VOLUMES MENU

TESOL QUARTERLY
Volume 9 December 1975 Number 4

Table of Contents
Achieving Certification Through a Modified Competency-Based TESL Teacher Education Program . . . . . . . . . Harold S. Madsen More Understanding and Appreciation: Learning for Mastery in a College Literature Course . . . . . . . . . . Virginia Ann Fadil Peer-Mediated Instruction and Small Group Interaction in the ESL Classroom . . . . James J. Kohn and Peter Vajda Adult Language Learning Strategies and Their Pedagogical Implications . . . . . . Barry P. Taylor The Learners Interlanguage as a System of Variable Rules . . . . . . . . . Lonna J. Dickerson The Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes by Adult ESL Students . . . . . . . . . Diane E. Larsen Freeman The Acquisition of the English Auxiliary by Native Spanish Speakers . . . . . . . Herlinda Cancino, Ellen J. Rosansky, John H. Schumann Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H. Ned Seelye: Teaching CultureStrategy for Foreign Language Educators (B. Spolsky) Louise Hirasawa and Linda Markstein: Developing Reading Skills Advanced (M. Stiebel) Oscar K. Buros, ed.: Foreign Language Tests and Reviews (C. Hancock) Leon A. Jakobovits and Barbara Gordon: The Context of Foreign Language Teaching (J. W. Ney) Walt Wolfram and Ralph W. Fasold: The Study of Social Dialects in American English (S. M. Tsuzaki) Problems in English Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Publications Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TESOL Documents from ERIC/CLL . . . . . . . . . . . Publications Available from TESOL Central Office . . . . . .

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TESOL QUARTERLY
A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages TESOL OFFICERS
1975-76 President Mary Galvan

East Texas State University Commerce, Texas

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY James E. Alatis Georgetown University Washington, D.C. QUARTERLY EDITOR Ruth Crymes University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii REVIEW EDITOR
Richard L. Light State University of New York Albany, New York

First Vice President

Christina Bratt Paulston University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Second Vice President

John Fanselow Teachers College, Columbia University New York, New York EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Officers and
Virginia French Allen

Temple University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii University of California Los Angeles, California University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan State University of New York Albany, New York New York, New York University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota Georgetown University Washington, D.C.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Virginia French Allen

Charles H. Blatchford J. Donald Bowen

H. Douglas Brown Marina K. Burt

Darlene Larson New York University John W. Oller

Betty Wallace Robinett Muriel Saville-Troike

femple University Charles A. Findley Northeastern University Grace Sims Holt University of Illinois, Chicago Circle William Norris Georgetown University Ted Plaister University of Hawaii John Povey University of California, Los Angeles Betty Wallace Robinett University of Minnesota Bernard Spolsky University of New Mexico Barry P. Taylor San Francisco State University Rebecca Valette Boston College
Margaret van Naerssen Pontiac Adult Education Department Pontiac, Michigan Sylvia Viera University of Massachusetts

Membership in TESOL ($14.00) includes a subscription to the journal. TESOL QUARTERLY is published in March, June, September, and December. Business correspondence should be addressed to James E. Atatis, School and Linguistics, Georgetown Universily, Washington, D.C. Cepyright 1975 Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

US ISSN 0039-8322

Advertising Requests concerning advertising should be directed to Aaron Berman, Department of Foreign Languages, Sonoma State College, Rohnert Park, California 94928 Telephones (707) 795-2406 or (707) 828-0661.

Editorial PoIicy The TESOL Quarterly encourages submission of articles of general professional significance to teachers of English to speakers of other languages and dialects, especially in the following areas: (1) The defintion and scope of our profession; assessment of needs within the profession; teacher education. (2) Instructional methods and techniques; materials needs and developments; testing and evaluation; (3) Language planning; psychology and sociology of language learning; curricular problems and developments; (4) Implications and applications of research from related fields, such as anthropology, communication, education, linguistics, psychology, sociology. The TESOL Quarterly also encourages submission of reviews of textbooks and background books of general interest to the profession. Submit articles to the Editor (Ruth Crymes, Department of English as a Second Language, University of Hawaii, 1890 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822). Submit reviews to the Review Editor (Richard Light, TESL/Bilingual Education Program, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York 12222). Manuscripts Articles should usually be no longer that twenty double-spaced typed pages, preferably shorter. References should be cited in parentheses in the text by last name of author, date, and page number. Footnotes should be reserved for substantive information, kept to a minimum, and each typed directly below the line to which it refers. An abstract of two hundred words or less must accompany all articles submitted. Authors receive 25 reprints of their articles free of charge; additional copies may be ordered from the printer at the time of publication. The Forum The TESOL Quarterly welcomes questions from readers regarding specific aspects or practices of our profession. Questions will be answered in The Forum section from time to time by members of the profession who have experience related to the questions. Comments on published articles and reviews are also welcome. Comments, rebuttals, and answers should normally be limited to five double-spaced typed pages. 351

Problems in English Grammar Readers are invited to send in questions about English grammar and to participate in the discussion of such questions. Send questions and comments to Ralph Long, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Puerto Rico, Box 13261, St. Petersburg, Florida 33733. Subscriptions The TESOL Quarterly is published in March, June, September, and December. Individual membership in TESOL ($14) includes a subscription to the Quarterly. Subscriptions are not sold without membership. Dues for student memberships are $7 per year. Dues for joint husband and wife memberships are $21. Dues for non-voting institutional memberships (nonprofit institutions and agencies) are $21. Dues for non-voting commercial memberships (publishers and other commercial organizations) are $100. New memberships and renewals are entered on a calendar year basis only. Single copies are $3.50 each. Postage is prepaid on all orders for the U. S.; 50 per year is added for Canada and members of the Pan American Postal Union and $1.00 per year for all foreign countries. Members from such foreign countries who want their Quarterly sent air mail should so specify and add $5 to their annual membership dues. Remittances should be made payable to TESOL by check, money order, or bank draft. Communications regarding orders, subscriptions, single copies and permission to reprint, should be addressed to James E. Alatis, Executive Secretary, 451 Nevils Building, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057.

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TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

Achieving Certification Through a Modified Competency-Based TESL Teacher Education Program*

Harold S. Madsen The widely heralded competency-based approach to teacher education (CBTE) contains pitfalls as well as potential advantages for English as a second language programs. There is a danger that values and humanistic concerns may be neglected in favor of easy-to-measure though perhaps much less significant concrete objectives. But the shared goals of teacher and learner, relevance, practicality, and accountability constitute compelling reasons for granting CBTE a hearing. In Utah, as elsewhere in the nation, ESL programs and competencybased teacher training tended to develop independently. A pioneer CBTE program initiated nearly eight years ago for secondary teachers covered nine areas ranging from instruction to personal development and incorporating over a hundred objectives. When TESL certification was sought from the State Board of Education, instructional competencies were requested as well as a full analysis of ESL needs in the state. In addition to the successful certification process, local modifications in competency-based models lent considerable credibility to the CBTE format. For example, there was a coalescing of the highly fragmented catalog of discrete objectives, and an infusion of values and humanistic elements. Recommendations for TESL programs desiring state certification include identifying ESL needs, collaborating with Colleges of Education, and employing a modified form of competency-based teacher education.

In the United States, competency-based teacher education (CBTE) is one of the most widely discussed educational movements of the post-World War II era. Its single most significant antecedent was the development of performance (or behavioral) objectives. But increasing concern about relevance of instruction and accountability helped generate this reform movement in teacher preparation. Government efforts in educational research and development have been cited as contributing to developments such as micro-teaching and computerized instruction, as well as teacher training that is more systematic and field-oriented. (Rosner and Kay 1974: 290) Though prototypes of CBTE were functioning in the late 1960s, CBTE
* This paper was presented at the 1975 TESOL Convention in Los Angeles, California. The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable research assistance of Margaret Hunter as well as the cooperation and insights provided by various members of the BYU College of Education. Mr. Madsen, Professor of English as a Second Language at Brigham Young University, has written several articles on testing and is author (with James Taylor) of WIN Test of Oral Proficiency in English (California State Department of Public Instruction, 1971). He has served as president of the Intermountain TESOL affiliate from 1973 to 1975.

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was essentially unknown before 1970. In less than three years it was being given official sanction in a third of the states across the country. At that time a sizable majority of the nations teacher preparation institutions were already involved in some aspect of CBTE development or investigation. (Rosner and Kay 1972: 291) CBTE is based on analyses of the competencies and skills required for effective teaching. These competencies are set down prior to instruction and are stated in concrete, behavioral terms. Typically, instructional modules are provided for each competency; and evaluation is criterion referenced based solely on the type and degree of competence required. Programmed or individualized instruction is typical. The time factor is minimized; the CBTE program is completed when one masters the required competencies. Presently the merits of CBTE are being very hotly contested. It is seen by critics as anti-humanistic and anti-intellectual, by proponents as a daring revolution in practical, systematic teacher preparation. This paper examines these pros and cons and looks at a modification of the CBTE model. While competency-based teacher education has been gathering momentum throughout the United States, there has been some hesitancy in the TESOL profession to commit ourselves fully to this new concept. To be sure, many of us share with teachers in other disciplines a concern for greater accountability in education. And realizing the need for more clearly defined teaching goals, many feel that Robert Magers performance objectives make good senseparticularly in SkillS courses where common outcomes can be expected. On the other hand, we have been influenced by our interest in cognitive psychology, which makes us cautious about the extent to which behavioristic models can be applied. The pros and cons of competency-based teacher education. In respect to behavioral objectives, this feeling of caution has been heightened by the position taken by our sister organization, the National Council of Teachers of English:
Resolved, That those who purpose to employ behavioral objectives be urged to engage in a careful appraisal of the possible benefits and the present limitations of English with reference to the humanistic aims which have traditionally been valued in this discipline. And be it further Resolved, That those in the profession who do undertake to write behavioral objectives (a) make specific plans to account for the total English curriculum; (b) make an intention to preserve (and, if need be, fight for) the retention of important humanistic goals of education; and (c) insist on these goals regardless of whether or not there exist instruments at the present time for measuring the desired changes in pupil behavior. (The English Journal 1970: 501)

Many English teachers, such as Hans Guth, have likewise expressed serious reservations if not open hostility concerning the performance objective movement since from their vantage point it asks them for data at a time when many of them are in search of soul. It asks them to make their students perform when many of

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them are concerned with reaching the student. It asks them to administer tailor-made learning sequences at a time when many are concerned with liberating the students locked-in creative and human potential. (Guth 1970: 785-786)

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Guth underscores his point by noting that there are three key ingredients in effective communication: free choice, sensitivity to audience response, and intrinsic satisfaction. None of these, he claims, can be satisfactorily measured statistically. (Guth 1970: 791) In the same vein, Rothstein, arguing for a humanistic approach to goal setting, points out that a quiet student listening to a discussion of Frosts Birches might be affected at some later time; another student could present a clear analysis but might not ever be influenced by what he had read. He concludes that behavioral objectives, far from constituting a progressive step in education, are one of the most reactionary developments to be employed in recent times. (Rothstein 1971: 760-761) A real pitfall of course is the danger of formulating inconsequential objectives. In order for the outcome to be observable and measurable, the teacher is often compelled to focus on trivia. A few years ago one of my students shared with me a delightful satirical piece providing elaborate behavior objectives for postage stamp licking which had been developed by her teacher father and his colleagues who were chafing at being compelled to use this model. On this subject another English teacher charges that behavioral objectives are at best
a kind of elaborate technological metaphor which expresses the concern of some educators for the trivial and inane nature of much of what has been spoken, written and practiced in the name of education. But metaphors, when taken literally and seriously, can lead to inappropriate forms of action. In this respect, the attempt to promote a dogma of behavioral objectives has claimed attention, effort, and revenue which might have been directed into more productive channels. (Liveritte 1974: 52)

