Claims that the mother tongue function in foreign language learning over a background of two or more languages is transferable to any one of the background languages and that this transfer is predictable by a set of principles. Presents applications of the principles to multilingual settings of Nigeria and Cameroon. (SED)

Surveys 12 types of syntactic ambiguity in written English. Gives the structural characteristics, their causes, and ways of resolving the ambiguity for each type. (EKN)

Investigates the type of errors that can be shown to result from native language interference, specifically the production and perception of word juncture of American English speakers studying the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Argues that word juncture phenomena are a function of syllable structure and presents other cases illustrating this. (SED)

Deals with several related problems of language contact, approximative systems, and language learning situations. Proposes the recognition of "fixed approximative languages" in relation to learning situations. (Author)

Presents a precise and detailed process to be used in error analysis. The process is proposed as a means of making research in error analysis more accessible and useful to others, as well as assuring more objectivity. (Author/AMH)

Reviews research on the psycholinguistic processes underlying second-language learning, especially as it relates to the concept of interlanguage and the contributions made by sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive psychology. (MSE)

Maintains that measuring syntactic error alone is inadequate and that syntactic maturity should also be considered. Discusses ways of measuring syntactic maturity in spoken English of nonnative speakers and examines the relationship of syntactic error to syntactic maturity. (EKN)

Discusses linguistic competence and performance and how analyzing second language learners' errors can provide clues about their interlanguage, which is useful not only for pedagogical reasons, but also for the forwarding of general linguistic theory. (EKN)

Presents a measurement instrument for evaluating a second language learner's oral skills, which is based on a mathematical theory of communication, and which relies on native speaker judgment. (AM)

Presents study involving university Spanish students testing predictive power of contrastive analysis in terms of accuracy of predicted hierarchy for persistence of phonological errors. Results show problems involving allophone use or nonuse are more persistent than those involving phoneme use or nonuse, and the degree of difficulty of a sound…

Discusses the need for both a "rule of thumb" grammar and more thorough grammatical rules in second language teaching. (AM)

In order to ascertain if providing verb pattern information permits learners to use verbs correctly, 24 verbs that share the same semantic feature (give) but that fall into different structural patterns were presented to two groups of advanced learners of English, only one of which was given information about verb patterns. (SED)

Considers with examples from German to English translation: (1) the extent that translation fulfills its role as an achievement test and as a test of proficiency, (2) how useful it is as a diagnostic test, and (3) what role it should play in the testing of advanced learners. (EKN)

An error analysis was made of 26 essays written by English-speaking honor students in their first year of university German. Results illustrate the relative frequency of errors occurring in the sample, together with some possible explanations for certain types of errors. (SED)

An experiment is reported comparing the pluralization patterns exhibited by American college students studying German with those of adult and child native speakers of German. Respondents' pluralization of 30 nonsense words did not reveal significant interference between English and German in this regard. (PMJ)