Prior to a Thai language learning session, subjects were exposed to recorded Thai conversation, Japanese conversation, or music. The subjects exposed to Thai produced more words than subjects exposed to music or Japanese. The subjects exposed to Japanese produced the fewest words. (Author/RL)

Investigated whether crosslinguistic interference occurs in the domain of subject realization in Spanish in a bilingual (Spanish-English) acquisition context. Also explored whether the source of the interference is due to child-internal crosslanguage contact between English and Spanish or due to the nature of the language input in a bilingual…

Considers interference problems of Arabic-speaking learners of French and English on four levels: single-word; grammar-rule; intonation; and the study of French and English literature. (CB)

Details six major research findings regarding second-language acquisition, including transitional stages for acquiring syntax; fixed-order emergence of grammatical morphemes; language acquisition progress from unmarked to marked elements; first-language influence; rule-governed learner output; and learner access to input. (27 references) (CB)

Examines research on learning related vocabulary, such as lexical sets, a unit of vocabulary or specific items sharing certain formal or semantic features. This research shows that learning related words at the same time makes learning them more difficult and suggests that this difficulty can be avoided if related words are learned separately.…

Highlights current thinking on transfer or crosslinguistic influence in second language acquisition and discuses implications for second language teaching. (Author/VWL)

The process of naming an exception word prime (e.g., PINT) delays subsequent naming of a nonrhyming regular-inconsistent word body neighbor target (e.g., TINT). Both an activation account (Taraban & McClelland, 1987) and a learning account (Burt & Humphreys, 1993) have been offered to explain this interference effect. We investigated how long…

There is often strong interference if a second target stimulus (T2) is presented before processing of a prior target stimulus (T1) is complete. In the "Psychological Refractory Period" (PRP) paradigm, responses are speeded and interference manifests as increased response time for T2. In the "Attentional Blink" (AB) paradigm, stimuli are masked and…

The relationship between bidialectalism and literacy in the United States is discussed. The primary issue addressed is whether the spoken language of dialectally divergent groups creates a linguistic mismatch that creates problems in the acquisition of literacy skills. First, the controversy over use of dialect readers, which incorporate…

Inexact uses of adverbs by students of Russian which are believed to be caused in part by native language interference are discussed. (RM)

Pessimism regarding pedagogical applications of contrastive studies, and reasons therefore, are described. Several misunderstandings believed to contribute to this pessimism, and several areas of controversy concerning uses of contrastive studies, are discussed. See FL 508 197 for availability. (RM)

A study of integration of English lexicon into the Spanish spoken in New Mexico considers formal English, formal Spanish and the informal mixture spoken by local Chicanos. (CK)

The teaching of standard Italian to speakers of Italian dialects both in Italy and in North America is discussed, specifically through a specialized pedagogical program within the framework of a sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective, and based on a structural analysis of linguistic systems in contact. Italian programs in Toronto are…