Four essays present (1) a method for teaching the use of the quantitative adverbs to French students who are salespersons; (2) use of a cartoon as the starting point for practicing grammatical patterns; (3) ideas for teaching students to write letters or cards in French; and (4) humourous errors in French usage. (AM)

Analyzes English spelling errors of 108 Spanish-speaking second-, third- and fourth-graders in a bilingual program. The less successful students produced significantly more Spanish-influenced errors than the more successful ones. "Long E" and initial blend "s" words were most frequently missed. (Author/LMO)

Analyzed sound systems of six phonologically disordered children and assessed relative phonological knowledge of target sounds. After-treatment results indicated that error sounds of which the children had the most knowledge were easiest to learn. Treatment beginning with the most difficult sounds resulted in more widespread changes in the…

The performance of native and nonnative Hindi-Urdu speaking children (N=131) and adults (N=30) in the comprehension of the Hindi-Urdu correlative constructions was analyzed. Results indicated that Hindi-Urdu correlative constructs are acquired relatively late by both native and nonnative speakers, suggesting that language universals are available…

A self-assessment unit developed to encourage accuracy in English as second language teaches adult students to: determine and assess the cost of errors in their native language; develop sensitivity toward errors in their native language; and focus on accuracy in speaking and writing. (Author/CB)

Reports an experimental investigation of the influence of linguistic factors on linguistic performance. The factors studied were interpretive complexity and surface length. Results show an interaction between types of linguistic complexity and type of linguistic performance. (Author/SED)

The role of sensory attributes in a vocabulary learning task was investigated for a non-oral language using deaf and hearing individuals, more or less skilled in the use of sign language. Skilled signers encoded invented signs in terms of linguistic structure rather than as visual-pictorial events. (Author/RD)

Discusses the results of an error analysis of 100 English compositions written by university students in Iran. It is suggested that mistakes are not primarily due to interference from the native language, but to developmental errors, similar to errors made in first language acquisition. (Author/AMH)

Discusses the literature on interference as the cause of errors in second language speech. A study is reported which shows that interference by the native language is most often the factor responsible for the largest number of mistakes in grammar and vocabulary. (Author/AMH)

A study is described which (1) focuses on the syllable structure of the interlanguage in an attempt to determine how it differs from the syllable structure of the target language, and which (2) begins to identify some of the processes which may shape that interlanguage syllable structure. (Author)

Studies are reported which attempt to discover the exact level of second language proficiency reached by students in second language immersion programs, with emphasis on analysis of error. (RM)

Investigated whether a correlation exists between a nonnative English speaker's reading proficiency in English and the use of native-English-like pausing in reading aloud. Results indicate a statistically significant although moderate correlation between students' reading test scores and their native-like use of pausing in reading aloud. (38…

Discusses the measurability of linguistic and communicative competence in light of the performance/competence dichotomy, and proposes a method for measuring loss of communicative competence using spontaneous speech data. (11 references) (Author/CK)

Describes how performance in three different foreign-language tasks varied according to certain learner characteristics. The tasks are spontaneous writing, revised writing, and passage-based error detection. The writing is evaluated according to syntactic, morphological and orthographic accuracy; writing speed; and linguistic complexity. (34…

Discusses two experiments investigating non-antecedent suppression in American Sign Language (ASL). Findings indicate that spoken and signed languages use the same processing mechanisms in resolving co-reference relations. Results also indicate that within the probe recognition paradigm, the spatial indexing of ASL pronouns is similar to gender…