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This paper discusses the profession of teaching English as a second language. The problems encountered in classes taught by untrained amateurs are discussed, and the strategies of the professional teacher are outlined. She or he begins by finding out who the students are, what they need to know, and how they will have to use English. In this way, contexts that have meaning for the student can be provided. The language is to be taught as it is used in society and not in an artificial manner. Specific ways of getting at real language usage are described. The need for order in teaching is stressed, as opposed to a "bits and pieces" approach. Teaching language also involves the teaching of culture. This entails an awareness of the students' cultural background in order not to force some aspects of American culture on them too quickly. The professional language teacher should also be capable of effectively evaluating textbooks and teaching materials. (CLK)

Participants in a seminar series in second language acquisition held at Harvard University discussed three papers by Dulay and Burt ("Goofing: An Indicator of Children's Second Language Learning Strategies,""Should We Teach Children Syntax?", "Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition"), and developed several questions and issues regarding specific aspects of those papers. Among the issues raised are: (1) universal language processing strategies; (2) statistical discrepancies between the second and third studies; (3) interference in second language acquisition; (4) theoretical model of morpheme acquisition order; (5) morpheme scoring; (6) statistics and data analysis. Each question posed by the group is followed by a response from Dulay and Burt. (DB)

This position paper gives the results of informal surveys carried out by the Bilingual-Bicultural Task Force of the California State Department of Education. Only 60 to 65% of the teachers in the state bilingual programs are judged bilingual and 50% bilingual-biliterate. Almost all of the teacher aides are judged bilingual, and a large percentage are judged bilingual and biliterate. There is, therefore, a critical shortage of qualified bilingual/cross-cultural classroom teachers for bilingual programs. Another area that shows a need for qualified teachers is the area of "Special Instruction." In accordance with the Supreme Court decision in the Lau v. Nichols case, California public schools must give special English instruction to 188,159 limited-English and non-English speaking public school pupils. Thus, there is an immediate need for several thousand qualified bilingual teachers to give this special instruction. Appendix I gives the text of the Supreme Court's Lau decision. Appendix II gives the number of non-English-speaking pupils in California public schools by grade (kindergarten through 12) and primary language for 1972-73. Appendix III presents a summary of selected public-school pupil data by racial and ethnic groups, as of fall 1973. Appendix IV gives, by language, the total number of limited- and non-English-speaking pupils in California public schools in 1972-73, for Spanish and Asian language groups. Appendix V gives the statewide total of classroom teachers, 1967-73, by racial and ethnic groups. (CFM)

In the first part of the paper the idea of the cognitive network is developed. The network consists of concepts linked together by relationships which are themselves concepts. Concepts are learned according to simple rules, and the network grows as new concepts are learned. Part II considers the growth and structure of language. The growth of language within the network follows the same rules as the growth of perceptual ability. Labels are attached to some concepts for syntactic transformations to others. Perceptual syntactic relations tend to have syntactic programs as their expression in language. In Part III some problems of bilingualism are considered. The simultaneous growth of two languages presents special problems to an infant. Instead of linking labels and syntactic programs directly to concepts in the network, the infant's linkages must be conditional on extraneous factors. The bilingual infant should have early difficulty with language, but should eventually derive a richer concept structure than a monolingual. Second language learning is seen as a process of breaking down structures that have stabilized in order to replace them with new and more complex structures. Linguistic relativity is real, but occurs primarily in the more abstract realms of thought, not at the perceptual levels. (Author/CLK)

The paraprofessional individuals involved in English as a second language (ESL) teaching in community colleges are discussed. The traditional definition of the paraprofessional is a non-certified aide, usually a student with little or no instruction in how to tutor ESL students, who helps with oral reading problems and specific language problems. A new kind of paraprofessional is emerging, however: certified teachers with a Master's Degree in English, Linguisitcs, language studies, or English as a Second Language, who may be responsible for running class sessions. This involves not only correcting homework, but planning class sessions, testing, and grading. Regular paraprofessionals and M.A. paraprofessionals do have one thing in common, however: their rate of pay. The term paraprofessional does not always refer to the education, training or ability of a given assistant, but it can be seen as a category specifying salaries. This paper constitutes a plea for professional benefits and recognition, also in terms of earnings, for those paraprofessionals holding Master's degrees. (CLK)