Perhaps because it is less concerned with skills development than is TESOL, the NationaI Council of Teachers of English has followed up its 1969 resolution on behavioral objectives with a 1974 resolution on CBTE. Titled, On Discouraging Use of Competency-Based Teacher Education Programs, it is principally opposed to the mandating of CBTE programs as occurred in New York and Texas. The NCTE resolution read as follows:
BACKGROUND: There is at present inadequate research to justify commitment to competency/performance based teacher education ( CBTE ) as the sole format and approach to teacher education in English Language Arts. The failure of its proponents to define CBTE adequately has been raised as a central issue in recent publications of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. CBTE is presently being studied by committees of NCTE and CEE. Be it therefore RESOLVED that until such time as commitment to Competency Based Teacher Education may be warranted, the NCTE officially discourage as premature and inappropriate any legislation or administrative regulation

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which has the effect of mandating CBTE as the exclusive or primary system of education and certification in English Language Arts. (The English Journal 1974: 13-14)

Criticism has come from outside as well as from within departments of English. For example, a searching and scathing review of the competencybased movement has been written by the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A and M. (Maxwell 1974: 306-311.) While the tone of articles in educational journals is generally positve in relation to CBTE, some educators have also expressed serious reservations.1 And recently the New Hampshire Council for Teacher Education issued an Advisory Report which cautioned against wholesale acceptance of CBTE. The Council favored multiple models for teacher education, and while citing half a dozen possible advantages of CBTE spent even more space on the possible disadvantages. It did, however, suggest incorporating positive aspects of CBTE. (PBTE 1975: 1) After sifting through the criticisms of CBTE and reflecting on ESL teacher education needs, one becomes aware of the following problems: There is no consensus and very little hard data available on the scope of competencies required by the well-trained ESL teacher. Not only does the quest to identify competencies result in a staggering catalogue but there is also a tendency to equate the trivial with the significant; knowing how to operate the overhead projector could conceivably count as much as knowing how to relate to a handicapped child. As a profession, we are no longer mesmerized by discrete skills as goals of instruction or as means of evaluation. Sandra Savignon and Christina Paulston remind us that communicative competence is more than mere mastery of structures, sounds, and vocabulary. John Oller is one of many test experts who point out the advantages of measuring language skills in an integrative format rather than in a strictly discrete-point multiple-choice examination with its hundreds of items. Thus competency-based teacher education models, often with hundreds of separate competencies, pose theoretical. and practical difficulties for us. There is not substantial evidence to show that the sum of numerous discrete competencies is equivalent to effective instruction. As in the realm of behavioral objectives, a further handicap in CBTE programs is the fact that competencies are equated with observable, mea1 A New York professor of education cataloged the deficiencies of CBTE at the 1973 meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Elvira R. Tarr, Associate Professor of Education, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, in a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association at New Orleans, February 25 to March 1, 1973; see ERIC No. ED 076 667). A member of the PBTE Project Committee funded by AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) expressed concern that there is no real evidence to show that teachers prepared by this strategy are superior to those trained by other means (Patrick L. Daly, Statement of Special Concern: Appendix B-2, Achieving the Potential of Performance-Based Teacher Education: Recommendations, No. 16 of PBTE Series [Washington, D. C.: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, February 1974], p. 35).

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surable behaviors. Besides the danger of dealing with trivia, this restriction tends to omit difficult-to-measure affective matters involving enjoyment and values. Mager himself warns us away from instructional objectives including words such as to understand, to appreciate, to enjoy, to contrast, to list etc. (Mager 1962: 11) There is the very real possibility that students trained in a CBTE program with its emphasis on performance objectives would be inclined to overlook the beauty of a selection, or matters involving cultural understanding, or value considerations. Such an omission would obviously be very serious. Press accounts point up public concern that schools give attention to morals, values, and ethics. One survey showed that the number of curriculum packages on moral education had more than doubled in the past two years, and the number of graduate school dissertations on moral education jumped from a total of 80 written during the three decades prior to 1970, to an average of 150 per year since 1970. (Christian Science Monitor 1974) From another perspective, CBTE offers a proposal telling us how to facilitate learning but almost nothing about what is worth teaching. (Tarr ERIC No. ED 076 667) There are other difficulties as well: lack of suitable materials and cost of preparing them (Weber State used eleven professors for the better part of a school year to develop their first set of materialsa probable outlay of $150,000 to $200,000). The statistical ambiguity of competency statements has been cited (. . . will answer correctly at least 80% of the items sounds scientific but its true significance depends on item content and level of difficulty). (Quirk 1974: 317) Other problems include the issue of academic freedom when CBTE is mandated, as well as the complaint that there is no unanimity on just what CBTE is (Rosner and Kay 1974: 291). What, then, can be said in favor of competency-based teacher education? Returning to the issue of whether or not to utilize performance objectives, we find some persuasive arguments by TESL specialists in their favor. Three years ago, for instance, Clifford Prator called our attention to the need for them. Identifying the cornerstones of method as the students, the subject matter, and our objectives, he charged that most of us had neglected the latter:
. . . we have tended in the past to attach too little importance to the need for clearly formulated objectives. If half as much time in courses on methods of teaching had been spent in studying the formulation of objectives as has been spent in discussing linguistic and psychological theories, our English instruction might well be a great deal more effective today. What I would urge, then, is that objectives be regarded as an overriding consideration [Prators emphasis], the most important of the three cornerstones of method. (Prator 1972: 60)

He argued that since most TESL objectives are related to skills, the principle of specificity in learning a skill is one of the main reasons for being so concerned about objectives. He indicated that the skills one is teaching should be clearly identified: by naming the behavior we are attempting to

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produce, the conditions under which it is to take place, and even how well the student is expected to perform. (Prator 1972: 61-62) Just as a good argument can be made for properly-selected performance objectives, so competency-based programs include ingredients worthy of our attention. For one thing, a great effort is made to achieve relevance; each element of instruction is weighed in terms of its applicability to improving teacher performance. The emphasis is on the practical and the applied. Priorities are established and appropriate sequencing is effected. Since instructional objectives must be specified in advance, in detail, the student knows exactly what is expected of him. Guesswork is essentially eliminated from instruction and evaluation. Learning efficiency is thereby increased and needless anxiety reduced.2 Another potential advantage is the accountability built into CBTE. The program seeks evaluation based on the performance of its teacher trainees; the latter are to be evaluated either totally or in part on their teaching performance. This promises sounder evaluation than heretofore. A by-product is a closer working relationship between the public schools and professional educators, since the former are so intimately involved in training and evaluation. CBTE permits teachers in training to move at their own pace. Individualization is also fostered by providing some freedom in the order in which studies are pursued and in the selection of competencies. For instance, just over 50 per cent of Brigham Young University teacher education competencies are required of all trainees. The balance are selected according to ones academic major, personal interest, and perceived needs. Finally, there is an emphasis on performancethrough micro-teaching, demonstration techniques and lessons, and in bona fide teaching within the public schools. According to the New Hampshire Council for Teacher Education, the increased emphasis on clinical experience should lead to greater skill acquisition and more relevance for theoretical studies. (PBTE 1975: 1) An early model of competency-based teacher education. ESL teacher preparation and competency-based instruction evolved concurrently but independently in Utah and at Brigham Young University. It was TESL certification that brought the two together in a modified CBTE format. Nearly eight years ago the College of Education at Brigham Young University helped pioneer competency-based teacher education when they created the I-STEP alternative to teacher education (Individualized Secondary Teacher Education Program).3 (Mouritsen 1974: 1) Since then an elementary track
2 We might recall, however, Robert Frosts caution: Something should save the students from thinking they can be given the answer. (Nady 1974: 54) 3 Mr. Mouritsen, Coordinator of Teacher Personnel at the Utah State Board of Education, reports that BYU has probably been in CBTE business as long as any institution in the Nation. Besides his favorable review of BYUs secondary education CBTE effort, he hails the schools competency-based Navajo career opportunity program as one of the most successful in the country.

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and career opportunity programs have been developed utilizing the CBTE format. I-STEP identifies competencies needed for success in teaching. These are published in programmed kit form for the teacher candidate together with instructional experiences. When ready, the student requests evaluation. Among the nine major divisions of the I-STEP program are such areas as personal development, instruction, and classroom management. In the Instruction segment there are thirty-five competencies. These include problem solving, writing behavioral objectives, games in the classroom, using questions, structured tutoring, inquiry teaching, identifying reading levels, and individualized instruction. Each of these includes a goal, detailed statements of instructional objectives, a listing of ideas to be learned, a list of activities, and finally the evaluation activities. For example, in the competency material titled Identifying Reading Levels, two of the instructional objectives are 1. Determine the reading level of at least one class of the students you will student teach. 2. Determine the readability level of at least two of the written materials the students referred to in l above are expected to study. One of the items listed under Ideas to Be Learned indicates that Proper placement in reading materials requires the determination of the individuals independent, instructional, and frustrational reading levels. He must be placed so that he can function at the first two levels. And one of the several Learning Activities makes this request of the student:
Compare the data from your testing and readability efforts in terms of the match between student reading abilities and potential and the likelihood of the reading material satisfying the instructional needs of the students. What does this portend for you as their teacher? (I-STEP

Syllabus 1975:452)

There are 102 I-STEP Objectives or competencies53 required and 49 electives. Approximately 40 per cent are to be completed before student teaching; 37 per cent are finished during student teaching, and the balance before completing the program. Competencies are divided into three areas: knowledge, skills, and student outputs (the latter being student ability as a result of instruction). In addition there are eight quest competencies and seven special activities, including an innovative camp-out and a service project. Even though the I-STEP program has been revised from year to year, a few weaknesses persist. Many feel that the program is somewhat fragmented, that it is difficult to integrate the many competencies. Because it is possible to concentrate solely on I-STEP and to complete professional requirements in one semester, it is regarded by some as the Quickie course in education. Others feel there is excessive repetition from one competency

