An error analysis was made of 26 essays written by English-speaking honor students in their first year of university German. Results illustrate the relative frequency of errors occurring in the sample, together with some possible explanations for certain types of errors. (SED)

Discusses the differing points of view of foreign language teaching research and second language acquisition research. The article shows that second language acquisition research works with linguistic data as a product of output, while foreign language teaching research, in addition, tries to interpret classroom data by taking into account the…

Discusses the theoretical foundation for Ferguson's correlation between speed in detecting syntactic errors in written English and acquisition of the listening comprehension skill. A detailed analysis of Ferguson's procedure is given along with references to other pertinent literature. The original conclusions are questioned. (AMH)

In combatting phonological interference in second language learning, attention should be paid to interference-producing aspects of the actual dialect that is the student's native language, rather than to the "standard" form of the language. (JB)

Presents the results of a study of the errors made on essays by Moroccan students of English as a second language. The average number of grammatical errors was 10.62 per paper and the most frequent errors were related to tense, prepositions, articles, form, and concord. (SED)

Lists and discusses certain recurrent errors made by adult Arab students of English literature at the university level. The errors were produced spontaneously in free writing and not through mechanical drills or isolated occurrences of sentences, so they reflect the learner's competence in English. (SED)

Presents data which indicate that the language learning capability of adolescents and adults who are acquiring a second language differs from that of children who are acquiring their native language. Discusses consequences for second-language teaching methodology. (EKN)

In order to ascertain if providing verb pattern information permits learners to use verbs correctly, 24 verbs that share the same semantic feature (give) but that fall into different structural patterns were presented to two groups of advanced learners of English, only one of which was given information about verb patterns. (SED)

Presents an analysis of the modal verbs in English and Moroccan Arabic that works equally well for both languages and is simple enough to be of use to the classroom teacher. (EKN)

Questions the prevalent attitude of English as a second language teachers regarding the teaching of writing skills. Weaknesses in syllabi and teaching strategies are cited, indicating deficiencies in the teaching of discourse analysis--the manipulation of words, structures, and ideas--all skills necessary for the development and production of a…

Claims that mere frequency of presentation is not enough for efficient vocabulary learning to take place. Each item should be presented in a wide range of syntactic contexts. It should also be noted that even apparent synonyms may not be substituted one for the other in any sentence-frame. (AMH)

Formulates the following rules for the use of the passive progressive in English: (1) if the verbal predication is "telic" we have to use the passive progressive in order to express that the action is still going on, and (2) if the verbal predication is "atelic" the use of the passive progressive is facultative. (SED)

In teaching the tense-aspect system of English to speakers of Moroccan Arabic (MA), the teacher should take into account the reinterpretation of MA categories into English ones, the learning of new categories, the redistribution of categories, and the learning of contrasts existing in English but underdifferentiated in MA. (JB)

Investigates why graduates of Arabic courses in English-speaking countries are so few in number and why they so often compare poorly in spoken language performance with graduates of other language courses. The most important factor in this phenomenom is the gap that separates written Arabic from spoken Arabic. (SED)

Examines some of the sounds that occur in English but not in Persian, and discusses ways to help Iranian students learn to pronounce these sounds correctly. (EKN)