Two groups of children in grades 3 and 4 (80 lower-socioeconomic Negro children whose native speech dialect was Negro nonstandard English and 80 middle-class white children whose native dialect was standard English) were given two 50-item cloze reading comprehension tests to determine the effect of native speech dialect and written language…

This paper first considers the inadequacy of definitions of dialect speech that are too rigid. Some of the ways in which dialect can influence the performance of children in school are discussed, and the notion that dialect is an indication of linguistic deficit is also considered. In the last part of the paper, the attitude of the Schools Council…

The introductory section of this study of Spanish dialects in the United States, commissioned by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Linguistics, presents the plan and the ethnic distribution of Spanish speakers in the U.S.. (The 1960 census shows the preponderance of population contribution to be from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain.) A description…

The language problems described here concerned undergraduate college science courses taught by foreign Teaching Assistants, whose students claimed they could not understand their instructors' English. Upon investigation it was clear that a standard course in English was not sufficient to deal with the communication problems caused not only by…

Although standard descriptions of spoken Brazilian Portuguese assign separate allophones to both /1/ and /u/ in utterance-final position after a vowel, it has been observed that in rapid speech native speakers articulate /l/ and /u/ in this position so that they are indistinguishable to the average speaker. To answer questions about the possible…

A contrastive analysis of some phonological, morphological, and syntactical differences existing in French and English are cited along with suggestions for teaching each variation by the systematic approach. Also discussed briefly are such language interference problems as auditory discrimination of segmental and supra-segmental phonemes,…

The nature of common language errors for learners of second languages is explored, and it is found that the errors cannot adequately be explained in terms of the theory of language interference. A new rationale for these errors can come from an investigation of the perceptual strategies common to error analysis, and thus it is postulated that…

This text focuses on the nature of language learning in the light of modern linguistic analysis. Common linguistic problems encountered by students of eight major languages are examined--Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Russian. The text discusses the nature of language, building new language habits, overcoming…

An examination of models which have been employed in making predictions about the interference effect is made. It is pointed out that investigators mainly have relied upon the paired-associate model borrowed from classical studies in the field of verbal learning. This basic paradigm, represented as A-B, A-C, A-B, has produced fairly consistent…

A definition of bilingualism can include speakers of different languages as well as those who speak several dialects or several sub-varieties of dialects in the same language. Most speakers are able to practice code-switching, whether it is from language to language or dialect to dialect, and the processes involved in such a capability may be the…

Among Mexican-Americans today, not only native speakers of Spanish but also many native speakers of English speak the language with a notable influence from Spanish phonology. This paper reviews a series of studies concerning reactions of Anglos and Mexican-Americans toward accented English. The unifying goal of these investigations has been the…

Examines errors made by English speakers learning German and, in attempting to find sources for them, contrasts certain phenomena of German and English grammar. The phenomena in question are cleft sentences and the treatment of case. (TL)

A description of language acquisition and second language learning by adults in terms of method and achievement. Some socio-psychological and neurophysiological reasons for the possible differences between children and adults are briefly discussed. There is a sizable bibliography. (AMH)

Describes the phonology, grammar and semantics of Technical English in India. Interference from the mother tongue and from Common English is also discussed. (KM)

A brief discussion of the role of contrastive linguistics and transformational generative grammar in studying transfer and interference in language learning. The base language is not necessarily the mother tongue. It is the language known by the learner which most closely resembles the new language being learned. (AMH)