Articles in this volume relate to the Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project: (1) "The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project at the End of its Second Phase (1971-1975)," Rudolf Filipovic: Pedagogical goals and application of contrastive analysis are best achieved when accompanied by error analysis. Reports,…

The "state of the art" in the three fields of contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage is critically examined from the point of view of evolving an explanatory theory of a second language learner's performance. Each field is discussed with respect to its outreach, theoretical assumptions, methodology, claims and empirical…

This paper evaluates the pedagogic aspects of the Yugoslavian Serbocroatian-English Contrastive Project. The project carried out a contrastive analysis of the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical structures of English and Serbocroatian, and an error analysis in the use of English parts of speech and sentence parts. The investigation…

Before any conclusions can be drawn about the relative complexity of grammatical items, the items should be thoroughly analyzed. For example, learning to use French gender involves much more than learning to recognize formal characteristics which account for gender in nouns; it also requires that semantic gender features be mastered, so that…

This paper examines the validity of the concept of linguistic units in a theory of speech production. Substantiating data are drawn from the study of the speech production process itself. Secondarily, an attempt is made to reconcile the postulation of linguistic units in speech production theory with their apparent absence in the speech signal.…

The purpose of this research was to determine if training in analytic processing would increase the probability that subjects behaving impulsively prior to training would behave more reflectively following training. The study attempted to alter impulsive behavior in terms of number of errors by training identified impulsive boys to use component…

Brief articles are included on exploring mathematical patterns, with two computer programs listed for finding happy numbers; a simple periodic function in trigonometry; and comments on humorous student errors. (MNS)

The purpose of this presentation is to encourage college teachers of writing, inside and outside Appalachia, to look at dialect-based errors in a more expansive way even as they help students to make better choices about standard usage. The discussion, which is presented within the context of a socio-cultural perspective on bias in perceptions of…

A study used error analysis to examine and compare the English language proficiency and language learning patterns of two native Japanese speakers, aged 15 and 17. Data were elicited verbally from the subjects, with more elicited from the older, and analyzed for error patterns. Results indicate striking similarities in error patterns; however, a…

Presents a stochastic model for distinguishing mental arithmetic errors according to causes of failure. A series of experiments (1) studied questions of goodness of fit and model validity among four and five year olds and (2) used the model to measure the relative contributions of developmental improvements in short-term memory and arithmetical…

A study investigated the ability of socially handicapped Israeli students to determine a word's meaning from its linguistic context. The results and their implications for second language instruction are examined in light of current theories of context. (MSE)

Results of multiple-choice tests in educational psychology were examined to discover the effects on students' scores of changing their original answer choices after reconsideration. Eighty-six percent of the students changed one or more answers, and six out of seven students who made changes improved their scores by doing so. (Author/CTM)

A study compared response strategies and error patterns of 272 college freshmen on chemistry test items in multiple choice and constructed response formats. Analysis of test data indicated no significant difference in solution strategies used or types of errors committed across test formats. However, interviews with 21 participants revealed…

A study found native French-speaking and native English-speaking university students had similar writing skill levels and error patterns despite their position as language-minority or language-majority members of society. It is concluded that language competency is not necessarily linked to language difficulty or to the position of the language.…

Reviews theoretical arguments from a longitudinal study of 1 Dutch child (age 3;8.13 at start) for considering production as a source of input for analysis and presents empirical evidence supporting the output-as-input hypothesis for the blending of the Dutch words "wats" and "iets." Evidence suggests the child analyzed his own…