The characteristics of “immersion” education as it is practised in Canadian contexts are described in this paper. Immersion programs are outlined in terms of their background, structure, methodology, and outcomes. It is suggested that to achieve the outcomes of immersion education found for majority language groups, some minority language groups may require a program in which initial education is in the first language, and which continues in both the first and second languages.

The paper examines the influence of the formal classroom as a learning environment on the discourse behaviour of advanced German students of English in conversations with English native speakers. It is proposed that FL teaching as a causal factor in the formation of IL-specific rules can operate either directly, in presenting the learner with FL material which deviates from target norms, or indirectly, by triggering off psycholinguistic processes which in turn lead to IL-specific rule formation. These are referred to as primary and secondary teaching induction, respectively. On a more concrete level, the impact of two constituents of FL teaching on IL discourse is discussed:

(1) the textbook and other teaching materials;

(2) classroom specific discourse norms.

The influence of the first factor type manifests itself primarily in (a) the use of an inappropriately formal register, (b) an inappropriate use of modal verbs. The second factor type is found to result in (a) rising intonation with non-interrogative function, (b) inappropriate propositional explicitness of speech act realizations and discourse functions, (c) “complete sentence” responses, (d) a lack of marking for expressive and relational functions (“speech act modality”).

In conclusion of the data analysis, a classroom specific pidgin will be hypothesized which, when transferred to non-classroom settings, leads to pragmatically inappropriate communicative behaviour.

On a more general level, it will be postulated that second language acquisition hypotheses should be formulated with reference to specific types of acquisition/learning contexts.

This study presents data collected from both natural settings and controlled experiments in order to describe native speaker responses to non-natives and to discuss what variables of a non-native's speech might elicit these responses. We present the results of three experiments. The first investigates native speaker reactions to requests for information by both native and non-native speakers in a natural setting. Experiment two is a controlled study focussing on two variables of non-native speech—pronunciation and grammar—and the response of native speakers to these variables. Experiment three examines the relationship between these variables and native speaker comprehension. Experiment four focuses on the effect of ordering on comprehensibility. We then discuss the role all of these factors play in the comprehensibility of non-native speech. We suggest that comprehensibility is achieved through a complex interaction of many factors and that it is comprehensibility which largely contributes to the use of foreigner talk by native speakers.

The amount of influence that a learner's native language has on the acquisition of a second language is an issue which has received considerable attention in research on second language acquisition. The thesis of this paper is that, within the context of the Interlanguage Hypothesis (Selinker 1972) and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman 1977), some important properties of a learner's interlanguage (IL) can be predicted.

More specifically, it is shown that speakers of Cantonese and Japanese internalize different IL rules in attempting to deal with English word-final voice contrasts. Whereas speakers of Cantonese devoice word-final obstruents in the target language, Japanese speakers insert a word-final schwa after the voiced obstruent. However, each of these rules can be correlated with facts about the phonology of the native language, supporting the conclusion that some important aspects of ILs can be predicted on the basis of a comparison of the native and target languages.

One of the main challenges faced by second langague acquisition research is to find an answer to the question of which processes and strategies guide the learner's attempt to acquire a foreign language. Whereas most investigations are based on the learner's output, this paper argues in favor of a more comprehensive approach. It tries to close the speculative gap between output and the underlying processes by integrating three types of questions:

(a) What requirements do learners impose on their own interlanguage output?

(b) What linguistic knowledge concerning the fulfillment of their requirements do learners have stored in their memories?

(c) What linguistic forms do learners actually use in their interlanguage output and how do these comply with their underlying knowledge?

An analysis which goes beyond the bounds of output by combining what learners want with what they know along with what they produce leads to insights into their interlanguage processes.

Quantitative procedures are introduced which measure learners' knowledge with respect to their requirement of correctness and also the extent to which their output complies with what they know. Three empirical studies are presented. They demonstrate that an analysis which combines information about requirements, knowledge and output can deal effectively with some of the dynamic aspects of interlanguage behavior.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the hypothesis that there are fundamental differences between using language in different situations or for different purposes, and that these differences may be accounted for in terms of the requirement of the task to be solved on the basis of knowledge represented in a particular way.

