A review of research was conducted on the possibility of a sensitive period for the acquisition of native-like pronunciation in a second language, as well as on related questions concerning the universality of this phenomenon, age factors, biological versus cultural origins, and developmental psychology. The review showed variation in studies and…

A list of basic study practices and strategies, with examples and alternatives that focus on both receptive and productive skills and the value in interaction, is presented. The following hints are included: (1) don't study a language by yourself and in silence, but study aloud and with another person; (2) use the target language as much as…

This study explores how social pressure and identity construction patterns interact with the oral performance of secondary and post-secondary learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Data derive from 268 questionnaires probing students' perceptions of Spanish, Spanish speakers, their peers, and their instructors. Ethnographic interviews…

This language textbook is designed for beginning students of Tagalog, the principal language spoken on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The introduction discusses the history of Tagalog and certain features of the language. An explanation of the text is given, along with notes for the teacher. The text itself is divided into nine sections:…

This guide provides a basic framework that may be implemented in any English as a second language (ESL) program comprised of the following levels: entry pre-literate, entry literate, basic, and intermediate. The program may be implemented in sessions of 5 hours or 3 hours per day of ESL instruction. The modules of instruction are: (1) oral…

This book contains the core of the Dari language instructional program developed by the Foreign Service Institute. Most of the sentences and exercises in the lessons are presented in the Persian script; the spelling represents the actual pronunciation of colloquial Dari. Each lesson includes a set of basic sentences and drills, vocabulary lists,…

Thirteen manuscripts and extended reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications of research are presented in this status report on speech research for the period of July-December 1979. The topics dealt with include speech perception, children's memory for sentences and word strings in relation…

PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH IS A REQUIREMENT IN SWEDEN FOR VOCATIONAL SCHOOL TEACHERS. TEACHING BY TELEPHONE WAS EXPERIMENTED WITH IN AN ATTEMPT TO CREATE A RESERVE OF THESE TEACHERS WHO WOULD MEET THE REQUIRED PROFICIENCY LEVEL. CANDIDATES WHO PASSED AN INITIAL PROFICIENCY TEST FOLLOWED A COURSE FOR FOUR MONTHS IN WHICH SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKS WITH…

The English Phonemic Unit Test measures the ability to produce difficult English sounds which must be mastered to speak English well. The test has been used with students from kindergarten to college. The instument was consensually validated by bilingual specialists, after analyzing the test according to contrastive analysis procedures applied to…

This audiolingual course in Fulfulde, a lingua franca for much of West Africa, is designed for teacher-assisted self-instruction. The course is designed to impart communicative competence in Fulfulde. Dialog memorization, vocabulary acquisition, and pronunciation drills are emphasized. Each of the 41 lessons covers two or three grammatical…

This preliminary edition of "English for Speakers of Hebrew" is the product of an experimental project conducted by the English Department of Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture and financed by the U.S. Office of Education (HEW) as a sub-project of the Planning Centre for the Teaching of English in…

This book discusses the teaching and learning of a second language in terms of a total human experience and not just an oral-aural or cognitive one. Part one, "Memory," examines some of the research that has been done on memory, and discusses: (1) "Biological Bases for Memory"; (2) "Verbal Memory"; and (3)…

This selective bibliography lists 8 books and articles dealing with Serbo-Croat-English contrastive studies and 2 articles on general Slavic studies. The entries range in date from 1963 to 1972. The books cited are European or American publications, and the articles appeared in well-known European or American pedagogical language journals. (TL)

This volume contains achievement tests designed for American students studying Persian at the elementary level. They are constructed on the basis of materials related to course syllabi. Preceding the tests, the sources of the test data are reviewed and the main ones are listed. The allocation of points in each section of the test syllabus is…

This is the first in a four-volume experimental series of instructional materials on English for Vietnamese speakers. This volume deals specifically with pronunciation. The lessons are based on a systematic comparison between the Vietnamese and English sound systems, including intonation and stress patterns; the theoretical basis for the…