Overall and specific tasks involved in learning a foreign language and the factors that promote or retard learning are considered. To apply theories of learning and teaching, behavioral objectives for the learner must be considered. A macro-level learning theory is useful in conceptualizing reasons for student success and failure and in…

Two theoretical orientations-schema theory and cultural norms for the use of language unify this multidisciplinary collection of papers examining discourse. Chapters by Adams and Collins; Warren; Nicholas and Trabasso; Stein and Glenn; and Freedle and Hale highlight the application of schema theory to the study of story recall, reading, and the…

Part of a study is presented of native speakers of Hebrew who are acquiring English without formal instruction. A Hebrew-speaking child, aged 5 years 6 months, and her American playmate were audiotaped bi-weekly in natural settings for 11 months. The American child periodically used "foreigner talk," that is, the variety of language…

Charles A. Curran has developed a radically different type of language learning by dealing with the learners as a group rather than as a class. The social learning relationships of a class differ from a group in the contract, the social milieu, in the relationships between the teacher and students, and among the students themselves. Curran called…

This volume is intended to introduce college teachers of English as a second language (ESL) to some of the basic concepts underlying the teaching of English in India. A theoretical framework is formulated within which problems such as the planning of syllabuses and designing of courses and tests may be understood. At the same time, practical…

A previous study found that middle-class Hebrew-English bilingual children were characterized by distinctive perceptual strategies and more advanced processing in certain verbal tasks, as compared to similar monolinguals. The present study tested whether similar strategies and response patterns will appear when the children involved are from…

This paper reports on a study undertaken to investigate the relationship between elicited imitation data and comprehension data, as measured by a picture-identification task and a second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation task, and between elicited imitation data and production data, as measured by a spontaneous production task and…

Research was conducted to study systematically the comprehension and production of the pronouns "he, she, him, her" in the language of normal and linguistically deviant children. The purposes of the study were to: observe the manner in which normal children comprehend and produce these four pronouns, in terms of both their use and their…

This volume is a collection of articles on various aspects of applied linguistics as it relates to language teaching. Chapter 1, by S. Pit Corder, entitled "Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching," gives a short, general survey of applied linguistics in language teaching. Chapters 2-5 give an account of the main concepts in what is now called…

Six papers intended for foreign language teachers, administrators, and teachers of English as a second language are in this work. "Illusions and Realities" focuses on the complexities and problems of language teaching and proposes a coordinated program of development, backed by research, to meet current challenges. "Language Centers" discusses the…

Fourteen articles by anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and linguists, bearing on the way foreign languages will be taught in the immediate future, constitute the major portion of this book. The contents include chapters on: (1) sociocultural context of language and literature, (2) Hispanic literature, (3) the use of contrastive…

This paper explains the main concepts of communicative grammar and provides a detailed view of how communicative grammar analyses language at various levels. Language is discussed in terms of communication; the central elements in the analysis are those that carry information. Communicative grammar seeks to describe the process of the linguistic…

The experiment described in this report investigates second language development and the possibility of determining various levels of language acquisition. The subjects involved are Japanese students learning English. The students are given the task of recalling English kernel sentences after hearing them once. The resulting sentences--the…

American education must develop a system for promoting understanding among and with minority cultures. Curriculums should be designed which add relevancy to the education of minority groups and abandon the traditional ideas of Americanization which call for, among other things, the foreigner to become a good speaker of English.…

This paper discusses the relationship between language development and cognitive development in children within the framework of a French-English bilingual school situation. Initially the document covers the language development of the infant learning English; the author then describes specific problems of educating the English-speaking child with…