Reviews second-language learning literature concerning factors which may affect adult students. Focuses on cognitive mechanisms, cerebral dominance theories, formal operations, motivation, and second-language teaching and learning. Offers suggestions for community college teaching and programs. (DMM)

Proposes an alternate approach to language learning for the American classroom based on notions of learner independence and community involvement. This method, in-situ exploration, utilizes native-speaking mentors and a five-step "Learning Cycle." (Author/SED)

Discusses an alternative framework for handling language testing and proposes some tentative hypotheses concerning principles of language testing. Suggests that taking account of both interlanguage domain engagement and contextualization in testing research, production, and interpretation allows for a richer conceptualization of the language…

Issues and patterns in second language learning are discussed, drawing on a 1985 study with learners of English as a second language in Australia. Discussion begins with an analysis of the process of learning one form of verb marking, the ending "-ing." The inherent complexity of this form in English is examined, and ways in which…

The demise of the behaviorist paradigm and the rise of the social, cognitive, and interactionist models of second language acquisition (SLA) have led to the understanding that constructivist mechanisms are part of the process. Given the variety of empirical findings and understandings research in the field has yielded, this study attempts to offer…

Revised version of a paper presented May 30, 1973, in Frankfurt, West Germany. (DD)

Discussion of micro-teaching, a scaled down teaching exercise for teacher trainees developed at Stanford University; a brief lesson consisting of one particular teaching skill and presenting one particular concept in the trainee's subject matter field is taught, followed by immediate supervisory and pupil feedback on the performance. (FWB)

Attempts to demonstrate the strategies used by the second language learner in deciphering unfamiliar linguistic material. (AM)

Questions the value of the theory of interlanguage for language learning research. (AM)

Examines the role of student needs, characteristics, and learning strategies and the importance of these elements in adult student-centered language instruction. (AM)

Discusses an observation of a class in English as a second language in which the Silent Way method was used. The focus is on some problems not thoroughly explored in the existing literature. (CFM)

Presents results of a study that sought to test the pronunciation problems of a large number of American students in a beginning college-level French course. Learner difficulties over a 15-week period were used to create a hierarchy of minimal contrasts representing major, secondary, and minor problems for the students in learning French sounds.…