Memory research has recently moved from looking at performance in highly artificial laboratory tasks to examination of tasks in everyday life. One consequence is the development of the concept of "working memory." For the learner, foreign language comprehension makes great demands on working memory capacity. Comprehension of a message requires…

The first contacts between linguistics and second language acquisition date from the period of contrastive analysis of languages, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When contrastive analysis failed as an explanatory model, linguists lost interest in second language research and descriptive/contrastive studies declined, resulting in a changed…

Analysis of adult discussions reveals a lack of fit between pedagogical grammars and actual usage. (JH)

This bibliography of information sources on a variety of topics related to second language instruction represents a portion of the BIBELO database. The bibliography contains 480 citations of journal articles, monographs, collected works, research reports, and essays that have appeared recently on the subjects of language and culture contact,…

Research has shown that the commonly taught phonics rule "a vowel in the middle of a one-syllable word is short" is accurate only 68% of the time, given that a single-syllable word has been correctly identified. A recent research endeavor, which analyzed 138,000 words listed in the "New Grolier Webster International Dictionary of…

This is the tenth report in the Language Research In Progress (LRIP) series, superceding reports 1-9. LRIP 10 lists 469 language-related research projects in progress between November 1969 and June 1970 for which documentation is available. The report is indexed by topic, principal investigator, and location of the project in the United States or…

Various trends in linguistics research as they are currently applied to reading instruction are described. The rationale of both Bloomfield and Fries stressing the alphabetic principle of sound-letter correspondence is evaluated, and research comparing the effectiveness of applying this principle with other approaches to beginning reading is…

This article intends to shed light on the somewhat nebulous term "basis of articulation," which is used frequently in Eastern European phonetic and linguistic literature but highly neglected in contemporary American literature. In a historical approach, it is shown how the term originated and developed, how it is defined by various authors, and…

Clarifies and defines quantitative research as it is applied to the study of language acquisition. Trends in the use of quantitative and nonquantitative methods in applied linguistics are reported, and suggestions are made concerning useful paradigms and procedures for further research in language acquisition. (Author/CB)

The intermediate competence of adult second language learners is qualitatively different from native speaker competence. Learning strategies are constants in the diachronic modifications of learner competence. A study of the acquisition of interrogatives in French reveals limited strategies and the heterogeneity of linguistic models needed to…

This article reports on the first four colloquia at Neuchatel. Research in the areas of discourse analysis, the discovery of interpretive processes, and communicative competence should shape the evolution of second language teaching. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

Resources for literature searches of the World Wide Web (WWW) are outlined for the use of university faculty, staff, and students seeking information on the teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL) and on applied linguistics. The guide begins with a brief overview of resources for Web-based searching and general information about the…

Research is reported on the growing English Language Teaching (ELT) literature that sheds new light on components of the diffusion process in one ELT context: the U.S. intensive English program. Findings highlight a new set of perspectives on the role of perceived attributes of ELT innovations. (42 references) (Author/LB)

A study of children's acquisition of synonymy as a sense-property during the second childhood period (as defined by Piaget) suggests that, contrary to psychologists' claims, nominal realism is a linguistic phenomenon that should be studied as such. (75 references) (Author/CB)

Argues that applied linguistics, as the interdisciplinary field that mediates between the theory and practice of language acquisition and use, is the overarching field that includes second language acquisition (SLA) and SLA-related domains of research. (Author/VWL)