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to the next; the highly competitive feel that excellence is not sufficiently recognized. But generally the reaction to I-STEP is very favorable. Students report that the program is personalized and that there is good rapport among students and teachers. There seems to be an appropriate integration of theory and practice. I-STEPs flexibility and individualization are widely appreciated. Development of the ESL program. Student requests for English as a second language teacher preparation resulted in a TESL methods course at BYU in 1966. Pressure soon mounted for additional instruction in the discipline. For instance, a number of our 1,200 foreign students from over seventy countries planned to teach English upon returning home. An interdisciplinary TESL Advisory Committee was therefore created. This nine-member group included representatives from English, linguistics, modern languages, the College of Education, Indian education, Language Training Mission, and the Language Research Center. Over a three-year period they formulated a program in English as a second language which included a TESL Graduate Certificate, a TESL MA, and both graduate and undergraduate minors. In identifying the skills needed by prospective ESL teachers, the Advisory Committee cataloged requisite competencies. Letters of inquiry were mailed to universities throughout the United States and Great Britain with ESL teacher training programs. Visits were made to some of these institutions; ERIC and language journals were consulted as well as the TESOL Guidelines on Teacher Education and the TESOL Training Program Directory. The competencies were then grouped and the rationale and instructional objectives for each course prepared. But the resulting TESL offering was not competency based in the current sense of that phrase. The 1970s, however, provided a special environment for CBTE. State certification of TESL required the identification of requisite competencies, and at the same time innovative applications of CBTE were made at BYU in the areas of general education and teacher education. Adapting CBTE for certification. At the beginning of this decade, it became apparent that state recognition of Utah ESL teacher preparation programs would be advisable. The quest for certification was motivated in part by the discovery that none of the teachers providing ESL instruction in a sampling of forty courses around the state had been trained in TESL. Frequent inquiries from teachers regarding what materials to use in TESL and what methodology to employ confirmed the need for TESL preparation and certification. It was anticipated that certification would improve the quality of ESL instruction in the public schools, foster more programs for non-active speakers of English as well as Provide employment for ESL graduates. Initial inquiries to the Utah State Board of Education disclosed an understandable reluctance to provide official recognition of any new program until members were persuaded that there was a genuine need for it which could not be satisfied through existing channels. Moreover, official recogni-

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tion would follow rather than precede the development of teacher training programs on the university level. And negotiations were not to be carried out directly with the State Board but rather, through the College of Education at ones university. Investigation of ESL needs led to cooperation with the states foreignlanguage organization and ultimately to the establishment of the Intermountain TESOL Affiliate. The BYU TESL program was tailored to mesh with the universitys teacher education requirements and to meet the need for administrators and materials developers as well as ESL teachers. Fortunately a liaison had already been established with the College of Educationthe Teacher Clearance Officer having been appointed by his dean to our TESL Advisory Committee. In fact, it was he who finally won a place for the TESL proposal on the crowded agenda of the State Advisory Committee on Teacher Education. Careful preparation went into our September 18, 1973, presentation. Besides giving an overview of the discipline, we explained the rationale for TESL instruction, noting its position in the international marketplace. We called attention to the 46 institutions nationwide that were listed as offering teacher preparation in TESL, and to the TESOL organization with its more than 3,000 members, NAFSAS ATESL, TESL public school offerings, and certification patterns in other states (including Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, and New Mexico). The rationale next dealt with the need for TESL instruction in Utah. Needs in specific districts were referred to, and existing TESL programs were identified. The full BYU TESL offering was outlined as a suggested teacher training format. We concluded with a formal proposal requesting that TESL be approved as an official teaching major and minor on the secondary level with TESL as an area specialization on the elementary. But the State Boards Advisory Committee asked for clarification on a number of points and then requested that they be provided with the number of public school students in the state requiring bilingual instruction as well as a list of the competencies required in the TESL program. Action on our proposal was deferred until the committee received this information. Information for the first request was received from the State Foreign Language Office. Title I project applications from all forty districts provided the following information on minority children in Utah schools:
Spanish American Indians Blacks Orientals Other TOTAL 10,935 5,144 1,495 1,465 65 19,104

While Navajo Indians were estimated to be only 10 to 20 per cent English dominant, those with Spanish surnames were estimated to be 97 per cent

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English dominant; nevertheless, the Director of the Bilingual-Bicultural Consortium of Salt Lake Valley, estimated that 60 to 70 per cent of the Spanish surname group had problems in some area of English. The significance of Utahs ESL needs was now apparent. The last important step in preparing for state recognition of TESL was a presentation of the competencies required by TESL teachers. This enormous task which ideally would involve extensive research into the performance of capable teachers was circumvented by referring to the competencies identified during the development of the program. To illustrate, eight broad competencies were listed in the area of materials selection and development, four in the area of evaluation. One evaluation competency read:
With 90 percent accuracy, TESL graduate students will demonstrate their ability to identify three measures of central tendency; and to compute standard deviation, correlation, percentile ranks, reliability, standard error of measurement, square roots, error analysis, item analysis, and correction for guessing.

A companion competency dealt with applications of these statistics. While these initial competencies were burdened with excessive detail, they demonstrated nevertheless that the ESL program was based on concrete performance objectives. But it must be noted that the program also incorporated difficult-to-measure or unmeasurable affective objectives, thus counteracting one of the principal weaknesses of the total CBTE approach. With the personal endorsement of the dean of the College of Education, the TESL proposal was at last approved. In a communication dated January 18, 1974, the Utah State Board of Education announced that TESL had been approved as a teaching major and minor. Two developments within the university likewise contributed to a modified competency-based approach. A massive overhaul of general education to be implemented in January 1976 utilizes competency-based concepts. Students will be prepared in three areas: first, basic skills, including all communication skills, mathematics, and physical fitness; second, the natural and physical world, humanities and fine arts, and social systems; and third, rigorous intensive experience in a selected area such as foreign languages or statistics. Credit for all segments is granted for competency and not for logging hours in a course. Tutoring, courses, self-instruction through programmed materialsare all legitimate avenues; evaluation is worked out by area specialists in cooperation with instructional design experts and test experts. Students can challenge any segment through competency exams and carefully worked out activities and projects which evidence proficiency. The second development is the thorough revamping by the College of Education of its CBTE program. In the future, competencies will be much more fully integrated (something in the neighborhood of 20 instead of the present 102). A great deal of flexibility will be introduced into the ways in which students acquire competency. Also, prospective teachers will enter the public schools very early in their program and much more attention

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will be given to their students performance. Pupil attitude and achievement will constitute important segments of the evaluation, but the threepart division of knowledge, skills, and pupil outcome will continue. Probably the most significant change is a major incorporation of value elements despite the virtual impossibility of immediate evaluation. Those TESL students desiring to certify may now do so through the flexible ESL-education teacher preparation program. A result of state certification efforts and institutional initiatives, the new combination provides a humanistic modification of the systematic CBTE model. Similar adaptations are recommended for other TESL programs for which state education approval is sought. Our experience in Utah suggests the following three steps: (1) Demonstrate convincingly the states need for TESL and bilingual instruction; (2) Cooperate at all stages with the College of Education at ones institution; (3) Finally, consider incorporating competency-based instruction. Strengths of CBTE minus the limitations cited earlier can be enjoyed by creating a modified competency-based teacher education program.
REFERENCES AACTE Committee on Performance-Based Teacher Education. 1974. Achieving the potential of performance-based teacher education: recommendations. PBTE Series, No. 16. Washington, D. C., American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. 1972. Performance-based teacher education: an annotated bibliography. PBTE Series, No. 7. Washington, D. C., American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. 1969. Recommended standards for teacher education: The accreditation of basic and advanced preparation programs for professional school personnel, ERIC No. ED 034744. Airasian, Peter W. 1971. Behavioral objectives an the teacher of English. The English Journal, 60, 495-499. Andrews, Theodore E. 1973. Atlanta or Atlantis: PBTE and state implementation. Journal of Teacher Education, 24, 200204. 1972. Certification issues in competency-based teacher education, Educational Technology, 12, 43-45. Banathy, Belah H. 1968. The design of foreign language teacher education. The Modern Language Journal, 52, 490-500. Burke, Caseel. 1972. The individualized, competency-based system of teacher education at Weber State College. PBTE Series, No. 2. Washington, D. C., American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Can schools teach ethics, The Christian Science Monitor (December 23, 1974). Competency-based teacher education (November 1972), ERIC No. ED 076 518. Crosbie, Keith et al. 1972. Foreign language teacher education in 1971: A position paper, ERIC No. ED 066 989. Darcy, C. Michael. 1974. Three stages in the development of CBTE, Phi Delta Kappan, 55, 325-327. Dodl, Norman R. 1973. Selecting competency outcomes for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 24, 194-199. Elfenbein, Iris M. 1972. Performance-based teacher education programs: A comparative description, ERIC No. ED 067 390. Gay, Lorraine R. and K. Fred Daniel. 1972. Accreditation and performance-based teacher education, Educational Technology, 12, 45-50. Gazzetta, Vincent C. 1972. New York State and certification by competency, ERIC No. ED 074 511. Grinder, Robert E. 1970. Flexibility and sequence: Educational psychology and the training of teachers, ERIC No. ED 040 937.

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Guth, Hans P. 1970. The monkey on the bicycle: Behavioral objectives and the teaching of English, The English Journal, 785-792. Houston, W. R. 1973. Designing competency-based instructional systems, Journal Of Teacher Education, 24, 200-204. Howsam, Robert B. 1974. Competency-based preparation, certification, and developmentthe state leadership role, Faculty lecture at Brigham Young University by the dean of the College of Education, University of Houston. 1972. Competency-based teacher education: Progress, problems, and prospects, W. Robert Houston, ed., ERIC No. ED 074 017. I-STEP Syllabus. 1975. Provo, Utah, Brigham Young University. Kirst, Michael W. 1973. Issues in governance for performance-based teacher education. PBTE Series, No. 13. Washington, D. C., American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Liveritte, Rudy H. 1974. Getting clear about behavioral objectives. The English Journal, 63, 46-52. Mager, Robert F. 1962. Preparing instructional objectives. Palo Alto, California, Fearon Publishers, Inc. Maxwell, W. David. 1974. PBTE: A case of the emperors new clothes. Phi Delta Kappan, 55, 306-311. May, Frank B. 1972. Some practical suggestions for developing competency-based, independent-study modules for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 23, 155-160. McDonald, Frederick. 1974. The national commission on performance-based education, Phi Delta Kappan, 55, 296-298. McHenry, Vere A. (Administrator, Division of Instructional Support Services, Utah State Board of Education). 1974. Acceptable majors, minors, and composite majors for teaching education in Utah public secondary schools, Memorandum to all Deans in Colleges and Schools of Education and to Members of the State Advisory Committee on Teacher Education [TESL approval]. Mouritsen, Roger C. 1974. Competency-based teacher education and certification activities in Utah. PBTE (Published by the Multi-State Consortium on PerformanceBased Teacher Education), 3, 1-2. Nady, Henry D., Jr. 1974. Some behavioral objectives for teachers. The English Journal, 63, 53-56. Norris, William E. 1972. Teacher qualifications and preparation: Guideline for TESOL/US, ERIC No. ED 060 698. On discouraging use of competency-based teacher education programs, A Resolution passed by the National Council of Teachers of English at the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting, 1974 (forwarded from Edmund Farrell, Associate Executive Secretary, NCTE to Hugh Baird, Brigham Young University, January 31, 1975). On the need for caution in the use of behavioral objectives in the teaching of English. The English Journal, 59 (April 1970), 501. Performance-based teacher education: An advisory report by the New Hampshire Council for Teacher Education, March 1974, PBTE (Published by the Multi-State Consortium on Performance-Based Teacher Education), 3 (January 1975), 1. Prator, Clifford H. 1972. Objectives in TEFL/TESL. UCLA Workpapers, 6, 59-65. Proposal to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for developing an individualized, performance-based, teacher education program (1969), ERIC No. ED 040 139. Purves, A. C. 1970. Of behaviors, objectives, and English. The English Journal, 59, 793797. Quirk, Thomas J. 1974. Some measurement issues in competency based teacher education. Phi Delta Kappan, 55, 316-319. Rosner, Benjamin and Patricia M. Kay. 1974. Will the promise of C/PBTE be fulfilled? Phi Delta Kappan, 55, 290-295. Roth, Robert A. 1972, Performance-based teacher certification: A survey of the states, ERIC No. ED 070 753. Rothstein : Herbert M. 1971. A humanistic approach to behavioral objectives. The Enghsh Journal, 60, 760-762. Schmieder, Allen A. 1973. Competency-based education: The state of the scene, ERIC No. ED 070 753.

