Essays on language transfer in language learning include: excerpts from "Linguistics across Cultures" (Robert Lado); "Language Transfer" (Larry Selinker); "Goofing: An Indication of Children's Second Language Learning Strategies" (Heidi C. Dulay, Marina K. Burt); "Language Transfer and Universal Grammatical Relations" (Susan Gass); "A Role for the…

In Zimbabwe, university students continue to have problems with scientific communication despite the fact that English is a widely-used second language and students have received most formal science instruction in English. However, the problems differ from those of both students of English as a foreign language and students studying their first…

This paper describes studies conducted in Saudi Arabia that: (1) investigated the effect of the number of orthographic alternatives of English consonant sounds on the spelling responses of 48 first-year secondary students studying English as a foreign language (EFL); and (2) compared the use of two spelling mechanisms of these first-year secondary…

This transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist Swedish and Norwegian immigrants in erasure of their foreign accents can be used for either individual or group study. Narrative and taped demonstrations of American English that pinpoint typical phonological barriers and pronunciation difficulties are outlined. The author's…

The role of language transfer in the acquisition of English as a second language as indicated in the production of relative clauses was examined. Analysis of adult Arab students' written responses to a variety of test types revealed that (1) language transfer is a significant factor in second language acquisition; (2) there is a distinction…

A study investigated the way in which children make use of morphemic information when they are learning to spell. Specifically, it examined the use of morphemic information in spelling compound words; the use made of morphemic information when adding suffixes to words, and the way the morphological rule governing the formation of the past tense is…

Two case studies of students learning to write academic discourse, particularly to maintain cohesion and relevance, are described. The two college students were part of a fourth-year biology class: one was a native English speaker, and the other spoke English as a second language. Both had a good command of spoken English grammar at the sentence…

In 1985, Indiana joined the growing list of states assessing students' achievement at various levels. During February 1985, over 63,000 third-grade students took the 40-item Indiana Basic Competency Skills Test. A mean of 34.7 was achieved. An item analysis was performed for a random sample of 6,439 students (approximately 10%). Findings confirm…

Chicano English, spoken by many Chicanos and some Anglos, is an ethnic variety of English that serves as a marker of social identity, and it has specific linguistic parameters. It is similar to standard English, and often exists alongside interference English, spoken by Spanish-speakers beginning to learn English. Research supports the argument…

The validity of data provided through rejection edits of students applying for Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOGs) was assessed. The question of whether some edits were associated with applicants' failure to reapply was also considered. The analysis used the 1978-1979 BEOG applicant population. A total of 3,823,008 applicants had applied…

Results of studies to assess accuracy of information reported by applicants to the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) program are summarized. Attention is also focused on applicant characteristics and corrective actions taken as a result of the studies. Overall, the studies found that the majority of BEOG applicants reported income…

The focus of the presentation pertains to the informational consequences of knowledge of results. Knowledge of results is assumed to be corrective in that the learner is informed that a previous response(s) was wrong. Provided the learner has an opportunity to rehearse or practice following feedback, the feedback procedure or session is in a sense…

Native speakers of Egyptian Arabic make errors in their pronunciation of English that cannot always be accounted for by a contrastive analysis of Egyptian analysis of Egyptain Arabic and English. This study focuses on three types of errors in the pronunciation of voiced and voiceless "th" made by fluent speakers of English. These errors were noted…

This study investigated the relationship between grammatical errors and communication breakdown by examining native speakers' ability to correct grammatical errors. The assumption was that communication breakdown exists to a certain degree if a native speaker cannot correct the error or if the correction distorts the information intended to be…

A study of overregularized use of verbs by two children over a period when they were 2 1/2 to 5 years of age shows overregularizations in two directions: non-causative verbs were used as causatives; and causative verbs were used non-causatively. According to terminology from logic, predicates were classified according to the number of noun-phrase…