Discusses foreign language pronunciation from phonetic difference and phonetic learning viewpoints. Proposes phonological translation hypothesis based on assumption that neither physiological maturation nor neurological reorganization is as important for adults learning a foreign language without an accent as the tendency of mature speakers to…

Describes experiment carried out at the University of Texas at Austin to test hypothesis that the inclusion of cultural information describing society of language being studied would increase occurrence of integrative motivation in students and this would result in superior acquisition of cognitive language skills. Results neither proved nor…

Describes cross-cultural study of conversational interaction as means to explain how much talking people do, when, why and how they talk and the topics they feel appropriate in conversation. Suggests conversational behavior from nonnative speakers reflects a difference in communicative style transferred from another language and culture.…

Examines the purposes served by native language dictionaries as an introduction to the review of three monolingual French dictionaries for foreigners. Devotes particular attention to the most recent, the "Dictionnaire du francais langue etrangere", published by Larousse. Stresses the characteristics that are considered desirable for this type of…

Reviews the history of language aptitude tests in the U.S., examines the notion of aptitude in general, and attempts to answer the question of whether the notion of "language aptitude" is a valid one. (AM)

Argues that the "interview" is a flexible device for language teaching useful for presenting complicated structures and vocabulary or to allow students to create complex "conversations" on specialized topics. Presents the text of an interview suitable for translation or as a model. (three references) (Author/CK)

Reviews research on staff development for second-language teachers--internships, peer coaching, peer observation/feedback, team coaching, and student-based development. Describes practice implications for three approaches: transitional bilingual, sheltered English, and peer collaborative. (SK)

Investigates the degree to which native speech perception is superior to non-native speech perception. Shows that language specific speech perception is a linguistic rather than an acoustic phenomenon. Discusses results in terms of early speech perception abilities, experience with oral communication, cognitive ability, alphabetic versus…

Discusses the usefulness to second language learning of an activity in which students assume a pen name and write letters under that name in the language studied in order to motivate their interest in the language and accelerate their mastery of it. (CK)

Focuses on concordances from the language learner's point of view, and discusses how concordances might be integrated into a word processor as a step toward a fully integrated word processing environment with a range of on-line word-based resources. (Author/VWL)

Comparison of human and machine French translations of independent clauses from an English journal article about physics found that automatic translation was generally faithful to the original thematization, although English complexities and lexical gaps caused the machine to lose, create, and garble some themes. The human translation, although…

Summarizes recent psychological research and theory on the topic of consciousness, and looks at three questions in second-language learning related to the role of consciousness in input processing. The discussion involves the requirement in learning a second language of subliminal learning, implicit learning, and incidental learning. (142…

A qualitative, holistic framework is presented for the process of evaluating foreign language software. Eleven specific steps are outlined, and a list of educational software evaluation agencies is appended. (Contains 21 references.) (LB)

Points relevant to user-program interaction in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) are discussed, followed by strategies for vocabulary learning. An environment in which guidelines and strategies are implemented is described. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/LB)

Looks at the role of learning counselor, which the teacher has to assume in a learner-centered approach to second language learning, and the responsibilities such a role demands. (16 references) (VWL)