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Shearron, Gilbert F. and Charles E. Johnson. 1973. A CBTE program in action: University of Georgia. Journal of Teacher Education, 24, 194-199. Statement of qualifications and guidelines for preparation of teachers of English to speakers of other languages in the United States (June 1971), ERIC No. ED 054 653. Sybouts, Ward. 1973. Performance-based teacher education: Does it make a difference? Phi Delta Kappan, 54, 303-304. Tarr, Elvira R. 1973. Some philosophical issues in competency-based teacher education, Paper presented at American Educational Research Association annual meeting, New Orleans, ERIC No. ED 076 667. VAE pre-certification teacher education program: Competencies and performance objectives (September 1972), ERIC No. ED 076 747. Waimon, Morton D., Dennis D. Bell, and Gary C. Ramseyer. 1972. The effects of competency-based training on the performance of prospective teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 23, 237-245. Weber, Wilford A. and James M. Cooper. 1972. Competency-based teacher education: A scenario. ERIC No. ED 063 273. Wight, Warland D. 1974. Obtaining competence with competencies: A case study in higher education. Educational Technology, 14, 46-48.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

More Understanding and Appreciation: Learning for Mastery in a Literature Course

Virginia Ann Fadil This paper is the description of a pilot course in Mastery Learning in a survey course in English literature at the Beirut University College in Beirut, Lebanon. The course was designed to increase the retention of knowledge and skills of students of another culture, utilizing the lecturediscussion method and the mastery learning concepts. Examinations were given to groups a year after they had taken the course. The results revealed that the groups taught by the mastery method did significantly better on multiple-choice, fill-ins and essay questions demanding the techniques of analysis. Also included are the results of student course evaluations which show that students liked the Mastery Learning method better than the traditional lecture-discussion techniques, particularly in courses which cover large amounts of content.

For the instructor of the social sciences and the natural and physical sciences, there is a growing body of literature documenting the efficacy of various types of programs which utilize individualized instruction. In his now historic paper, Learning for Mastery, Benjamin Bloom stated that given the time, maturation, and assistance, 95 per cent of students can attain mastery of a subject. (Bloom 1968: 14 ) The instructor of the humanities has little evidence and no major studies to demonstrate that a systemized approach to mastery learning is a viable educational concept in a college course in English literature. After studying the available literature about mastery learning, none of which was on English literature, I decided to plan with a group of students in another culture a mastery course in English. The purpose of this paper is to describe and show the results of a pilot study in learning for mastery approach that was conducted from 197274 at the Beirut University College in Beirut, Lebanon.
Description of the Pilot Study

Most of the students at the Beirut University College speak English as a second or a third language; but there are quite a few native speakers of English who attend the College. English Literature at Beirut was taught essentially in a traditional manner: a list of readings in a chronological sequence using an anthology of
Ms. Fadil is Assistant Professor of English and Assistant Dean for Academic Development at Beirut University College, Beirut, Lebanon. She is currently on leave and is finishing a doctorate in higher education at Southern Illinois University, where she has a Special Doctoral Assistantship.

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English literature, a dictionary of literary terms, and a literary history of England as texts. The class hours included formal lectures and discussion periods (which more often than not turned into informal lectures). Forty hours of the forty-five hours in a semester tended to be teacher-centered instruction. Even after designing the syllabus for hour-by-hour preparation, the students rarely were ready to enter into a discussion more than twentyfive per cent of the time. The results of tests and examinations seldom varied the first three years. A class would start with a twenty-five point adjustment in order to establish a normal curve and by the end of each semester, usually the adjustment would be thirteen points on a test designed for one-hundred points. Each test demanded the student to be able to classify information, to give definitions, to extract examples of literary types, and, finally, to be able to analyze quotations utilizing their acquired knowledge and skills. Those who were able to analyze upon entering the course improved, but those who could not analyze upon entering had not improved significantly upon leaving. The major problem of many of these students was to learn to apply their skills. It also was observed that students who did poorly in this course continued to do poorly in their other courses in English literature. Upon closer study, it was found that although the language problem presented some difficulties, American and British students also tended to have the same difficulties in application and analysis. With this assessment in mind, I studied the little available literature on mastery learning in English literature at the college level. An article by Kenneth B. Woodbury, Jr. concerning his application of the systems approach to a course in Western Civilization (Woodbury, Jr. 1971: 72-83) was helpful, but it seemed better to go directly to Blooms Taxonomy (Bloom 1956), the Handbook on Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning (Bloom, Hastings, Madaus 1971) and the Keller Plan or the Personalized System of Instruction developed by J. G. Sherman and Fred S. Keller (Keller 1968). During the fall of 1972, about eight students joined with me in designing the course which would be taught for the first time in the spring semester. The class that was in session was tapped for their ideas, and since they would be the initial experimental group I felt that they would be best able to assess the difference between the traditional and the mastery course. In designing the course these assumption were made: 1. Students should be permitted to contract for a desired level of mastery. 2. Given the time and the opportunity, 95% of the students could attain an A (Bloom 1968). 3. The levels and kinds of knowledge (in addition to the competence required) ought to be specified. 4. Students who had attained such competence in any unit should be permitted to test out and move on. 5. Students should be permitted to work independently; in other

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words, there ought to be alternative ways of learning other than attendance in class. Using a pre-test, I found that few students had knowledge of any literary terms, genres, or of literary history. I already knew that few students could analyze or truly appreciate English literature, since their language and cultural background (primarily Arabic) was so different. In order to fully appreciate literature, the particular language styles in addition to cultural history must form a part of this background. The major problem was how could class sessions be turned into discussion sessions in a course where there was so little information or such limited analytical skills? One solution that the planning group presented was the concept of a total course organized in prepared units with lectures taped and available to the student to use outside of class. Then student knowledge could be assumed, and there would not be the pressure in class discussions to cover material. The course was divided into ten units, five units per semester based upon literary periods and the class time taken for each unit in the traditionally taught course. The goals of the whole course and the required competencies were set up as follows: Goals and Purposes 1. That the student will gain understanding of specific literary movements, genres, recurrent themes and styles in English literature from the Old English through the Modern Period in an historical context. 2. That the student will gain an appreciation of the variety and richness of English literature. Rationale A student with a general background in English literature will be able to gain more insight into specific areas of literary study by being able to place these area studies within the historical and cultural context of a long tradition. The introduction of genres into the course will allow the student to trace development of literary forms. The grades of C, B, and A are based on an increasing ability to analyze and interpret literature while a competency in definition, recall, and recognition is required for all grade levels. Analysis and interpretation are recognized as more difficult knowledge skills, and, therefore, more competence in these areas is required for students contracting for B and A grades. Since the course was a survey course, the level of knowledge in each unit remained stable. In other words, the course was not developmental since a 90% competency in the Renaissance unit would not mean a 90% competency on the Old English unit. Therefore, the competency for each student for each unit remained stable in recall, definition and recognition. However, since English literature itself becomes richer and more various

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as it develops, the units become increasingly difficult over the year in terms of historical and literary relationships to be made in relation to the whole tradition. A research paper was required for the A grade, but alternatives were allowed. For example, some students would choose to do a group project; a few chose to write a poem or a short story in imitation of a particular author. Among American students, there were some papers involving comparative studies. One British student wrote a paper comparing The Wife of Bath and The Female Eunuch on the question of womens liberation. Another student wrote an imitation of The Lady of Shalott. Topical questions appeared more frequently as class discussions became more open. A few Americans became interested in war poetry; one student wrote about the symbolic significance of games in Popes Rape of the Lock and Eliots Wasteland. A grade of Incomplete was permitted in this course, but redefined to allow those students who were progressing, but who could not finish by the end of a semester, to complete the course at their own rate. Each unit was self-contained, although later units demanded the background of earlier units. A unit contained the specific objectives, the syllabus of readings, or recordings, films or performances available, the lectures on tape given by the instructor or other specialists, a list of discussion questions for class, test items to be researched, and sample quotations for interpretation. Students could expect to receive a random sampling of the test items on any unit test. Quotations, however, were taken from any of the readings. Testing was continuous. A student would be retested as many times as needed to achieve the desired competency. A student could take sections of the test separately if he chose to do so. For example, several students preferred to achieve competency in the knowledge areas of the tests before attempting the analysis and interpretation section which required the competency of the first two units. The students read the text, listened to the lectures, and attended class discussions. Concurrently, they worked through the unit which was designed to gradually develop their analytical and interpretive skills. One of the assumptions made while writing the course units was that the students were not native speakers of English, nor were they sensitive to its traditions. Even though many students had been part of the TESOL program previous to their college courses, those students who were interested in literature would need more cultural background in order to read perceptively. Therefore, styles of figurative language, ways of thinking, the impact of historical events upon the English nation, and the outside influences upon English people as they applied to literary history were included. I found that most of the American students who took this course also were not aware of the tradition, nor were they able on the pre-test to analyze literary quotations for stylistic techniques.

