This paper deals with deep and surface structure differences and their implication for language teachers. Examples of similar surface structures and dissimilar underlying structures often presented to students of English for pattern drill are pointed out (e.g., the "it" in "It's easy to speak English,""It's difficult for us," and "It's hot…

Discusses two experiments designed to test the following hypothesis: translation which proceeds from surface structure to surface structure causes greater interference than delayed interpretation across languages that stores the ideas in deep memory and expresses them later in the target language. (Author/CFM)

Paper presented at the TESOL Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 1971. (VM)

Basic to composition skill is control of sentence structure and accuracy in mechanics. Although it is often said that a student should not write what he has not first heard and practiced orally, it might equally well be said that he should not be expected to write grammatical patterns that he has not read, inasmuch as there is a difference in the…

Paper presented at the TESOL Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 1971. (VM)

Examination of business letters in English, French, and Japanese, focusing on prescriptive accounts in the respective languages, found that, despite amazingly similar surface characteristics, American business letters were reader-oriented, French business letters were writer-oriented, and Japanese business letters were oriented to the space…