A research project was undertaken to investigate the acquisition of the English sound system by kindergarten children of various first language backgrounds. Sixteen children were selected from three kindergartens in Prince Rupert, British Columbia according to the following criteria: (1) no English was spoken by parents; (2) the child scored 3 or less on the "Bilingual Syntax Measure"; and (3) the child was willing to talk to investigators. The focus of the study was on first language interference, phonological errors that might be common to all learners, commonality with native speakers of misarticulation of consonant sounds, and commonality of phonetic processes between native speakers and children learning English as a second language. The children were tape recorded once every two weeks during the school year. Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that there may be a common developmental sequence in the acquisition of the English sound system consisting of a period of imitation, a period of deviation during which the child makes systematic errors, and a long period of resolution. With regard to the four issues focused on in this study, the preliminary analysis finds little support for the claim of language interference. It does find consistent misarticulations and commonality of these with native speakers' misarticulations. Only one phonological process, that of simplification, was found to be systematic and common to several of the subjects. (AMH)