This paper explores the implications of presumed language universals and language particulars for second language teaching and learning. It is felt that an awareness of the universal features of language design builds confidence in the student who can concentrate on features which distinguish the target language from the native language. Examples are drawn from English and Japanese, with attention to the student of Japanese as a second language. Island constraints, constraints which prohibit certain movements of material out of designated structures, including complex noun phrases, coordinate structures, and sentential subjects, are regarded by some linguists as formal syntactic universals. Ross's explanation of these constraints (1967; 1974) is reviewed, and two alternate accounts are discussed. Grosu (1972) explains them in terms of a theory of interaction between cognitive strategies and grammar, while Kuno's account (1976) gives a semantically or functionally based account. Another phenomenon amenable to this type of functional explanation concerns the behavior of interrogative embedding predicates. In terms of language particulars, the Japanese pronominal system and its interaction with social parameters is discussed. The first person pronoun usage is specifically considered, to demonstrate the sharp contrast in usage between Japanese and English. (CLK)