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During the first semester, I decided to allow the students to live up to their responsibilities without any prodding from the instructor. They could take tests anytime they chose, attend class if they chose, etc. with the agreement that the course was designed for completion within fifteen weeks, and that most students could finish the course in that time. In other words, the course was student-paced. I was aware of some of the problems that would be encountered when the students were given total responsibility for their learning for the first time. Sidney Blacks description of the organization of the humanities program at Boston College was helpful, for the program allowed for the learning of prescribed content as well as student creativity and responsibility (Black 1971). However Kenneth Brufee pointed out that Blacks program did not allow for student evaluation of work (Brufee 1972), which was to be an important aspect of the mastery course. The course gave the student experience in continuous self-evaluation in addition to student evaluation of the clarity of the units, the lectures, and the learning methods utilized. In spite of the fact that 95% of the students found the learning units clear and stated that they were aware of their responsibilities, many students simply fell behind in their work. As a result a certain group of students had to work over a short period of time to complete the course work, and many of them recontracted for lower grades because they simply could not make the standard in a short period of time; yet they did not want an Incomplete grade in the course. At the end of the first semester the class met to discuss the results of the course and to suggest changes which should be made in the design. They were satisfied with the course design and the grade contract. They preferred to recontract because the decision to recontract was theirs and not the instructors. In other words, they enjoyed and appreciated much of the responsibility given to them.
Evaluation of the Pilot Study

To establish that mastery learning was effective in humanities courses, the evaluation would have to take place in cognitive terms as well as affective performance. The ability to read and analyze literature in addition to developing a basic knowledge of technical literary terms and of literary periods was necessary for the cognitive area; appreciation and a personal realization of the value of literature would have to be assessed on an affective level. One way of assessing whether or not the knowledge area of the course was more effective than the traditional method was to give recall tests. Therefore, available students who had taken the traditional course in Survey of English Literature in Spring, 1971, were called in to take the final examination again a year later, and the first and second mastery groups were recalled to take the final examinations in Spring, 1973, and Spring, 1974, respectively. (These groups are labeled T (traditional group), Ml (first

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mastery group), M2 (second mastery group). The following is a table of the results. The results are listed in three parts: I. multiple-choice questions, II. fill-in questions, and III. quotations to identify and analyze. As can be seen from Table 1 below, the first mastery group achieved a significantly higher mean score54.35%, and the second mastery group scored even higher65%, than the traditional group. The difference between the two mastery scores can be attributed to the significant difference between the results on the analysis and interpretation sections: 23% in 1973 and 68% in 1974. I conclude that the main reason for this change was the redesign of the course after the first semester. When the course was totally student-paced, many students did not keep up with their work. After the first semester the course was altered so that there could be modified pacing by the instructor. The students still could progress at their own pace, but they had to take tests at weekly intervals. The results of this modification in the course was clearly evident in the second recall examination, for all of the students in the second mastery group worked at a steady and consistent pace, and, therefore, seemed to retain more of their learning. As Table 1 shows, the recall tests were highly significant in showing that students retained more of their knowledge than the traditional group in addition to their skills in analysis and interpretation. Although the test groups were good samples of the type of student who tended to take the course, the number of students tested is really too small to arrive at any definite conclusions. The results of the recall tests, however, do indicate that more study of this change in mastery learning courses in literature should occur. In addition to recall tests, questionnaires were devised for students to anonymously evaluate both the cognitive and affective areas of the course. One of the most important aspects of the affective evaluation was to include areas of receiving, responding, valuing and organizing (Bloom, Hastings, Modaus 1971: 22833). Some of the affective evaluation was developed informally through class discussion; but formal and informal questionnaires were developed also to be presented to the groups at the termination of the course. (See Tables 2 and 3 following.) Table 2 presents a summary of a formal evaluation questionnaire which students filled out at the end of the course. This questionnaire involved evaluating cognitive and affective goals in addition to the method of instruction used. The results of the questionnaire indicated students felt that the cognitive and affective goals were achieved. During the first year those who moved from the traditional to the mastery method felt that they learned more with this approach in 96% of the cases. In Spring, 1973, many of the students mentioned that they could not imagine how the course could be taught traditionally, for they did not have the chance to compare the two methods. Whereas the first group thought that they worked harder in 83% of the cases, the second mastery group felt that they worked harder in only

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TABLE 2 Summary of Formal Student Evaluation Questionnaires in Survey of English Literature (1972-1973) % 1973 % 1972 lst Mastery 2nd Mastery Group Group 1. One goal of this course was that the student will gain an understanding of specific literary movements, genres and recurrent themes and styles in English literature from the Restoration through the Modern Periods in an historical context. Was the major goal of the course accomplished a. Yes b. No c. Partially 2. The second major goal was That the student will gain an appreciation of the variety and richness of English literature. Was this goal accomplished? a. Yes b. No c. Partially 3. Have you learned more with this approach to learning than you would have in the traditional lecture-discussion course? a. Yes b. No c. Not certain 4. Have you worked harder in this course than in courses where more traditional methods are use? a. Yes b. No c. About the same 5. Have you become more responsible in your learning as a result of the methods used in this course? a. Yes b. No c. About the same 6. Do you prefer contracting for a grade? a. Yes b. No c. Sometimes 7. I would like to take another course utilizing this method of teaching and learning. a. Yes b. No c. Undecided 8. Those of You who have taken Survey of English Literature 4227 in which the traditional method was used, which approach do you prefer? a. 4227traditiona1 b. 4228mastery learning method

a. 100 b. 0 c. 0

a. 100 b. 0 c. 0

a. 100 b. 0 c. 0

a. 96.70 b. 0 c. 3.30

a. 95.84 b. 0 c. 4.16

a. 77.42 b. 0 c. 22.58

a. 83.34 b. 4.16 c. 12.50

a. 70 b. 10 c. 20

a. 72.73 b. 4.56 c. 22.71 a. 83.34 b. 8.33 c. 8.33

a. 83.78 b. 9.77 c. 6.45 a. 74.19 b. 6.45 c. 19.36

a. 100 b. 0 c. 0

a. 90.33 b. 6.45 c. 3.22

a. 6.25 b. 93.75

a. 0 b. 100

COLLEGE LITERATURE COURSE TABLE 2 (Continued)

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dicated that they would like to take more courses utilizing the mastery method. Most of the students indicated a high level of interest in continuing to read after the course was over, and one of the best indications of their enjoyment of the course was indicated in question ten where over 95% responded that they would recommend this course to a friend. Table 3 below was an informal checklist submitted to students toward the end of the course. The groups were asked to check as many or as few statements that applied to their experience in the course. Questions 1, 2, and 11 received the highest response, and indicated that the cognitive and affective goals of the course were achieved. Discussion of the Mastery Method 1. More Time for Individual Attention. Student progress had to be charted in order to allow for constant and accurate feedback to students as they progressed through the course. Student assistants kept up charts and made test dates for individual students, and also assisted in the grading of the objective sections of the unit tests. My time was reserved for advice, counseling and discussion sections. 2. Impact of Grade Contract and Continuous Testing. Students enjoyed contracting for a grade in a humanities course. Although many students eventually had to recontract for a lower grade, most students expressed their satisfaction in making their own decisions. Grades were much higher than in the traditional course. Whereas less than 40% of the students received A or B in the traditional course, over 85% of the students taking the mastery course achieved grades of A or B. Whereas 25% of the students in the traditional course received D or F grades, no one achieved less than C (15%) grade in the mastery course. In Spring, 1973, when the mastery course was first taught, 80% of the students who took the traditional course during the fall achieved higher grades in the mastery course. 3. Class Discussion. The course which had been bound in by the lecture truly became a discussion course. Students discuss questions on readings provided for them in their units either in a large group or in smaller groups in the classroom. Learning has naturally become more of a collaborative adventure as Brufee (Brufee 1973: 634-43) has recommended, and the instructor is viewed as a resource rather than the compendium of all knowledge. Although the discussions are structured to cover readings, the discussion sessions have been extended to comparing an authors experience with the students present experience. Through these discussions, students learned more about each other, and some requested occasionally to do projects together. Several groups of students joined together to study the units, and found that they could learn and research more easily through collaborative effort. 4. Increase in Course Enrollment. One of the questions cm the course eval-

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uation (see Table 2) was: Would you recommend the plan to a friend? The response was highly positive in the evaluations, and has been borne out in terms of enrollment. In Fall, 1971, there were eighteen students, most of whom were English majors although the course was open as a general elective. When the mastery experiment was announced in the Spring of 1972, twenty-four students enrolled in the course; six of these students elected the course. In Spring of 1973, thirty-three students were enrolled; about one-third of these students had, elected the course. In two years, the course enrollment had nearly doubled, and students were willing to elect a course in English literature more readily than they had in the past. In fact, at our College where enrollment is falling generally in the humanities, it has been rising in this particular English literature course. 5. Student and Teacher Responsibility. Students agree that they work much harder, but with more enjoyment. The students, however, seem to prefer some scheduling on the part of the teacher; and they need encouragement in terms of instructor-paced deadlines in order to keep up with their learning. James S. Cooper has recently reported about a study in individualized instruction which he calls contingency management, where student reactions to their work were similar. (Cooper 1973: 217233) The preparation of the learning units took about six months to write, and the constant updating or revision of units, taped lectures, etc. at least two months a year. Tests, of course, must constantly be revised. However, once the course is in session, the teacher has more free time to spend with the students since the units, lectures and tests are all prepared, and much of the testing and grading can be done by student assistants. To prepare such a course, an instructor would need released time or be prepared to give up a minimum of two full summers as I did.
REFERENCES Black, Sidney J. 1971. Utopia as reality. College English, 33, 3, 304-316. Bloom, Benjamin S. 1968. Learning for mastery, Evaluative Comment 1. Center for the Study of Evaluation of Instructional Programs, U.C.L.A., 1-4. Bloom, Benjamin S. ed. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, Longmans, Green. Bloom, Benjamin S., J. T. Hastings, George F. Madaus. 1971. Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co. Brufee. Kenneth A. 1973. Collaborative learning: some practical models. College English, 34, 5,634-643. Brufee, Kenneth A. 1972. The way out: a critical survey of innovations in college teaching, with social reference to the December 1971 issue of CE. College English, 33, 4, 457-470. Cooper, James L. 1973. Learning theory and effective instruction. The Journal of Higher Education, XIV, 3, 217-233. Keller, Fred S. 1968. Goodbye teacher. . . . Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, 1, 79-89. Woodbury, Jr., Kenneth B. 1971. Systems approach to Western civilization. Junior College Journal, 41, 6,72-83.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

Peer-Mediated Instruction and Small-Group Interaction in the ESL Classroom

James J. Kohn and Peter G. Vajda The recent trends in teaching English as a second language have required modifications of existing methods and techniques which traditionally have been prescribed in our classrooms. With recent innovations in methods, ESL instructors are continually searching for approaches and techniques which will lead from large-scale drill-oriented lessons, which have long been associated with the audio-lingual behaviorists, to more individualized learning. The search for alternatives has brought ESL teachers to look for ways in which self-directed learning and individualization can be more effectively employed in the ESL classroom. The authors suggest that small-group interaction is one way in which students can benefit more positively from their experiences in ESL classes. Peermediation, an approach whereby students take the responsibility for learning from and teaching one another, is presented as a realistic and practical innovation. The authors present a rationale for this approach which is based on actual classroom situations in which smallgroup, peer-mediated instruction is utilized. Suggestions for implementation of the approach and a list of expected behaviors on the part of instructors and students are presented and an actual sample class module is offered.

Recent trends in the teaching of ESL have led away from the drill-forautomation precept of the audio-lingual method to a more cognitive-oriented style of teaching and learning, in which the students perception of new linguistic elements introduced by the teacher proceeds along with learning. But the problem teachers have found in teaching non-audio-lingual classes is making the transition from controlled exercises to decontrolled exercises in natural language situations. As a result, many teachers have felt cast adrift, not knowing how to choose class activities which will lead students from repetition through manipulation to meaningful communication. ESL teachers, concerned with cognitive styles of teaching and students transition to meaningful use of language, are interested in individualized instruction. As student populations have changed in their linguistic and social backgrounds, the needs and motivations of the students have changed accordingly. The result is that increasing numbers of students and teachers seek learning situations in which students can proceed at their own pace, thus freeing the teacher to devote time to students who have the greatest need for formal instruction.
Mr. Kohn and Mr. Vajda are both assistant professors at the American Language Institute, New York University, where Mr. Kohn is the Coordinator of the Day Comprehensive ESL Program and Mr. Vajda is an instructor of ESL.

