Mid-20th-century scholars argued that second language (L2) instruction should be rooted in a comparison of the structural characteristics of the first language (L1) and L2. Their enthusiasm for a "scientific" approach to errors reflected the view, based on the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH), that learners' difficulties could be…

Issues related to school instruction in students' heritage or ancestral language are discussed, particularly in regard to dialect-speaking children or children with some degree of competence in the language. The first chapter considers similarities and differences between second language instruction and heritage language education. The findings on…

Three studies concerning the teaching of Irish in elementary schools in Ireland are presented and the implications of their findings for Irish instruction are examined. The first study described the range of conditions under which spoken Irish is taught and learned by studying a number of diverse classes, describe the teaching and learning of…