The author suggests that the starting point of improved language teaching can be found in the language classroom itself and not in the theoretical considerations of the linguist or the theories of learning advocated by the psychologist. At the same time, however, both linguistics and psychology can be extremely useful to the language teacher, not…

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

Human development tasks have become an integral part of many humanistic curriculum models. When such activities are employed in the foreign language classroom, several prominent factors can be indentified: on a psychological (affective) level, integrative and transactional motivation; on a linguistic (cognitive/affective) level, active listening…

The value of language learning theory and research is discussed, and the need for content-related linguistic, sociolinguistic and cultural research, as well as treatment-related research on language teaching and learning, is emphasized. It has been only gradually, from about the mid-sixties and increasingly from the early seventies, that second…

This paper examines a didactic model of teaching-learning which underlies the approach of many teachers and linguists, and proposes an organic interaction model, which recognizes children's individual needs and characteristics, instead. Problems in interpreting test results in areas of primary or oral language and in the secondary language skills…

Errors in second language learning are viewed as evidence of the learner's hypotheses and strategies about the new data. Error observation and analysis are important to the formulation of theories about language learning and the preparation of teaching materials. Learning a second language proceeds by a series of approximative reorganizations…