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)

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)

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)

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…

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)

Discusses an observation of a class in English as a second language in which the Silent Way method was used. The focus is on some problems not thoroughly explored in the existing literature. (CFM)

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

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)

This volume presents two papers synthesizing current research in second-language acquisition and reactions to these papers from the point of view of researchers in foreign language learning. The introduction by Rosario Gingras provides an overview of the research in second-language acquisition as it applies to foreign language teaching. A…