Three groups of subjects were tested in an elicited imitation study. These were 8-year-old, 11-year-old and adult native speakers of Arabic who were learning English as a second language. The subjects were asked to repeat sentences of seven different grammatical structure types. Previous research with 4-year-old native speakers of English (Smith,…

Argues against the teaching of foreign languages to children under the age of ten, basing conclusions on empirical and theoretical evidence. (CLK)

Research was carried out on Japanese children in the United States to test the hypothesis of early age sensitivity in second language learning. The results did not support this hypothesis. Acquisition proceeded at a fast rate initially, but the amounts of gain diminished with time. (CFM)

Two golden rules for teachers of young children are (1) work, speak, and act with complete naturalness, and (2) never try to teach language per se; rather, teach life (joy, sorrow, work, play, differentiation, self-awareness, etc.) by involving the children in situations and activities that are highly significant to them. (NQ)

THIS BOOK IS DESIGNED TO DEFINE APHASIA AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS, TO PRESENT A PROCEDURE FOR TEACHING LANGUAGE TO APHASIC CHILDREN, AND TO APPLY THIS PROCEDURE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SUBJECTS. OTHER HANDICAPPING CONDITIONS WHICH COMPLICATE THE DIAGNOSIS OF APHASIA ARE PRESENTED BY MEANS OF CASE STUDIES. CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO TYPES OF…

The article criticizes present-day overemphasis of contrastive analysis procedures in second language instruction. Recommendations are for language teachers to reappraise their classroom objectives and to give paramount importance to mastery of language use rather than mastery of language structure. Pedagogical procedures based on situational…

Based on a paper given at the Third Annual Conference of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, London, England, December 30, 1969 to January 2, 1970. (VM)

The consensus of opinion seems to be that the processes of mother tongue acquisition are essentially analogous to those of second language (SL) acquisition. These processes, however, seem to work best in childhood years. A theory of adult SL learning should try to incorporate interlanguage. (CFM)

Describes a research project in which the acquisition of French by two six-year-old boys, native speakers of English, was observed longitudinally. (CFM)

This book consists of the 29 papers presented at the Conference on Child Language co-sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Chicago in November of 1971. The subject of the conference was restricted to the learning of two or more languages or dialects by young children,…

A Language-research experiment designed to examine the linguistic competence of bilingual Italian-American children demonstrates that structures shared by Italian and English are acquired in approximately the same order and at the same rate, and that the sequencing of specific structures reflects linguistic complexity. Structures appearing in both…

The great diversity in the linguistic backgrounds of children in Trinidad could be a significant factor in problems in English language learning and teaching. To investigate this possibility, teachers have been completing questionnaires concerning the linguistic background and regular exposure to Hindi, French Creole, Spanish, or Chinese, of some…

The language problem of emigrant children has two major aspects: (1) concern for mother tongue maintenance; and (2) concern that the children are not learning the second language, which is the official language of the host country. The first is primarily the concern of the family, whereas the second is the concern of the entire community. Massive…

This document contains ideas for teaching English as a second language to young children from varied language backgrounds. Several visual aids are discussed: the object box, pictorial games, the felt board and experience chart, action games, and instructional pictures. (VM)