This article reports on a pilot investigation of learner feedback and its effects on teacher/ learner interactions in second language learning. In twelve ESL (English as a Second Language) dyads and triads, tapes were made of the performance by the participants of a pair of tasks in referential communication. In these tasks, the teacher described verbally a series of six graphic designs in such a way that the learner(s), who had the designs reproduced on a sheet of paper, could determine the order in which the designs were described. Data analysis involved classification of both learner feedback and teachers' post-feedback responses.

Recent experimental studies of bilinguals have provided evidence of less left lateralization (i.e. greater right hemisphere participation) for verbal tasks in the second language than in the first. Other clinical and experimental studies of adults suggest that the normal adult right hemisphere has certain residual language-related capacities and that it plays a role in the early stages of both child and adult language acquisition. These findings lead us to postulate a link between right hemisphere involvement in the early stages of first and second language acquisition.

Two studies were designed to investigate this issue. The subjects of the studies were adult French-English bilinguals, with one group dominant in English and a second in French. A single word dichotic listening paradigm was employed in both studies. Following Obler (1981), the hypotheses were 1) that the second language dichotic task would show less left lateralization (greater right hemisphere involvement) than the first and 2) that greater proficiency in the second language would correlate with a higher degree of left lateralization (less right hemisphere involvement) on the dichotic test in that language. The studies provide some support for these hypotheses and thus, indirectly, for a unified theory of first and second language acquisition.

Subject-matter lessons taught to English as a second language learners in several school levels were transcribed and analyzed. Characteristics of the teachers' speech when elaborating vocabulary were isolated and described, with a view to determining which characteristics would be helpful and which harmful to the students' comprehension and acquisition of vocabulary. It is seen that a major problem for the student may lie in the teacher's overelab-oration of vocabulary meanings through increased redundancy; the non-native listener may find it difficult to decode the exact message, because he cannot discern whether the same information has been provided redundantly or whether new information has been supplied.

Selected language acquisition research findings are examined in light of the language teacher's daily needs. Research results are reported that provide an empirical basis for selecting and grading materials, determining skills to be taught and their order of presentation, deciding on classroom presentation and procedures, and formulating evaluation instruments. Acquisition ordering relationships are shown to have a bearing on teaching sequence; that such a sequence should provide for a number of grammatical, semantic, and length constraints and a skills order constraint. In addition, the research provides support for a developmental model of learning, stressing the need for a variety of approaches and supporting a cognitively-based orientation for older children and adults. Other age-related variables are considered and their pedagogical consequences are reviewed.

The pilot study reported here used Accommodation Theory in addressing this question: when L2 speakers are asked to reply to a statement which is ethnolinguistically threatening, will their speech diverge (i.e., become less TL-like) ? The study focused on phonological variants in the replies of 13 ESL speakers. Results indicated that the nature of reply was important: only those whose replies were personal and/or ethnically related showed a decrease in TL correctness.

In a recent study of 190 university-level advanced ESL students from 8 first-language backgrounds, significant differences were found between several groups in their proficiency in processing spatial/chronological and hierarchical information in written discourse. This paper summarizes the study, presents the results and suggests possible variables which may contribute to first-language differences in acquiring English.

This research report focuses on the relationship of English phonological variation to intelligibility for adult second language learners of English. Fifty-eight adult ESL learners (29 advanced beginners and 29 high intermediates) were tested' on their ability to understand working-class (New Yorkese), educated (Standard English) and foreign-accented speakers of English. Subjects were also asked to rank these speakers according to expected ease of comprehension. Findings from this study indicate Standard English to be more intelligible than either New Yorkese or foreign accented English for these learners.

The paper reports the results of a test involving grammaticality judgments of English sentences given to native speakers of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese studying English as a second language. A detailed account is presented of aspects of Spanish and Chinese syntax that might explain the performance of the subjects, and an appeal is made for a more thorough search for and description of the areas of syntax in which language transfer is most likely to take place, based upon the study of acquisition data involving many different L1s and L2s. The results suggest that interference can come from sources not specified in traditional contrastive analyses and that researchers therefore must not restrict themselves to testing these analyses.

This paper summarizes some characteristics of Navajo and Western Apache speakers' tense switching in English and some observations on native English speakers' tense switching. It is suggested to teachers who have Southwestern Indian students in their classes to avoid restricting students to one particular tense in an artificial manner and to approach interlingual tense switching within a contrastive framework.