This text, designed to provide teachers and teacher-trainees with a comprehensive and up-to-date grasp of the theoretical foundations of foreign language teaching, is based on the assumption that a teacher-trainee needs to gain broad but systematic knowledge of the process of second language acquisition in order to understand and adapt teaching techniques. The subject matter of the text, divided into twelve chapters, is examined from the interdisciplinary perspectives of linguistics, psychology, and education. The following topics are covered: (1) language--learning and teaching; (2) first language acquisition; (3) comparison and contrast of first and second language acquisition; (4) human learning--theories, cognitive and learning styles, personality factors, and sociocultural variables; (5) contrastive analysis and language learning; (6) error analysis and interlanguage; (7) discourse analysis; and (8) foundations of measurement and research. Although specific techniques and procedures are not within the scope of the book, general approaches and methods are described in the final chapter. (AMH)