This paper describes a method for determining whether the language variations of Spanish-English bilingual speakers are anomalous, idiosyncratic, or truly dialectical, and reports the testing of that method. Elements of the method include presenting sentences that have grammatical/syntactic language variations, having subjects perform operational…

Error analysis has consistently neglected to give any treatment of the phonological aspects of non-native linguistic performance. Using Selinker's Interlanguage model as a starting-point, an attempt is made here to develop a descriptive apparatus capable of accounting for the phenomena of "foreign accents." The data of one such…

This article reports on a study to identify listening, and aural comprehension difficulties experienced by students of English, specifically RELC (Regional English Language Centre in Singapore) course members. The most critical errors are discussed and conclusions about foreign language learning are drawn. (CLK)

Outlines a methods for applying the findings of contrastive analysis to the development of pedagogical materials. (AM)

ONE OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF PRODUCING ENGLISH SKILLS MATERIALS OR TEACHER-TRAINING MATERIALS FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES IS THAT EXTREME VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE STUDENT'S CULTURE AND THE MATERIALS WRITER'S CULTURE CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INTERFERENCE IN COMMUNICATION. A SPEAKER'S VISION IS STRUCTURED BY THE KINDS OF TRAINING, BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL…

This book is intended to serve as a practical introduction both to the phonology of English and to the general practices and techniques used in teaching and learning pronunciation. It is written primarily for the teacher who has had little or no formal exposure to the field of linguistics, but who has an interest in becoming acquainted with some…

Evidence suggests that the speech behavior of language learners may be structurally organized and that the contact situation should therefore be described not only by reference to the source (SL) and target (TL) languages of the learner, but also by reference to a learner system (AL). Investigation of such learner systems is crucial to the…

This is the first phonetics book to be developed for use in first-year French courses. The intent of the book is to help the student acquire confidence in his ability to look at 85 percent of the words in the French dictionary and be able to pronounce those words correctly, as a result of his sounding out the words. When an American student looks…

Preliminary results from a longitudinal study of English-speaking children and adults learning Dutch in natural situations suggest that 12- to 15-year-olds learned faster than either older or younger subjects during their first 6 months in Holland. All age differences had disappeared in a group of advanced subjects (English-speakers who had been…

Recently attention has been focused on the language problems of the Mexican American child. In order not to duplicate work done by other investigators in the field, it is necessary to study previous published material dealing with the language of these children. "A Brief Study of Spanish/English Bilingualism: Final Report" (D.M. Lance, Texas A&M…

The thesis of the paper is that the process of learning a second language, if successful, is the same as that of learning a first one. The paper discusses various objections that have been raised against this thesis, and it discusses the considerable body of research which explores it. It examines the appropriateness of the research data for…

The purpose of the document is to assess facilitating and interfering effects of various strategies in samples of children from elementary and high school grade levels. Participating in the paired-associate study were 160 children, 40 each from first, third, sixth, and eleventh grades. Subjects were required to learn a 36-item aurally presented…

In addition to the contributions of structural and transformational-generative linguistics to the teaching of English as a second language, there is a need for attention to studies on how language is learned. Also needed is access to various kinds of information pertinent to language planning processes--for example, information concerning the…

Fries' definition of knowing a language rejects the layman's notion that the criterion is knowing a certain number of words. It involves, rather, knowing a set of items--sound segments, sentence patterns, lexical items--which must be made a matter of automatic habit. Various approaches to testing someone's use of a language have failed to take…

This article, the first of three in the Bureau of Indian Affairs'"Curriculum Guide Number 6," edited by Sirarpi Ohannessian and William Gage of the Center for Applied Linguistics, is an attempt "to help break the language barrier" which exists for the many Choctaw children who lack proper skill in speaking English. Some Choctaw children know no…