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One of the persistent difficulties which ESL teachers encounter in their courses results from the following irony: students perform well as a result of the guided and semi-guided stimuli, but seem to waver when they are on their own without any direct stimuli. Some teachers discount the problem of wavering in non-guided situations, incorrectly assuming that performance in guided situations adequately reflects students progress. The basic difficulty here is that the instructor is glossing over the symptom of a problem, rather than attacking the problem itself. The teacher has decided that the quality of responses to controlled stimuli is more important than the quality of responses in situations where students must make decisions and manipulate language for themselves. We feel that unguided responses should take precedence over guided responses if students are to become effective communicators. Since the classroom cannot be divorced from reality, students should start from the very beginning to initiate, develop and manipulate language, a task which they are forced to do in their own community and vocational environments. One of the most effective and efficient ways to give students opportunities to communicate in free and open situations in ESL classes is through the use of paired or small group (3 persons) activities. We propose a system of teaching which combines inductive teaching, progression from controlled to decontrolled activities and individualized instruction. As will be demonstrated below, many facets of the system are familiar to ESL teachers who have kept pace with recent developments in ESL teaching. The essential additional factor is the use of peer-mediated instruction. Peer-mediated instruction we take to mean any classroom activity in which the students are respondents, informed sources or monitors for each other. Peer-mediated activities typically are those in which students work together in pairs or in small groups on controlled or decontrolled activities. In some activities, one of the students has the correct answers and checks the accuracy of his or her partner(s). In others, the group works as a unit to produce responses: an utterance, a sentence or a paragraph. The teachers role in these activities is essentially that of a counselor, monitor and prescriber. He or she points out errors, fields questions, conducts short drills for individuals or suggests additional activities. The ultimate essential we are looking for in our classes is participation in communication. Language learning should not be a passive activity. Our use of texts, materials, methods, approaches and techniques therefore should allow for maximum performance to insure that instructional programs will lead to a more communicative and communicating student. Group activities in peer-mediated classes provide students with numerous opportunities for oral, aural, written and reading language development through relying on and receiving information and assistance from their peers and should also serve to emphasize to the students the importance of their participation in the classroom work. Group activity simulates a more natural setting in which the students can manipulate language with

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students of varying competency and performance capabilities. Heterogeneity in groups serves to foster interaction. Those students of lesser ability are learning while those of greater ability are teaching and using what they have already internalized and now need to practice. Since English is the medium of communication, the group work should stimulate the participants and motivate them toward greater use of English in meaningful contexts. In peer-mediated situations, students are required to use greater self-expression, real self-expression. They help and learn from each other. A positive ambience is developed which overcomes feelings of inferiority and develops a more positive self-image and identity. Thus, peer teaching, modeling and correction are the catalysts to greater and more meaningful student performance. Where does all this leave the instructor? In order to insure the effectiveness of small-group interaction, the ESL instructor must see himself in a somewhat different light than before. The instructor must relinquish the role of the great prescriber. Once group interaction begins, the instructor is freed to move about from group to group, monitoring and attending to individual or small group needs as they arise. The instructor now becomes an assistant, attending to students learning and managing the classroom process. The instructor sets the objectives, but the enabling activities are the responsibility of the students. It now becomes the students obligation to insure that the required behavior is elicited from each other. Applying Peer-Mediated Instruction to a Sample Class As an introduction to peer-mediated classroom methods and techniques, let us review a sample class in which we have found success with these activities. The class is composed of adults of various language backgrounds who have been grouped together according to scores on an initial placement exam. The class meets three times each week, for periods of two or three hours. The school is located in an urban university, where tuition fees are somewhat higher than at public institutions offering language classes. The students motivations for learning standard English are positive, involving establishing themselves in their community, vocational and academic environments. There are fifteen students in the class. Because the class is part of a university-oriented school, the students are expected to stay together for one academic semester, i.e. fifteen weeks. During the course of those fifteen weeks, individual students progress at different rates. If the school were set up according to a modular program, or if the different classes of the school could be reassembled at intervals of a few weeks, these differences could be accommodated. But generally, this school, like most other such language schools across the country, keeps classes intact throughout the entire academic semester. The problem, then, is to provide the best, most relevant instruction within this limitation. We shall examine three areas of teaching in which techniques of peer-

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mediated instruction can be adopted: oral production, reading and writing. We shall conclude with a brief discussion of ways in which existing classroom procedures can be modified to allow for peer-mediated instructional activities. Setting the Mood Before totally immersing the class in group interaction activities, the teacher should understand the behavior expected of him or her and should also explain the behavior that the students should expect of each other. We offer a list of considerations which may help the teacher and the students to understand peer-mediation followed by methods and procedures which should be typical of teacher planning for the peer-mediated classroom. Considerations of structure: (1) Plan and structure the course informally within the parameters of ESL educational objectives. (2) Maximize informal work and group work within the limits set for a particular lesson, class, day, month, session, etc. (3) Meet objectives while allowing for greater freedom in group work. (4) Structure individual and classroom activity loosely. Interpersonal considerations: (1) Maximize the opportunity for students to learn from each others mistakes. (2) Maintain an informal classroom atmosphere. (3) Maintain an informal relationship with students. The teacher needs to understand that flexibility and the free flow of movement are dominant characteristics of the classroom. After the first few meetings, depending on the length of each class, the teacher advises the students that they are going to be divided into small groups and that 80% of their work will be done in small-group interaction situations. During the first classes, the teacher assesses the competence and performance levels of his students with a view to dividing the class into groups of twos and threes. On the basis of this assessment, he or she decides who would work well with whom on the basis of age, language ability and motivation. We would suggest that one slower student should be put with two average or able students. This will permit the slower ones to learn in the process and permit the faster students to use what they are learning in helping the slower students, thus internalizing and performing at the same time. The most important steps the teacher must take, if small-group interaction is to work, are to set the tone positively, to articulate why groups are used, to tell the students of their responsibilities and obligations con-

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cerning group work, and to explain the manner in which assessment and evaluation will be undertaken. The following suggestions may be of some help in explaining the concept of group work to the students: (1) Students have to associate with others outside class in Englishdominant vocational and community settings. There is no reason why the same should not hold for classroom situations. (2) Though students understand the teacher well, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand each other. But the teacher isnt there when students are in their own environment. Also, the English they hear will not always be the correct English that they hear their teacher using. Therefore, students should be more cognizant of their particular speech habits and should understand that the listener is very important in the communication act. Hopefully, this will encourage them to attend to what they are saying as well as how they are saying it, or writing it. (3) For the most part, after the groups have been chosen, they are nonchargeable. That is, nationality, sex, age or ability differences should not constitute a reason for change. In their jobs, for example, students have to work with other personalities and must try to get along with their colleagues. So it is with the groups. However, should a student still wish to change groups, the instructor should discuss it, consider it and make the decision with the student, giving him or her the reasons for or against the change. (4) Students are responsible for the well-being of their groups. They are completely dependent upon each other for the smooth flow and continuity of their group. They should each, for example, get the telephone number of one of the students in the group. Since the work of the group might depend on the homework lesson of the previous day, the work of a group could come to a standstill if a student is absent and doesnt find out what is to be done for the next day. (5) Students need to recognize and help develop a sense of worth in all the members of their group. A student should, for example, develop the ability to help another make corrections when he or she believes that person has made an error (in structure, morphology or vocabulary). When what is correct is in doubt, the consensus of the group will usually be acceptable. If the members of the group cannot agree, then the instructor can give or assist in giving the correct answer. But students must be encouraged to depend on each other as much as possible. This might be somewhat difficult at first, but eventually it will come. After working in groups, students begin to see themselves as individuals with responsibility for insuring effective communication and continuity in the group. Each one is depended upon to cooperate, participate, initiate and assume a share of the responsibility for the success not only of self but also of the group.

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Oral Production Lessons. Oral production exercises usually form the backbone of ESL classes. The time for peer-mediated instruction in oral production classes comes after new structural material has been introduced and manipulated to a certain extent. Students are then in a position to monitor their partners production of the newly learned material, while the teacher is free to circulate around the class, correcting when necessary and providing spot exercises for particular problems. There are a variety of exercises which can be fitted to this format. A sample lesson is included at the conclusion of this article. Peer-mediated oral activities can include textbook exercises, the practicing of dialogues, role-playing and situational drills. The most elementary of these oral exercises are those involving drills in textbooks. The procedure is simple: the teacher divides the class into pairs or small groups, assigning one member the role of TEACHER and the other(s) the role of STUDENT. The STUDENT reads the textbook exercise aloud to a partner, who listens and compares the STUDENTS answer with the correct answer supplied by the classroom teacher. If the STUDENTS answer is correct, the TEACHER allows the STUDENT to continue with the next item. If the answer is not correct, the TEACHER tells the STUDENT to repeat the item. If the same mistake is repeated, the TEACHER tells the STUDENT to repeat it a third time, this time pointing out the mistake. If the STUDENT makes a mistake on the third repetition, the TEACHER again points out the error. At the end of the exercise, the TEACHER returns to the items on which the STUDENT has made mistakes, and continues with them until the STUDENT makes the correct response. When all the items in the drill have been answered correctly, the students exchange roles, with the original STUDENT becoming the TEACHER, and proceeding as before. This version of peer-mediation is one of the most basic and represents the model to which other versions serve as variations. There are several points to be noted about this type of activity. First, the activity proceeds at a pace convenient to the STUDENT. A student who is a slow learner has the chance to move slowly through the exercise with a partner. A fast learner and a partner can manage to cover more challenging material than they otherwise would receive. Second, the role reversal allows students the satisfaction of being authorities, while at the same time reinforcing their knowledge and ability to use the correct answers. Third, if there is disagreement on any point of the exercise, the classroom teacher is available as the final arbitrator. But the activity described above must still be classified as a controlled exercise. Peer mediation can also be used in less controlled and decontrolled oral production activities. Dialogue practice is one possibility. After a short dialogue has been introduced to the class as a whole, the teacher may divide the class into groups of two or three and distribute handouts which

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contain written versions of the dialogue practiced in class. The groups may then practice the dialogue for presentation to the entire class. Alternatively, the handout may contain only parts of the dialogue with parts of the lines deleted. This technique works best when students are in small groups. The task of the group is then to fill in their own versions of the dialogue for presentation to the whole class. Still another possibility is that the dialogues are presented to the whole class with several variations for each line. The task of the group in this case is to select appropriate variations. Such dialogues may be adapted from textbooks, or written by the teacher. Another peer-mediated but decontrolled oral production activity involves role-play. Students in pairs or groups are assigned roles to play, as described on three-by-five cards. The cards describe the position of each character and may supply one or two lines of dialogue. The teacher sets up the situation by describing the events of the dialogue. The participants then reenact the event using the language provided on the card and ad-libbing, using the linguistic items recently emphasized in class.1 The experienced ESL teacher can imagine many variations on this theme: providing application forms for students to work with to simulate job interviews; giving students a shopping list and assigning others the role of grocer; providing students with a list of complaints about a product bought at a hypothetical department store and assigning others to be managers of the complaints office of the store. In all such role-play situations, the format of the class is variable, with groups ranging from two or three students up to groups including the whole class. For students at more elementary levels, exercises may be assigned which employ the talents of the students in a group in solving a problem. For example, one student is given a sequence of pictures or drawings. He or she describes each picture to the others, who then select the one correct version from several choices on an answer sheet. The students agree on the correct version, then proceed to the next picture. At the end of the exercise, they compare their answers with a list of answers given to them after they have completed the exercise on their own. Variations of this exercise may be used with students at a variety of proficiency levels through the use of games and puzzles. Reading Improvement Lessons. In addition to oral production, peermediated instruction is also easily adaptable in reading classes. The same basic principles apply as in oral production classes: students are paired or placed in small groups and assigned to monitor each others reading work. The teacher may choose from among several ways of organizing the class. If the class has been assigned a reading text, the teacher may direct the whole class to read a selected passage in a given length of time, then divide the class into groups to let the students mediate each others work on exercises associated with the reading passage. The procedure is then similar
1 We are indebted to Prof. Darlene Larson of New York University for this suggestion.