This paper describes the use of literature in an English as a second language course, and the response of foreign students to such a procedure. The responses of 113 students from 20 different countries, speaking twenty-four languages, were compared with those of thirty-five American students having English as their first language. The course consisted of readings in poetry, drama, and short stories, accompanied by discussion and written analyses. Reading selections were from the recent past, so that they would be modern in language and content and related to current life, and yet far enough removed to be seen as a pattern and examined as such. Both multiple choice tests and essays were used for evaluation purposes. Tapes and films were also used to supplement instruction. It was found that students enjoyed the course and felt stimulated to read more. Students suggested having more discussion and student participation in the choice of test materials. Test scores indicated that reasoning and writing in English were the most difficult tasks encountered by non-native speakers. Scores also pointed to the relative importance of a given literary form in a given culture. (CLK)

Previous work by the authors permitted them to hypothesize the existence of certain universal cognitive strategies that play a significant role in child second language acquisition. Forming the basis of the "creative construction process" in L2 learning, these strategies have heretofore remained unspecified. This paper offers new perspectives on the specific nature of the creative construction process: first, by an attempt to use Brown's notions of semantic and linguistic complexity to account for differences between first and second language acquisition; second, by a clarification of the notions of "learning complexity" and "learning strategy"; and finally, by presenting a new analytical procedure and framework which may be useful in research on children's strategies in acquiring L2 syntax. This new procedure involves an adaptation of Bart and Krus'"Ordering- Theoretic Method," which assumes that there is a logical relationship among items in a group, and which is designed to determine those relationships. The ultimate value of this type of analysis lies in its potential to uncover the sorts of empirical facts needed before one can begin to specify with any confidence the nature of language acquisition strategies. (Author/DB)

How do the expectations for bilingual educational programs of legislators, educators, parents, students and ethnic leaders match one another? What expectations are implicit in the actual practice of schools, of homes, of evaluators? How does all this fit in with what we understand about the best way for children to learn a language? This paper attempts to answer these questions and in so doing finds much that is contradictory, much that is misleading, and much that is just poorly conceived. It also suggests more reasonable approaches to the relevant issues. (Author/DB)

In view of the fact that the teaching of Standard English has high educational priority in American schools, and that its use as the medium of instruction makes it a vital skill for nonstandard speakers, the present paper reports on an investigation of the Standard English performance of young children from minority groups in which Standard English is not a primary language. The investigation technique described is that of elicited imitation, whereby the child is simply asked to repeat sentences containing grammatical features observed to show variation. Previous use of this technique and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The test itself appears in two forms, each one containing 15 sentences taken from recordings of natural speech. It is administered individually to children whose mean age is 5.5 years, by an adult tester, and recorded. Native speakers of English should perform better on the test, and the scores should improve with age, that is, further exposure to Standard English. The results confirm these predictions, thus demonstrating the validity of the test. Specific results are given for tests given to Mexican-American and Pima children, and to Hawaiian-Creole speaking children, the results from the latter being the most detailed. (CLK)

The Materials Acquisition Project was created by the Bilingual Education Programs Branch of the U.S. Office of Education to make available information concerning instructional materials currently published in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries to teachers of elementary and secondary bilingual-bicultural education classes in the United States. The functions of the project are to: (1) identify and acquire from foreign countries copies of educational materials in Spanish and Portuguese, such as texts, supplements, posters, recordings, slides and tapes, for potential use in American bilingual education programs; (2) field-test materials in elementary and secondary bilingual-bicultural classes; (3) identify comparable concepts in texts in Spanish and Portuguese and in English texts and compile a parallel list of texts; (4) provide for the revision of outstanding materials that require little rewriting to make them relevant to Spanish-speaking students in the United States, and promote the publication of K-6 textbook sets in fine arts, language arts, math, and science; and (5) make information on the project's objectives and operation available. Means of fulfilling each of these functions are described. (CLK)

