for mimicry. Tape recordings…

An investigation of instances of phonological contact between Hungarian and American English concerns the perception and production of English interdental fricatives and English stops, in a representative selection of contexts, by native speakers of Hungarian. Implications of structural differences between the stop and fricative subsystems of the…

This booklet forms a part of the Hungarian-English Contrastive Linguistics Project which is concerned with investigating the differences and similarities between these two languages with implications for second language acquisition. The papers here deal with the Hungarian writing system. Initial remarks concern the relationship between script and…

This paper describes the English as a Second Language Program developed for educationally disadvantaged Mexican-American adults as part of the educational offerings of Project Step-Up, an OEO-funded demonstration program in San Diego. Project Step-Up features a multifold methodological approach incorporating techniques from (1) life skills…

This paper compares respect forms used in Bhojpuri, standard Hindi, and suddh Hindi. The role and use of each dialect are described, and a comparison of respect forms used in each is presented, considering phonemic, grammatical, syntactical, suprasegmental, paralinguistic, and kinesic features. The differences noted appear in a continuum among the…

This study, contrasting grammatical structures in English and Hungarian, considers those areas of grammar in the two languages which would cause the greatest interference for the native English speaker learning Hungarian. The choice of topics is based on the author's personal observation, both of English speakers learning Hungarian and of…

The contrastive linguistics papers contained in this collection concern a wide variety of issues within the field -- ranging from phonology and syntax to interference and error analysis in foreign language instruction. The papers, while discussing specific topics, for example, "Equivalence, Congruence, and Deep Structure" or "Comparative Analysis…

Describes a student ethnography project designed to explore contrastive rhetoric, and help ESL and native language speakers become more conscious, proficient participants in academic discourse. The project was designed to let the teacher and the students play the roles of participants and observers. (RS)