Examines the technical, linguistic, and pedagogical aspects of the use of broadcast videotex, the simultaneous televising of pictures and sound with subtitles, in linguistic education. Particular emphasis is placed on exploring the use of broadcast videotex to assist the linguistically handicapped, educate foreign-language learners, and aid…

Major approaches of describing or examining linguistic data from a potential target language (input) are analyzed for adequacy in addressing the concerns of second language learning theory. Suggestions are made for making the best of these varied concepts of input and for reformulation of a unified concept. (MSE)

Two concerns are addressed: the growing interest in process-oriented approaches to language learning, and the search for a nonparticulate linguistics of the type hinted at by Halliday and given some credibility by the findings of neuroscience. Focus is on somatic phenomena such as tone of voice, body language, and certain schemas. (15 references)…

Recent knowledge about the system of gender assignment in French is examined to suggest theoretical reasons why English speakers are so rarely successful in mastering the French gender assignment system for inanimate nouns. Morphological, phonetic, and semantic rules shed light on the system. (14 references) (Author/LB)

The hypothesis was tested that adults have difficulty learning the pronunciation of a second language because atmospherically conducted vocal feedback is masked by the speaker's bone-conducted feedback. A technique delaying atmospherically conducted feedback until bone-conducted feedback was completed was found to help learners modify German…

Most analyses of linguistic errors set up unidimensional categories of grammatical, lexical, and semantic deviations. A two-dimensional classification system is described that formed the basis of a study of phenomena of foreign-language interaction. Thirteen classes of linguistic deviation emerged in the study. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/LB)

Discusses the application of pragmatic and discoursal principles to second-language acquisition (SLA). After critical examination of more traditionally oriented approaches, the article reanalyzes the process of SLA in an interactively oriented setting and applies the principle of "adjacency pair" to the context of SLA. The principle of…

Discusses the contexts in which classroom data on foreign language acquisition has been collected and the effect that ignoring these contexts has had on the application of foreign language acquisition research to foreign language teaching and learning. A scheme to aid in analyzing the different approaches to linguistic data is presented. (SED)

Explains the differences between constituency and dependency theories for structural linguistics. Reasons are provided for why the former has been indirectly responsible for the neglect of lexical acquisition in language acquisition research and for proposing a notation based on dependency theory for describing learners' segmentation of initially…

The use of different communication strategies (CSs) in interlanguage application was studied with 51 Persian first-year university learners of English. Emphasis is on determining which CSs are more favored under a given condition and on identifying a link between task type and the use of specific CSs. (23 references) (LB)

A study of adults learning French as a second language showed that enhancing the pedagogical environment through development of a French phonetic training program resulted in improved discrimination and production ability among the students. (39 references) (LB)

This article examines recent research in the areas of contrastive analysis (CA) and error analysis (EA) as they apply to second-language learning, focusing on redefinitions and modifications of the concepts of language "transfer,""error," and "native speaker." It argues that both CA and EA remain vital components of applied linguistics and…

The use of literature courses in the teaching of English to nonnative university students in the Third World is discussed. Some English department literature courses are reviewed, and it is shown that, as taught in Arab countries, they do not significantly improve the students' performance because of the emphasis on content rather than mode of…

An experiment measuring the effectiveness of two procedures for presenting pattern drills was devised in order to show that pattern drills are most useful as a learning device if deliberately related to situational or meaningful content. Criteria for the selection of subjects are presented here, as are sample test items and a table of results.…

Hungarian students have difficulty with the English verb, particularly the perfect and passive aspects and word order. The points of conflict are assumed to originate in the differences in linguistic modes of thought in Hungarian and English, suggesting that linguistic mode of thought should be taught alongside grammar and vocabulary. (MSE)