The topic of this article is the link between research on the neurocognition of the teaching--acquisition interface and research on second language teaching. This recent scientific enterprise investigates whether and how different aspects of second language instruction may change both the anatomy and the functioning of an adult learner's brain…

The following articles are included: (1) "Neurolinguistic Considerations on the Optimum Age for Second Language Learning" by Terence M. Walsh and Karl C. Diller; (2) "Major Variation in Language Skills Apparently under Genetic Influence (Discussed from the Viewpoint of Human Evolution)" by Brenda K. Sladen; (3) "Language Learning Strategies: Does…

New understandings of the human brain can be used to make quantum jumps in achieved learning. Sweeping changes need to be made in school organization, learning concepts, settings, and techniques. (Author/MLF)

Sets up a model in which the functioning of the brain is seen in terms of a computer's operations; then considers the applications of such a model to foreign language teaching and learning, with particular emphasis on feedback and simulations. (KM)

Attempts to characterize and contrast aspects of functional organization of neuropsychological systems carrying out primary language acquisition and two types of nonprimary language acquisition: secondary language acquisition and foreign language learning. There appears an intrinsic neurofunctional basis for the greater facility of young children…

Demonstrates what is to be understood by "procedural knowledge," at a time when researchers demand more process-oriented language courses to replace factual knowledge-oriented ones. The article presents a neurobiologically based model of the mental processes involved in the acquisition and use of language knowledge and discusses how pedagogical…

This article examines the evidence and arguments for and against the position that young children are better equipped to profit from foreign language studies than adults, with special reference to FLES programs. Adult and child learning patterns are compared, along with the formal and informal contexts of language acquisition. (CLK)

Human capacity for language acquisition is not strictly compartmentalized, with one acquisitional mechanism for the native language and others totally unrelated to it; rather, it consists of a unified mechanism flexible enough to handle various differences in external settings. This learning system operates on the formal properties of the…

If the question of what it is that is innate is simply left as some kind of human learning potential, this position, representative of the nativist philosophy, does not differ radically from that of behaviorists. The latter position holds that a human being starts out with a mind which is basically empty and receptive to, subject to, and the…

The foreign language instruction in the United States has followed a paradigm commonly called the "audio-lingual" method for almost twenty years. This paradigm is basically response-oriented and based upon structural linguistics and behavioral psychology. It focuses attention on speaking as the primary skill. It has not lived up to expectations.…

Reexamines the question of why pattern practice fails by hypothesizing about the information processing activities that they entail. (Author/CFM)

It is proposed that in studying the development of children's speech, the findings in the data are heavily influenced by what is expected to be found on the basis of our theoretical preconceptions. This phenomenon is actually more widespread than has previously been acknowledged, and our expectations about how children learn language may have to…

Neurological data indicate that the universal aptitude for functional language is biologically based, species specific, and developmental. The universality of functional oral speech is indisputable. Everyone, however, does not exhibit similar expertise in processing oral and visual language. Many people can speak two languages functionally but…

The phonological switching processes of 16 bilingual (Spanish-English) adults were observed to provide phonological evidence for the coordinate/compound theory of bilingualism. Each subject was categorized as a coordinate or compound based on responses to a questionnaire. Subjects were recorded reading a mixed list of Spanish and English words.…

The main concern of this report is the nature of the reliance by children on prior native language (L1) knowledge in naturalistic, untutored second language (L2) acquisition. It is suggested that L1 reliance is systematic, in that specific conditions have to be met within the child's L2 development before he or she will, or can, draw on previous…