This article enters the debate about the complex and dynamical nature of second language acquisition (SLA) by discussing and commenting on Pallotti's critique of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). Pallotti's critique brings to the fore the argument that, due to its anti-reductionist stance, CDST research fails to observe three fundamental…

This article presents a generative analysis of the acquisition of formulaic language as an alternative to current usage-based proposals. One influential view of the role of formulaic expressions in second language (L2) development is that they are a bootstrapping mechanism into the L2 grammar; an initial repertoire of constructions allows for…

This is an account of how one class of English language learners compared and contrasted their language learning experiences with English language teaching (ELT) research findings during a five-week Intensive Academic Preparation course at an Australian university. It takes as its starting point the fact that learners, unlike teachers and…

AN EXPERIMENT INVOLVING 50 YOUNG MALE U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL UNDERGOING INTENSIVE TRAINING IN RUSSIAN WAS CONDUCTED TO MEASURE THEIR ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATIONS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING. THE TESTS GIVEN THEM WERE STRUCTURED IN TERMS OF SUCH ATTITUDES AS THEIR GENERAL INTEREST, PRAGMATISM (CAREER OR MATERIAL ADVANTAGE), XENOPHILIA (IDENTIFICATION WITH…

Examines the role of tension in the process of instructed second/foreign language acquisition on the basis of findings from a comprehensive ethnography of the 7-week intensive beginners' class in the summer French School of Middlebury College. This project completes and challenges the current research paradigm on language anxiety as it shifts the…

SELECTED ARTICLES ON SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND REPORTS OF RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING, PUBLISHED FROM 1960 TO 1966, ARE PROVIDED IN THIS PACKET. INCLUDED ARE--(1) "UNDER-ACHIEVEMENT IN FL LEARNING" BY PAUL PIMSLEUR, DONALD M. SUNDLAND, AND RUTH D. MCINTYRE, (2) "THE PREDICTION OF SUCCESS IN INTENSIVE FL TRAINING" BY JOHN B.…

Reports the results of an experiment designed to identify and define learning behaviors characteristic of successful adult students in an intensive language program. Findings are interpreted in terms of an information processing model. (AM)

The association between an attitudinal/motivational factor and the acquisition of French oral proficiency is discussed. Eighty-nine Canadian students were satisfied with the intensive French language program while the 65 Americans were not. The sociocultural background of the student plays a major role in the development of attitudes. (PMJ)

This study investigated the extent to which various factors play a part in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' ability to resolve pronoun-antecedent connections in reading. The subjects were 97 ESL learners with four different native languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish) enrolled in the University of Illinois's Intensive English…

This publication is the result of a conference on teaching foreign languages to adults for special purposes convened by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) in July, 1974. In the first chapter, which serves as an introduction to the volume, G. E. Perren summarizes work that has been going on since 1968 when CILT held…

An experimental bilingual bicultural French language program for kindergarten students in a former French-speaking area of Western Newfoundland was initiated in an integrated primary school in September 1975. The experimental class of thirty students was taught entirely in French while the control group received twenty minutes of French per day…

Examines the emergence of the present perfect in the interlanguage of instructed adult learners of English as a Second Language. Findings indicate that adding a new inflection in the tense/aspect system requires establishing new form-meaning associations as well as revising existing ones. (44 references) (Author/CK)

A study was carried out of the 15 to 20% of immigrants enrolled in French second language classes in the "Centres d'Orientation et de Formation des Immigrants" (COFI) in Quebec, who learn little or no French after 8 weeks of an intensive course and repetitions of the course. This report presents the data gathered in the course of the…

A case for the study of foreign languages by pupils in the United States is presented in this book. The polyglot nature of America and the history of its language education is described, and language programs in foreign countries and in the United States are compared. Also discussed are the need for adequate language education for international…

A research report summarizes second language study, language training practices, and trainee attitudes toward language learning in the Peace Corps. The two equal parts of the study consist of findings and appendixes. Conclusions are grouped under (1) training practices and trainee attitudes, (2) associations and relationships, and (3) qualitative…