It is proposed that error patterns in acquisition of a second language can provide otherwise unavailable evidence for testing linguistic hypotheses about the second language itself. Three types of production and perceptual error patterns found in the learning of English by native Arabic speakers are outlined to support this suggestion. The error…

English prepositions are generally considered difficult to teach to nonnative speakers, for a variety of reasons: the large number of possible meanings for many prepositions, which change according to the context in which they are used; the lack of a written guide to usage; and, for native Arabic speakers, the commonly-used grammar-translation…

It is the premise of this study that the performance of black students in math and science is crippled by the interference of their language patterns. It is argued that schoolwork of these students demonstrates how nonstandard English can lead to misunderstanding. The connection between students' misunderstandings of certain quantitative relations…

Concluded that though auditory conceptualization is strongly related to reading, Spanish language interference with auditory conceptualization does not extend to reading skill. (RB)

Analyzes a corpus of 360 errors made by Polish university students in the German department. Sets up categories of interference-induced and non-interference-induced errors. Relates error analysis to teaching techniques. (Text is in German.) (DH)

The purpose of this paper is to outline theory and methods associated with a research strategy for identifying elements of cultural congruence or incogruence in classroom speech events. The hypothesis of "sociolinguistic interference" proposed by D. Hymes is discussed and studies of language education of Hawaiians and other minorities…

This study was conducted to determine if the low reading achievement of a group of Creole-speaking first and second graders was caused by lack of comprehension (due to dialect interference) of their Standard English texts. The materials used were three stories in Creole and three stories in Standard English. Because they had never encountered…

AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE GIVES THE BEGINNING STUDENT A FOUNDATION UPON WHICH THE BASIC SKILLS CAN BE DEVELOPED. THUS, THE TEACHER'S PRESENTATION OF THE TARGET LANGUAGE SHOULD ADHERE TO THE BASICALLY LINGUISTIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING, IN ORDER, THE BASIC FORMS, GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES, STRUCTURES WHICH HAVE NO…

Arguing that dialect interference in writing does not exist, this paper contends that pedagogies for teaching writing skills to native speakers of English that assume such interference are wrong. It examines arguments and evidence that support the notion of dialect interference in writing, offers counter evidence, and explores an alternative…

This contrastive analysis of Telugu and English covers the structure of sentences, clauses, and "groups" (phrases) from a pedagogical point of view. Areas of difficulty for Telugu-speaking students of English as a second language are listed, and a list of errors commonly made by these students is appended. (JB)

THE IDEAL SITUATION IN THE TEACHING OF HINDI TO AMERICAN STUDENTS SHOULD BE SUCH THAT--(1) THE TEACHER OF HINDI IS AWARE OF ALL THE LIKELY PROBLEMS ENGLISH SPEAKERS MAY FACE IN LEARNING HINDI, (2) THE TEACHER HAS DEVISED WAYS OF OVERCOMING THESE PROBLEMS, (3) HE HAS A HINDI TEXT WHICH IS ORGANIZED AND BASED ON THE RESULTS OF A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS…

This paper is based on a classroom experience that showed the need of teaching American culture before attempting to teach American literature meaningfully to foreigners. The students in this learning situation were the Middle-Eastern employees of an American organization in the school year 1966-67. The teachers found out the students interpreted…

This topic is examined by posing three questions: (1) "Why should a foreign-language teacher teach grammar?" (2) "If he should teach grammar, why English grammar?" (3) "If he has to teach English grammar, why didn't his students' English teacher teach them English grammar?" The answers consider the role of the teacher in general, the instructive…

Participants in a seminar series in second language acquisition held at Harvard University discussed three papers by Dulay and Burt ("Goofing: An Indicator of Children's Second Language Learning Strategies,""Should We Teach Children Syntax?", "Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition"), and developed…

In this paper, an attempt is made to explicate the notion "equivalence" in contrastive analysis. It has been suggested that a learner formulates successive hypotheses about the nature of the target language at least partially on the basis of his knowledge of the native language. A deep contrastive study of the two language systems will…