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to the one described above for oral production exercises. Peer-mediation can also be used with reading development exercises, in which students proceed from mechanical drills of word recognition and phrase reading, through reading for sentence cues, to reading for main ideas, skimming and reading for details. In such reading exercises, students take turns completing assigned exercises and checking their partners work. Texts such as David Harris Reading Improvement Exercises (1966) lend themselves to such assignments. The teacher can also adapt such exercises from reading passages included in an assignment textbook or can prepare original materials. Writing Development Materials. Peer-mediated exercises in oral production and in reading are useful ways to manage classes, while at the same time providing opportunities for individualization. But when peer mediation is applied to writing classes, an additional aspect of teaching is available to students which is often unavailable in traditional classrooms. Where students in a traditional classroom must often wait a day or two for correction of written work, in peer-mediated classes they can receive on the spot correction and have the opportunity for immediate rewriting. Group writing activities may vary from spelling, where students repeat words to their partners, who then write them down, to paragraph writing, where one partner compares the others paragraphs to a model in the textbook. In a typical controlled exercise, students write complete sentences in answer to textbook questions and then their partners compare them to the correct answers provided on a teacher-prepared answer sheet. The students proceed through the exercise until the end, at which point they switch roles and go through the exercise again. Such a method can be used with sentence completion exercises, transformation exercises (for example, rewriting sentences in different tenses) and sentence-combining exercises, as long as one student, in the TEACHER role, has the questions to which the others must apply the answers. In recent years, growing attention has been given to controlled writing exercises in which the assignments are paragraphs or short compositions. Instructions for these assignments are often in the form of steps with each step having a set of instructions applied to a number of paragraphs or passages. Thus, on completion of an assignment in Step 1, the student may either do another exercise in Step 1 involving a different passage, or move to Step 2, which has a different assignment. An independent group of teachers in New York City recently published two texts with such step assignments, 10 Steps (Brookes and Withrow 1974) and 26 Steps (Kunz 1974). Such books as those mentioned above lend themselves very well to peermediated classes. In small groups, the students proceed with the step assignment, writing according to the directions in the text. When they finish the exercise, they hand their completed passages to their partners, who then compare them with the correct version supplied by the classroom teacher. In more advanced classes, it may be sufficient for the students to exchange

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papers without benefit of an answer sheet, if many of the students errors can be attributed to carelessness. The teacher circulates around the class, pointing out mistakes and giving the correct model for each group. This immediate response enables the student to see his or her mistakes more readily and with less confusion than does the more traditional means of marking papers. Peer mediation can also be used in decontrolled writing situations. For example, after the class as a whole has manipulated structures orally in connection with a picture or subject of discussion, groups can write a paragraph based on the discussion. Similarly, once the class as a whole has completed an assignment in reading, small groups can produce compositions based on the reading material. In-class writing in pairs or small groups may take the form of an in-class newspaper which reports on individual students or on the events of the class. These decontrolled writing assignments may be a regular feature of the class, or they may be associated with the manipulative stage of learning a particular structure or set of structures. In all of these situations, it should be remembered that the teacher is always available as a source of information and as arbiter of questions and problems. Peer-mediated activities encourage students to proceed at their own pace. As a result, students in a class often begin to diverge widely in their abilities to use language and in their need for further instruction. The teacher must be aware that use of peer-mediation requires continuous reassessment of the individual students position with regard to the other students in the class. The teacher must assign work to students which is not only relevant to their needs, but challenging and interesting. Fortunately, the nature of peer-mediated instruction is such that various students can be assigned widely differing tasks, so as to accommodate those students who make more rapid progress. Thus, while most of the class is working on a controlled writing assignment, one group of students might be assigned to produce a decontrolled composition on the same subject. Or again, while most of the class is involved in a controlled oral production exercise, the teacher may choose to work with a small group correcting pronunciation problems. The teacher must constantly be sensitive to the composition of the groups and put together those students who will most benefit from each others help. The strength of peer mediation is its adaptability to the needs of the individual student. The ideal peer-mediated class is one in which the students spend as little time as possible doing work which is not reinforcing or interesting and as much time as possible doing challenging and creative work which leads them to expand their knowledge. The more the classroom teacher is able to provide this work, the more the students will benefit. It may well be that in the near future the traditional format of an ESL classroom will give way to a new style of language learning, in which the

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teachers principal role will be as authoritative source and counselor. In that future, the best-prepared teacher may be the one who has best prepared students to depend on their peers.
SAMPLE MODULE: Intermediate-level ESL to adults; a two-hour class

from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon.

Objectives:
(a) Review present continuous, simple past and future tenses, which have previously been introduced. (b) Introduce connected statements (and . . . but; and . . . either;
but) . (c) Synthesize known and unknown elements in a writing exercise. (d) Practice aural comprehension.

Enabling Activities:
(a) A review of homework in groups. (b) A review of tenses in groups. (c) The modeling of connected statements by the instructor. (d) Group activity to use and reinforce the concept of connected statements. (e) Group composition. (f) Presentation of the compositions to the class as a whole. (g) A ditto-comp: students write what they remember of a passage read aloud to them, attending to structure, vocabulary, etc. Class Schedule: 10:00 Homework is placed on a desk near the door of the classroom. As students enter, they pick up their homework and review the corrections with their groups. If they have questions about their work, they ask a member of the group to explain the correction. If they still do not understand, an individual student asks the class as a whole, and a student from another group explains the correction. 10:10 (Students are told at the start of the semester that they must bring a picture to class every day. The picture is to relate as closely as possible to the vocational or community settings in which they find themselves every day. ) The pictures brought to class are collected and re-distributed, so that one group has the pictures of another group. Each student in a group takes a turn giving three sentences about the picture he or she has been given. Students are told to listen to the one who is speaking and not prepare their sentences while another is speaking. No writing is done at this time; the students plan their sentences in their minds. During this period the teacher goes from group to group,

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making certain that students are using and developing what they have learned, monitoring, listening for mistakes and visually or kinetically giving cues to make individual students aware of their mistakes. The teacher intervenes, however, only when no student in the group has noticed the mistake. The teacher stays out of the group conversation as much as possible, letting the students correct each other. The teacher is interested both in quality and quantity of oral production. 10:30 The teacher tells the groups to stop working. At this time teacher and the students discuss any difficulties that may have come up. 10:50 Using pictures, the teacher begins introducing the concept of connected statements, using whatever techniques or methods he or she prefers, so long as the modelling is oral and with just enough oral models to be certain that the students understand the new item introduced, and then asks some of the students to give examples themselves, using the teachers pictures. The teacher moves from the known to the unknown structure. That is, once the students understand the concept of connected statements, the teacher uses words like usually, tomorrow and yesterday to cue their next statements. Thus, the students demonstrate not only that they understand the new concept, but that they can use it in the context of what they already know. (In language development, they should use structural and lexical items learned in previous classes every time they practice a newly introduced item.) 11:15 The students return to groups and continue the activity started in the class as a whole: they make sentences using what has just been introduced. Then, each group composes one composition, using any or all structures practiced in class. One student actually writes down the composition, but all students participate in composing it. When the composition is complete, another student (not the writer) presents the groups composition in front of the whole class. He or she may glance at the written page but must not read it directly from the paper. Once a representative from each group has presented a composition, each student must try to write from memory the composition of another group. The teacher may tape the pictures on the board as an aid to the students, but a student may not re-write the composition of his or her own group. This activity develops the listening skills of the students and helps them to remember what they have heard. Exact replication is not a necessity, but, using correct structure and vocabulary, the students are encouraged to write what they heard as closely as possible. The replications must be contextually acceptable and only one composition may be replicated.

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TESOL QUARTERLY 11:40 The class as a whole practices intonation or pronunciation in the context of the linguistic items that they have learned.

The lesson for the next day begins with reading, pronunciation or listening, but all materials are presented within the context of what the students have already learned. The lesson presented above is a sample lesson taken out of the context of a complete session. If the teacher has defined the objectives accordingly, he or she may easily emphasize one particular element for a greater part of the class-time on one day and another element on the next day. The important point is that the students must be doing most of the work: In these two hours, the students have the opportunity to perform, teach, correct and use what they have learned to a much greater extent than in some traditional classes. For homework, the teacher might ask them to find another picture and write a short description of it, emphasizing connected statements while employing previously learned structures. The teacher might then use these pictures and the students homework as part of the next days lesson. In the next lesson the students could present those pictures to others in their groups. Then, the students would attempt to write out what another student in the group says about the picture. The teacher would supervise active listening, recognition of structures, vocabulary, and so on. The group work that the teacher assigns must be conceptually sound. The material or lessons used and the responses sought must be concomitant with the objectives that the instructor has formulated for the course. Time may be a factor in a particular course, so group work will help both teacher and students utilize time most efficiently. Finally, one important thread runs through the complete process: both the teacher and the students need to be aware of the physiological and motivational variables affecting the class. In this way, the teacher can guarantee that the greatest number of students respond creatively to the oral, written, kinetic and visual cues presented in peer-mediated group work. By believing in the positive worth of their fellow students abilities, students can teach and provide information, can undertake self-correction, and can thus be responsible for their success in learning a new language.
REFERENCES Brookes, Gay and Jean Withrow. 1974. 10 steps. New York, Language Innovations, Inc. 63 pp. Harris, David P. 1966. Reading improvement exercises for students of English as a second language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc. 177 pp. Kunz, Linda Ann. 1972. 26 steps. New York, Language Innovations, Inc. 54 pp. , and Robert Viscount. 1973. Write me a ream. New York, Teachers College Press. 62 pp. Rosenbaum, Peter and Jerry Barney. 1971. The peer-mediated management system (PMI/MS): an application in remedial reading and basic language skills. Center for the Study of Systems and Technology in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, January, 1971. Not yet available through commercial press.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

Adult Language Learning Strategies and Their Pedagogical Implications*

Barry P. Taylor Recent research has shown that language learners begin relying on their ability to analogize, systematize, and regularize the target language data to which they are exposed immediately upon beginning to learn a new language. Because of their lack of familiarity with the new linguistic system, however, they also rely extensively on their native languages for support. With increased proficiency in the target language, they rely proportionately less frequently on their native language grammar, and rely more frequently on their ever-increasing knowledge of the target language, coping directly with it and overgeneralizing its rules. Since student errors are inevitable, regardless of the mode of instruction or the teaching materials employed, a remedial approach involving review, contrast, and re-review seems necessary. It is with students who have already learned some of the target language that this approach can be most profitably undertaken in order to re-acquaint the students with the intricacies of the target language grammar and to help them learn to use the target language rules which they have already mastered in an appropriate way.

