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This chapter discusses the implications of recent second language acquisition research in the field of phonology for second language teachers, including the question of whether adult second language learners can trigger a new phonological structure that is not present in the first language. I will look at processes of Chinese and Japanese learners of English acquiring the [l]/[r] contrast, and then will follow this up by looking at the implications of Matthew’s work on Japanese learners being instructed in acquiring a variety of English sounds and how phonological theory explains their results. Work by Atkey on the acquisition of Czech palatal sounds will also be described to illustrate the conditions under which people can perceive new sounds. The chapter will conclude with a list of the implications for second language teachers of recent research in phonology.

Following a rather complex and somewhat controversial reconstruction process,Wexler (1990) claims that “genetically speaking,” Modern Hebrew is in fact not a Semitic language, but rather a Slavic one. One of the pieces of evidence he brings forth for the “latent non-Semitic traits” of the language is the derivation of xaver ‘friend’ > hitxaver ‘befriended, became friend,’ rather than the expected hitxaber (an independent item meaning ‘joined, intr.’). Since by definition, all verb forms are discontinuously derived in a Semitic language, this type of linear derivation, Wexler argues, betrays the underlying non-Semitic nature of Modern Hebrew.

This paper develops an analysis of epenthesis as a universal syllable-based process in which syllable boundaries arise through the application of markedness constraints on consonant sequences at the level of lexical representation. The purpose of the analysis is to show that, universally, epenthesis occurs in order to create nuclear material for “stranded” consonants, that is, for consonants which are separated from any vocalic material because of constraints on the placement of syllable boundaries. The analysis also explains where epenthesis occurs: either to the left or the right of a syllabically isolated consonant, where direction is dependent on the existence or nonexistence of a language specific constraint on resyllabification.

Eckman (1977:315) proposes a revision of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (Lado 1957) which incorporates the notion of typological markedness. His proposed revision, the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH), is stated below.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the teaching of reading to a certain segment within the population of bilingual children. Specifically, the paper deals with the teaching of reading to an increasing number of Hispanic children (both elementary and secondary level) who, because of socio-economic determinants, live in urban areas where they acquire a second language that is not only unacceptable in the schools, but also may interfere with the bilingual child’s attainment of “reading readiness.” I am speaking particularly of the population of Spanish speakers who live in urban environments and who acquire Black Vernacular English (B.V.E.) as their second language. Wolfram (1971, 1972) scientifically points to an increasing number of extremely complex linguistic, cultural, pedagogical, and sociological problems, some or all of which usually interfere with the Hispanic child’s learning to read and which subsequently cause him to either fail in or drop out of school.

The study reported in the first part of this paper was designed to uncover relationships between corresponding cognitive operations under two sets of conditions: first, in situations in which logical operations in conservation, classification, deduction, induction, and probability reasoning are required in response to concrete-verbal stimuli; then in situations in which these operations are required in reading. The study was exploratory. The purpose was to examine the extent to which cognitive operations in the categories assessed are likely to be available equally to 9- to 10-year-old children in the two situations, concrete and reading.

Stuttering is routinely described as a difficulty in saying words or sounds. Although stuttering obviously does involve sounds and words, characterizing the disorder in either of these terms misleads in opposite directions. Stuttering is most appropriately identified as a syllabic phenomenon, an intra-syllabic event—essentially because it is expressed at the level of the syllable. The denouement of the analyses presented in Chapter 5 was the isolation of syllable-initial position and linguistic stress as the focal “language factors” associated with stuttering. Syllable-initial position and linguistic stress are syllabic phenomena.