This paper presents an overview of research literature on second language learning in children. Theories regarding these aspects of second language acquisition are summarized: (1) developmental stages of language acquisition; (2) the role of imitation and practice; (3) differences between oral and written language skills; (4) the ways in which…

This article reviews research and literature to identify the most appropriate and effective work on promoting the acquisition of English by limited-English-speaking students via the use of computers. Fields covered in the review are linguistics, culture, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. First, studies on when a child best learns a second…

A university writing faculty conducted a study of the concepts of unity in expository prose and of sentence structure as understood by Arabic, Malay, and Spanish speakers to discover why some students grasp some concepts more readily than others. Interviews, surveys, and analysis of written compositions revealed that the reason lies in ways these…

A study of the developmental patterns of reading proficiency of seven adult second language learners over a four-month period to determine the changes in their oral reading behavior and in their comprehension of written English is reported. The study looked specifically at oral reading and retelling. All subjects were beginning to low-intermediate…

A study of the native language literacy of Finnish immigrant children in Sweden had as subjects the 81 Finnish immigrant pupils in grades 3-6 of a Swedish industrial city. At the time of the study, about 20 percent attended Finnish-medium classes, 34 percent attended Swedish-medium classes, and about 46 percent attended bilingual classes. Native…

The textbook is the center of the curriculum and syllabus in most classrooms; however, rarely does it provide enough information for learners to successfully acquire pragmatic competence. This paper reports on a qualitative and quantitative study of 8 English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks to determine…

Process writing and communicative-task-based instruction both assume productive tasks that prompt self-expression to motivate students and as the principal engine for developing L2 proficiency in the language classroom. Besides this, process writing and communicative-task-based instruction have much else in common, despite some obvious…

"Research in the Teaching of English" (RTE) is the flagship research journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in the United States. It is a broad-based, multidisciplinary journal composed of original research articles and short scholarly essays on a wide range of topics significant to those concerned with the…

This paper presents a method for making foreign language learning meaningful and interesting through using language as a tool for communicating about the self and others. Drawing from techniques developed by behavioral scientists, the foreign language was used to develop students' self-awareness and confidence. Learning activities were created,…

Twenty-one students in their second quarter of Romanian language study at The Ohio State University completed a language background survey, took a perception test and made a tape recording of their pronunciations of a list of Romanian words. The tape used in the perception test consisted of a list of fifteen minimal pairs with initial voiceless or…

This textbook presents the essential structural features of Djerma as it is currently spoken in the western region of Niger. The course is organized into 30 units which constitute instructional material for from 300 to 400 hours of classroom instruction. It is specifically designed for intensive training programs of approximately 4 to 5 hours per…

Since 1971 the approach adopted in the teaching of English phonetics in Denmark has been a contrastive one. In this paper it is argued that although the original contrastive hypothesis (Lado 1957) has to be modified and weakened, a contrastive approach is highly useful in learning and teaching the pronunciation of a foreign language. Selected…

Educators are now realizing, due to recent technological advances in the cassette tape field, that they can have a complete and educationally sound lab system that will adapt to nearly any independent study situation without having to spend large sums of money. Under budgetary constraints and the desire to provide for a learning lab with the…

The ability of foreign students to read non-scientific material efficiently is important for rapid social and cultural integration. This report describes the reading comprehension section of a French language course aimed at foreign students at the Nancy Science Faculty. Exercises are presented which cover morpho-syntactic, communicative and…