The article criticizes present-day overemphasis of contrastive analysis procedures in second language instruction. Recommendations are for language teachers to reappraise their classroom objectives and to give paramount importance to mastery of language use rather than mastery of language structure. Pedagogical procedures based on situational cohesion are suggested, and samples of each of these methods are provided in the appendixes. The article concludes with a discussion comparing language learning capabilities in adults and children, covering such points as neurophysiological evidence, time factors, motivational differences, and learning interference. (DS)