Two concerns are addressed: the growing interest in process-oriented approaches to language learning, and the search for a nonparticulate linguistics of the type hinted at by Halliday and given some credibility by the findings of neuroscience. Focus is on somatic phenomena such as tone of voice, body language, and certain schemas. (15 references)…

Recent knowledge about the system of gender assignment in French is examined to suggest theoretical reasons why English speakers are so rarely successful in mastering the French gender assignment system for inanimate nouns. Morphological, phonetic, and semantic rules shed light on the system. (14 references) (Author/LB)

Donsiders the role and nature of learning sequences occurring in the second-language classroom situation. (Author/VWL)

Most analyses of linguistic errors set up unidimensional categories of grammatical, lexical, and semantic deviations. A two-dimensional classification system is described that formed the basis of a study of phenomena of foreign-language interaction. Thirteen classes of linguistic deviation emerged in the study. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/LB)

Reviews Faerch and Kasper's model (1983) of communication strategies and demonstrates that it is too rigid to have a sound psychological foundation. The article argues for more emphasis on studying learners' strategies from a discourse analyst's perspective and touches on the interrelation between language, culture, and personality in verbal…

Examines the listening comprehension of English-as-a-second-language learners by answering the following questions: (1) How do learners acquire information when repeatedly exposed to the same material? and (2) What influence will dictation practice exert on and to what degree is dictation practice related to the acquisition of meaning? (SED)

Investigated the acquisition of the English polar question in 120 Yoruba- and Hausa-speaking Nigerian secondary school students, illustrating how a systematic order emphasizing communicative language activities underlies their acquisition. It is noted that the first language does not appear to influence their learning. Findings suggest that…

Examined how well first-year English majors at the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, performed on a relative clause test, with students retested after receiving instruction in relative clauses. Results found that 78% of the students scored better on the second test. The results are discussed in relation to accessibility hierarchy and the…

The use of different communication strategies (CSs) in interlanguage application was studied with 51 Persian first-year university learners of English. Emphasis is on determining which CSs are more favored under a given condition and on identifying a link between task type and the use of specific CSs. (23 references) (LB)

A study of adults learning French as a second language showed that enhancing the pedagogical environment through development of a French phonetic training program resulted in improved discrimination and production ability among the students. (39 references) (LB)

The use of literature courses in the teaching of English to nonnative university students in the Third World is discussed. Some English department literature courses are reviewed, and it is shown that, as taught in Arab countries, they do not significantly improve the students' performance because of the emphasis on content rather than mode of…

A longitudinal case study examining the learning of English (focusing on grammatical morphemes) by a Tunisian adolescent speaker of Arabic and French showed that the second language learner relies on his prior linguistic knowledge to facilitate new learning and that second language learning like first language acquisition is a creative process.…

Reports on a process/product study undertaken to increase understanding of the nature of language instruction and its effect on language proficiency. Also discussed are a number of pedagogical issues arising from the study. (30 references)

Discusses how second-language learners whose first languages contain an article system differ in their acquisition of English articles from learners whose first languages do not contain such a system. Reviews the approach of Mizuno's (1988) interlanguage analysis for uncovering the process in second-language acquisition, and summarizes findings of…

Examined the discourse patterns used by a native speaker of English while explaining the rules and playing the board game Monopoly with three college students of varying levels of English proficiency (low nonnative, good nonnative, and native). It found that the "teacher" must modify her speech to enable the nonnative speakers to…