Reports on a research project carried out among three generations of Mexican Americans in an East Texas community in order to determine their relative competence in English and Spanish. Educational implications are discussed. (FB)

Evidence is presented to support the hypothesis that informal and formal environments contribute to different aspects of second language competence, the former affecting acquired competence and the latter affecting learned competence. Data is presented that suggests that the classroom can be used simultaneously as a formal and informal linguistic…

This article discusses an experiment designed to examine the relationship between the external explanations that learners give for their language behavior, and actual language performance. The subjects who were native and non-native speakers of English were tested on their use of definite articles. (CFM)

Examines the relative contributions of linguistic and strategic competence to the performance of international teaching assistants (ITAs) on a teaching task. Study one examines the relative contribution of language and teaching skills to overall test performance, and study two examines the effect of a one-semester training class on the retest…

Paper prepared under contract with the Defense Language Institute, English Language Branch, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and presented to the staff and faculty of the Institute in May 1972. (RS)

Attitude and use in language do not always coincide. The foreign language teacher should be aware of language variation so that he can decide what forms to teach and when to introduce variants. Several generalizations about variation and acceptability in language are made. (Author/ND)

Analysis of two studies (interpreted in terms of the distinction between language acquisition and language learning) showed that subjects tended to cluster the -s's on a few verbs rather than randomly, suggesting that the morpheme may be acquired not in isolation but attached to particular verbs. (SL)

Paper presented in a much abbreviated form at the 1972 TESOL Convention, Washington, D.C. (VM)

Examines and compares two measures of adult second language learner performance: cued production and elicited imitation. Discusses the utility of each in terms of the contrasting results of the tasks on a carefully delineated area of grammar, namely the related structure of third person simple present and present progressive in WH-questions. (EKN)

Describes an approach for dealing with the pronunciation of advanced ESL learners who may be relatively fluent but whose pronunciation remains quite inaccurate and highly resistant to change. Suggests a somewhat unorthodox teaching program that draws on research from several disciplines. (SL)

Revised version of a paper presented to the 1972 TESOL Convention in Washington, D.C. (DD)

Rejects the assumptions which underlie the audiolingual method and offers two alternative propositions: (1) successful use of language requires the acquisition of communicative as well as linguistic competence and (2) first and second language learning are analogous processes. (Author/FB)