The relevance, the application, and the importance of linguistics to teaching English as a foreign language is discussed. The author's assumption is that linguistics is "irrelevant to the aims, and inapplicable to the tasks of such teaching," and agrees with linguists such as Rosenbaum that the goal of linguistic science is "to determine…

Part three of a continuing series on transformational generative grammar as it applies to Spanish. (DS)

Revised form of a paper given December 2, 1970 at a meeting of the Dutch Teachers of German in Woudschoten/Amsterdam, Netherlands. (RS)

Discusses the effects of American structural linguistics on beginning-level foreign language teaching. In the framework of applied linguistics, generative transformational grammar is evaluated. Psychology of learning is discussed, as are current conceptions of communicative competence and speech-act theory and possible effects of theoretical…

Suggests that the cognitive theory of language within the field of psycholinguistics, rather than a theory of linguistic description, should underlie language teaching materials. (DS)

It is important that we reflect on the conceptual framework from which our study of language has emerged, since the problems, methods, and aims of what has been called modern linguistics are rapidly being replaced by the concerns of another framework or paradigm. Such new paradigms, to be viable, must not be distorted by starting points that…

Gives a brief overview of FL teaching, from the prelinguistic to the linguistic era, and discusses the advent of an era characterized by an eclectic approach which makes full use of all linguistic data, without being subservient to any linguistic theory, and gives full importance to sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic considerations. Available…

This article briefly examines structural and transformational theories and their associations with other theories, particularly learning psychology. The implications of each position for FL teaching are examined, and it is suggested that teachers enrich structurally based audiolingual techniques with experimental infusions from the…

Traces the history of linguistic theory as it has affected the field of second language instruction. (AM)

Speech given February 10, 1970, at the Hessisches Lehrerfortbildungswerk," Reinhardswaldschule. (DS)

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