The relevance of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics to language instruction is discussed. English as a second language has traditionally been ignored by English departments, and second language teaching in general has received little attention in language departments because of the emphasis on literary studies. ESL and EFL have emerged under the aegis of linguists interested in language acquisition, and have traditionally been directed at foreign students, while neglecting segments of the American population that are proficient in other languages or are in need of instruction in English as a second dialect. Psycholinguistics has contributed to alter this situation by attempting to understand the learning process. Sociolinguistic studies have contributed by: (1) examining what elements of culture and what cultural patterns are necessary to facilitate the communication process between different cultural groups, (2) defining the study and the awareness of the language teaching process, and (3) studying motivation and language attitudes. (CLK)

Elicited imitation occurs in an experimental situation during which subjects are requested to repeat a model sentence constructed so as to include specific desired grammatical structures. Elicited translation involves giving subjects a sentence in one language, and asking them to say the same thing, but in another language; elicited translation may work from native language to second language or vice versa. This study finds both methods useful as indicators of second language competence. Imitation taps both comprehension and production; data obtained through imitation may be interpreted to determine the stage of acquisition of a given structure. Translation also taps aspects of second language competence, although additional investigation is needed into the translation process itself and into other variations of the translation task. (Author/DB)

Three hypotheses are examined in relation to English copula and negative utterances produced by three native Spanish speakers. The hypotheses are interference, interlanguage and L1=L2, which states that acquisition of a language by second language learners will parallel acquisiton of the same language by first language learners. The results of the study are as follows: (A) In the copula construction, utterances such as "Is a book" probably represent interlingual identifications of the English "it's" and the Spanish "es." They do not appear to be produced by interference from the Spanish syntactic device of subject omission. (B) The acquisition sequence of the English negative by the subjects does not correspond to the "stages" described by Klima and Bellugi for children acquiring English as a native language. This result tends to disconfirm a strong version of the L2 = L1 hypothesis which would claim that the acquisition order in both the first and second language should be the same. (C) It is difficult to say whether acquisition of the negative by the subjects is systematic and developmental because these concepts are not clearly defined in any versions of the interlanguage hypothesis. (D) Two of the subjects evince different strategies in acquiring the negative. (Author/DB)

Speech samples were taken every two weeks for a period of 40 weeks from a five-year-old Japanese girl learning English as a second language through her environment. The presence or absence of some grammatical morphemes in linguistic or nonlinguistic obligatory context was scored; using Brown's (1973) criterion for morpheme acquisition, a rank order of these morphemes was determined. The order obtained was different from those of native English-speaking children. Possible determinants for this rank order are hypothesized in terms of (1) presence/nonpresence of that semantic notion expressed by those individual English morphemes in Japanese, (2) a principle of simplicity, and (3) phonological interference. (Author)

Classic studies in second language (L2) learning offer little evidence for the validity of the notion of universals in L2 learning. The present study investigates this notion in data collected from 15 observational studies of 40 L2 learners who acquired the L2 naturally, that is, they were not taught the language in any formal ways. Interpretation of both input data and production data (e.g., L2 auxiliary development, auxiliary development with negation, auxiliary inversion in question formation, and input frequency and question production) suggests that communication is the principal goal of such learners, and that consequently those parts of the language system which are not important to communication are learned slowly. However, if a structure is extremely frequent in the input data, the learner will produce it. Effects of frequency are modified in a number of ways. If a form has low semantic power, or if it requires changes in word order, it will be learned late, as will structures having a variety of forms. Variations in strategies and speed of L2 acquisition reflect psychological differences, and must be understood before a definitive model of universals in L2 learning can be developed. (DB)

