The interlanguage hypothesis stresses that errors are a normal part of the language learning process. At the same time, in the view of many, the teacher has a responsibility to provide short cuts for the learner through appropriate corrective feedback. Conventionally, this has been taken to imply correction of expression by requiring repetition of…

A study is described of heuristic devices useful in learning both native and second languages. The study concerns particularly the means used by very young students (second and third graders) in vocabulary acquisition and in the establishment of semantic relationships. It was of concern to verify if (1) the children would use their knowledge of…

This edited volume includes the following chapters: "Three Kinds of Sociolinguistics and SLA: A Psycholinguistic Perspective" (Dennis R. Preston); "Getting Serious about Language Play: Language Play, Interlanguage Variation, and Second Language Acquisition" (Elaine Tarone); "Oppositional Talk and the Acquisition of Modality in L2 English" (Tom…

This book provides a practical introduction to questions about bilingualism. It is for parents and teachers who are themselves bilingual, for monolinguals who want to know more, for those with some intuitive understanding of bilingual situations and for those who are starting from the very beginning. The book poses questions that people often ask…

Compares patterns of subject position pronominalization and zero anaphora in English in stories written by monolingual U.S. students and bilingual Mexican students at grades 6 and 12. The possibility of both sentential and discourse level transfer effects resulting from the fact that Spanish allows subject deletion is investigated as is the…

The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This book, which includes 12 chapters by distinguished researchers in the field of second language acquisition, traces the conceptual history of language transfer from its early role within a Contrastive Analysis…

Errors in second language learning are viewed as evidence of the learner's hypotheses and strategies about the new data. Error observation and analysis are important to the formulation of theories about language learning and the preparation of teaching materials. Learning a second language proceeds by a series of approximative reorganizations…

The series of articles in this volume were selected from among those presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning in April 1994. Articles include: "The Right Tool for the Job: Techniques for Analysis of Natural Language Use" (Georgia M. Green); "Sinclair & Coulthard Revisited: Global-…

A review of literature on the learning processes and potential of adult students of English as a Second Language, not literate in their native language, looks at research in the following areas: (1) the differences between children and adults in language learning; (2) the effects of previous formal education on second language learning; (3) the…

This study presents an analysis of the successive steps used by Italian-speaking secondary school students to acquire mastery of the relative pronoun in standard French. This structure was chosen for study because the acquisition of the French relative pronoun is a source of difficulty for Italian learners. An analysis was made of the students…

PRAGMATICS & LANGUAGE LEARNING, a refereed series sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawai'i, publishes selected papers from the biannual International Pragmatics & Language Learning Conference under the editorship of the conference hosts and the series editor. Check the NFLRC website for…

A study examined pragmatic variation across Turkish and American English in the speech act of chastisement, to determine occurrence of pragmatic transfer in the interlanguage of native Turkish speakers learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Data were collected from 80 native speakers of Turkish, 14 native speakers of American English, and 68…

This study investigates the development of two levels of morphological knowledge that contribute to Spanish-English bilingual students' ability to recognize cognates: the ability to recognize a cognate stem within a suffixed English word, and knowledge of systematic relationships between Spanish and English suffixes (e.g., the fact that English…

The instructional guide for the Cutting Edge workplace literacy program, a cooperative project of El Paso Community College (Texas) and Levi Strauss and Company, is an expanded version of one appendix the project handbook. It describes and provides an instructional model for the three-part, job-specific, video-based program of English as a Second…

The 1983 volume of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) newsletter includes articles on the growth in foreign student enrollments; recommended reading; English as a second language (ESL) teacher employment survey results; getting program support; federal legislative efforts; second language acquisition and acquisition of…