The notion that second language instruction is more effective if begun at an early age is seen as arising from cognitive-nativist and neuropsychological postulates, and from the argument of "affective purity." Each of these positions is reviewed, along with frequently-heard objections to each. A fresh perspective on the issue is thus…

Discusses research supporting the contention that listening fluency should be taught first and oral response delayed because languaqe acquisition takes place without any overt performance. Includes extensive bibliographic references. (PMJ)

Discusses auditory practice (listening) as a factor in the learning process and as a goal area. Refers particularly to the "terminal" nine-year school. Motivation is high, because auditory skill can be developed to a higher point earlier than speech production. (IFS/WGA)

Analyzes the difference between "ultimate-target language" (authentic English in all its varieties), "learner's language" (with its limitations), and "learning-goal language," this latter referring to differentiated instruction with graded "input" steps. Teaching suggestions are given. (IFS/WGA)

Discusses the structuralist and the cognitivist theories of language learning, and emphasizes the importance of practice in second language learning. (AM)

Presents a learning transfer principle, based on transfer theory and contrastive analysis, as a solution to the inductive-deductive controversy in second language teaching methodology. (AM)

Suggests that the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) be revised to incorporate a notion of degree of difficulty which corresponds to the notion of typological markedness. (Author/CFM)

Reviews current foreign language teaching methodology as it concerns the organization of the lesson into phases, and presents an alternate phase-sequence entailing linguistic environment, application, remedial, monitor, and feedback phases. (AM)

This article discusses the various definitions that have been given to English for Special Purposes (ESP) and concludes that ESP should refer to programs designed for groups of learners who are homogeneous with respect to aims and whose specific learning objectives have been quantified and stated in communicative terms. (Author/CFM)

Students should be prepared psychologically before they begin studying a foreign language to make them disposed to practice the language rather than study it. More emphasis should be placed on the functional/notional aspect of a language than on the structural aspect. (CFM)

This article gives many suggestions for using drama in the foreign language classroom. (CFM)

This paper describes the functional-notional approach to language teaching and learning in terms of the ways it can be used to meet the communicative needs of the potential language learners, particularly adults, who vary in what they want to do in the target language. It contrasts the functional system with conventional approaches, illustrates…

Research has indicated that the elderly retain the ability to learn, and specifically to learn new languages. Furthermore, the increasingly greater proportion of old people in the population demands that their need for continued intellectual stimulation be met. In the absence of explicit motives for learning an ethnic language, Esperanto is a good…

Argues for a teacher role in research on learning processes and views a teacher's task as twofold: to discover what students do as they perform foreign language tasks, and to implement procedures in which strategies of skillful students provide a basis for remediation of strategies of unskillful students. (Author/EJS)

Argues that a course-syllabus design based on grammatical structures is more effective in developing communicative skills than the use of "projects" leading to the establishment of a threshold level. (IFS/WGA)