This is a two-way contrastive analysis of the use of the article in English and Hungarian. The study works in both theoretical and applied contrastive linguistics by stating the rules governing determination and developing a methodology for analysis, and by noting language acquisition difficulties to reduce language learning interference. Part One deals with means for expressing determination in English and Hungarian noun phrases, contrasted from the standpoint of article use. The main differences concerning the relation of demonstratives and possessive determiners to articles are discussed. In noun classification, the system of English countable and uncountable nouns is contrasted with Hungarian. The distinction between English quantifiers "much" and "little" and numericals"many" and "few" is analyzed. Individual and non-individual features of Hungarian countable common nouns are observed. Part Two gives a contrastive analysis of English and Hungarian articles showing usage rules and examples. Predictions of errors are made for learners of each language. Difficult cases are presented, as English "there is/are" and uses of "most." Use of "some" is contrasted with the Hungarian zero article. Articles are analyzed with nominal objects and predicates, and the role of word order in Hungarian article usage is examined. (CHK)

Experimental work on the concept of linguistic difficulty is summarized. Inherent linguistic difficulty is distinguished from contrastive linguistic difficulty. Studies of phonological acquisition are cited which tend to support the notion of an ordered acquisition of language features, and it is recommended that we look to cross-linguistic evidence, to linguistic universals, for guidance in establishing measures of pronounceability for particular sounds and sequences of sounds. In discussing semantic difficulty, the author focuses on the need for the language learner to discover the semantic correlates of the various parts of speech. The need for more study in the area of contrastive difficulty is noted, and existing work in contrastive phonology is discussed. (PM)

The purpose of this research was to frame a hypothesis accounting for the observed behavior of particular children in a contact language area, in an attempt to understand their linguistic learning processes. The community involved was the township of Benque Viejo at the Guatemalan frontier, and the four informants, aged 10-13, spoke varying mixtures of Spanish, English, and Creole. The questions asked were: (1) What is the linguistic character of the community? (2) What is the nature of the children's competence, and in what sense is it a "knowledge" of the language of the community? Individuals were seen to create their own competence norms, competence being their knowledge of the available code. In the analysis of the children's renditions of "The Three Little Pigs," their individual codes were marked by particular expressions of hispanization, such as the dropping of the final -z, creole-ness, such as nasalizations, and r-colorations, which illustrated the extent of their "book-learning." For these children, there is no single internalized linguistic system; rather, they weigh their chances of being accepted in one role or another and create for themselves the linguistic stereotypes of those roles. (LG)

The last decade has witnessed considerable advances in the development of hardware for foreign language teaching; yet advances in the production of software, which demands tremendous outlays of time, imagination, and energy, have not kept pace. In order to tap the potential of instructional machines, educators must attempt to obviate the economic obstacles, as well as the inflexible pedagogical approaches, characteristic of past experiences with machine aids. In the future, teachers will need proper training (and credit for their training), simple-to-operate and readily-available equipment and materials, and a personal conviction as to the usefulness and efficacy of machine-assisted instruction. Other practical suggestions include making equipment available to the community, training media technicians in the needs of foreign languages, profiting from grass-roots teacher suggestions, continually sharing information within the profession, and demonstrating that the cost of the equipment can be justified by the resultant improved learning. As the expectations of the 1960's were for the most part unrealized, expectations for the 1970's must, in the words of Wilkins, "be specified, rather than hoped-for, concrete rather than speculative." (DB)

This survey offers a brief description of the contribution of American scholars to contrastive research on Hungarian and English. The studies are divided into contrastive and experimental work. A study by John Lotz (1943) demonstrated the non-congruence of the number category in Hungarian noun declension with English. Later Lotz studies (1966 and 1969) compared the morphophonemics and semi-vowels of the two languages. A Nemser and Juhasz study (1964) is a two-way analysis for teaching either language to speakers of the other. Balint (1966) demonstrated that in English and Hungarian "many sentences occur in which time is indicated by other means than verbs and time expressions." A recent work by Orosz is an extensive contrastive study of the two grammars for pedagogical purposes. The earliest experimental contrastive research on Hungarian and English (1960) reported on perception of English stops by speakers of English, Hungarian and other languages. A 1961 study by Nemser assessed the validity of contrastive principles relating to the prediction and explication of interference. The 1964 Nemser and Juhasz volume presented a general theoretical discussion of language contact. A 1968 study by Madarasz concerned contrastive and error analysis in learning English and, particularly, Hungarian. (CHK)