Theoretical Background and Research Findings The field of adult second language acquisition has traditionally been the province of the second language teacher. Articles have been written on how to teach foreign or second languages, and researchers in the field have been concerned only with advancing new methodological techniques on the basis of currently popular learning theories and classroom experience. Student proficiency has been measured only in terms of degrees of success or failure, and it has been believed that these measures of success or failure are affected by the teaching techniques employed. In the last several years the second language learner himself has become a viable subject for investigation, irrespective of the method by which he learned or was learning the language. Since Corders 1967 article, The Significance of Learners Errors, researchers in second language acquisition have been asking, with increased frequency, how it is that an adult can learn a second language. What is it that enables a learner to internalize a new linguistic system? How does he do it?
* This paper was presented at the 27th AnnuaI NAFSA Conference, Washington, D. C., May 7-11, 1975. Mr. Taylor, Lecturer in the English Department, San Francisco State University, has presented papers at the last three TESOL Conventions and has recently published two articles in Language Learning. He is currently a member of the TESOL Quarterly Editorial Advisory Board.

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We are a long way from being able to answer these questions, yet a number of important research findings indicate that answers may be forthcoming. Among these significant findings is the observation that the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis is inadequate as a predictor of the difficulty which students will encounter in learning a second language. The hypothesis seems to be partially or totally invalid in at least three different areas: First, behavioral psychology and transfer theory, on which the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis is based, have been strongly criticized on the grounds that they do not adequately account for the learners creative contribution to language learning or for the acquisition of a system which is itself creative and open-ended (Chomsky 1969). Second, Wardhaugh (1970) and others have argued that linguistic theory is, at present, ill-equipped to write grammars of languages, let alone compare them for points of difference in order to predict points of learning difficulty. And third, researchers as well as teachers have known for a long time that second language learners make some errors which cannot be attributed to the structure of their native languages and, therefore, cannot be predicted by a comparison of the native and target languages. Furthermore, researchers and teachers have noticed that students frequently have no great difficulty in learning some structures which Contrastive Analysis predicted would be difficult. And last, researchers and teachers have been struck by the similarity in error types made by second language learners, irrespective of their native languages (Corder 1967; Richards 1971a, 1971b). These observations, and others, have led researchers of second language acquisition away from believing that the second language learner is merely a passive participant in the language learning process, totally dependent on his teacher for drill and reinforcement in order to learn. Today the attitude is to consider the second language learner in the same way as child language learners have been considered for some time. This new attitude is to consider that the adult language learner, like the child, is an active participant in language learning and that he copes directly with the target language in his attempts to learn it. Like the child, the adult language learner will try to speak the target language before he has mastered it, and his linguistic attempts will reflect his imperfect control of the language. Selinker (1972) calls this form of the target language as used by nonnative speakers an Interlanguage, and he maintains that an Interlanguge can be construed as a linguistic system which reflects how the second language learner believes the target language to be constructed. Selinker suggests that an Interlanguage is not simply a target language grammar sprinkled with errors resulting from interference from the students native language, but rather reflects systematic attempts by the learner to cope with the inherent irregularities of the target language itself. Selinker suggests that Interlanguages can be accounted for by considering the psychological learning strategies which the learner brings to the language learning

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task, and which he exercises regardless of his native language and regardless of his mode of instruction. One learning strategy which Selinker (1972) proposes is language transfer, a strategy whereby the learner transfers his knowledge of his native language into his target language attempts. This strategy is not new since native language interference has been suggested as the main source of target language errors for many years, and it provided the theoretical foundation for the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. What is new, however, is that within this new learning-strategy framework language transfer plays a relatively minor role. Observations by teachers and researchers that students make many different kinds of errors which cannot be attributed to their native language background, and observations that, regardless of the native language background students tend to make similar kinds of errors, have led language learning theorists to posit that other learning strategies are at play as well. In a paper which I published last year (Taylor 1974b), I discussed the possibility that the strategies of syntactic overgeneralization (with resultant grammatical simplification) and redundancy reduction could account for many of the kinds of errors made by both first and second language learners. It also seemed that a strategy involving a partial reliance on native language structure might be able to explain second language errors which appear to indicate a process of transfer. Recently I reported results from a study which I conducted to investigate the relationship between the strategies of overgeneralization and transfer and the degree to which elementary and intermediate students of English as a second language rely on those strategies while learning English (Taylor 1975a, 1975b). I defined syntactic overgeneralization as a process in which a language learner uses a syntactic rule of the target language inappropriately when he attempts to generate a novel target language utterance (1975a,b: 1) and added that overgeneralization errors suggest that although the learner has mastered the mechanics of a particular syntactic rule of the target language, he has not learned the correct distribution of the rule or the exceptional cases where the rule does not apply. Overgeneralization errors suggest that the learner is an active participant in the language acquisition process and that he is exercising his already acquired knowledge of the target language in a creative way since he is neither imitating what he hears around him nor transferring native language structures in his target language attempts. I compared the use of overgeneralization and transfer strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL by analyzing the errors in the Auxiliary and Verb Phrase of 1600 English sentences which twenty native Spanish speakers offered as translations of eighty Spanish sentences. The error analysis yielded a taxonomy of twenty error types, eight of which were categorized as overgeneralization errors, and four as transfer errors. Two major conclusions were made on the basis of the error analysis of

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this corpus. The first conclusion is that there is no clear support for the claim that elementary students of ESL make either transfer or generalization errors which are characteristically different from those made by intermediate-level students. Although there were some trends peculiar to the elementary versus the intermediate group, the large number of similarities in the error types which were most common for the elementary and intermediate subjects tends to indicate that increased proficiency in English does not qualitatively affect the kinds of errors which a learner makes. While the intermediate subjects made fewer errors in almost every error type, their most frequent errors were usually also the errors which the elementary subjects made most frequently. The second major conclusion was that although elementary and intermediate ESL students do not appear to overgeneralize or use transfer strategies in characteristically different ways, they do appear to use these two learning strategies to different degrees. While overgeneralization and transfer errors may not be qualitatively different for elementary and intermediate language learners, they were found to be quantitatively different. The results indicated that intermediate subjects made a higher proportion of errors attributable to overgeneralization than did the elementary subjects. And conversely, the proportion of elementary errors attributable to transfer from Spanish exceeded the proportion of intermediate transfer errors. The major conclusions from that study (Taylor 1975a, 1975b) are, then, that reliance on overgeneralization is directly proportional to proficiency in the target language, and reliance on transfer is inversely proportional. That is, as a learners proficiency increases he will rely less frequently on his native language and on the transfer strategy, and more frequently on what he already knows about the target language and on the overgeneralization strategy. As proficiency increases, reliance on transfer decreases and reliance on overgeneralization increases. These findings appear to be consistent with a theory which considers second language acquisition to be an actively creative process dependent upon a students ability to assimilate and subsume new information into already existing cognitive structures (i.e., relate what he is learning to what he has already learned). For the elementary student, the structure of the native language seems to be the only meaningful (see Ausubel 1967, also discussed in Taylor 1974a, 1974b, 1975a, 1975b, and Brown 1972) system on which he can rely. Transfer from the native language, therefore, results. For a more advanced student, however, the system of the second language has become more meaningful, and he can begin to work within that framework, irrespective of any other linguistic system. Increased overgeneralization of the target language syntactic system results. From this theoretical point of view, overgeneralization and transfer learning strategies appear to be two distinctly different linguistic manifestations of one psychological process. That process is one involving reliance on prior learning to facilitate new learning. Whether transfer or overgeneralization

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will be the dominant strategy for a given learner will depend on his degree of proficiency in the target language. Implications for Teaching English as a Second Language To date very little has been said about what implications the research in error analysis and adult learning strategies may have for classroom ESL instruction. It does seem, however, that if we can achieve some degree of understanding of how a learner actually learns we should be able to utilize our findings in classroom teaching and materials preparation. One of the major findings to come out of the research in adult second language acquisition is that the learner is strongly motivated to reduce his learning burden. Jain observed this phenomenon when he wrote that the principal strategy of most learners is to reduce the language to a simpler system (Jain 1969). When a learner simplifies the grammar of the target language he is able to simplify his learning task as well. The research which has been reported here indicates that reliance on overgeneralization or on a transfer strategy will make the learners task easier: when he relies on his native language he avoids learning the target language rule; when he overgeneralizes he relies on a target language rule of great generality and which he already knows and avoids learning the appropriate rule. However much that syntactic simplification may help the learner reduce his learning burden, the inevitable result is that he will make errors. As discussed earlier, his proficiency in the target language will determine, in part, whether his error is one of overgeneralization or transfer, but it will be an error, nonetheless. This observation is, perhaps, one of the most important for the language teacher because it appears that regardless of the mode of instruction or the teaching materials employed, students will make errorsthey are inevitable in any learning situation which requires creativity or the ability to analogize and regularize. The question which we must ask ourselves, then, is if students are going to make errors regardless of what we do in the classroom, is there anything that we, as teachers, can or should do? At our present state of understanding of how students learn second languages, the implications for teaching are extremely limited. Because of the inherent complexity of language and the students natural tendency to regularize, analogize, and simplify, student errors are inevitable. At this point, then, we should not expect to find a teaching technique or method which will prevent errors; rather, our approach should be remedial and we should try to find new ways to help students overcome the errors which they are already making. It is the students who have already learned some of the target language who will best be able to profit from a remedial approach. What might such an approach entail? Review, contrast, and re-review are three characteristics which research indicates must be included. Let us examine a syntactic structure of English and see how this remedial approach might be implemented.

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Research findings (Taylor 1974a, 1974b, 1975a, 1975b) have suggested that when students are faced with inherent complexities in the target language, they will learn the rule which is most general, and overgeneralize it to the exceptional cases as well. For example, question-formation is a rather complicated process for students to learn because of the number of structural characteristics which they must attend to. We use two different methods to form questions in English: subject-auxiliary inversion and the insertion of a do. Students must learn that the subject-auxiliary inversion process can only be used when the auxiliary is a modal, be, or have, and that doinsertion is used at all other times. This distinction alone causes problems for students because they must attend to the verb before they can carry out any process at all. Errors such as Does Mary can swim well?, therefore, result because of the students preoccupation with trying to make sure that do, which we have stressed and re-stressed, is present. But questionformation is even more complex than just knowing whether to invert or to insert do. Students must also learn that if do is used, the do carries the number and the tense and the verb is in an unmarked form. Even if a student knows, then, that verbs other than a modal, be, or have require do in questions, he may still make errors like Did he talked with you? and Does he talked with you? It seems perfectly logical to him that the main verb must be in the past tense since, semantically, the verb is, indeed, past and would have been marked as such if his utterance had been a statement. These errors are all examples of syntactic overgeneralization and they result from the students attempts to regularize and simplify what appear to him to be confusing and complex rules. The teacher can take either one of three attitudes toward these errors: he can ignore them, hoping that the student will eventually figure the process out for himself, he can do an onthe-spot correction, or he can engage in the remedial approach referred to earlier. The remedial approach should not be a spur of the moment kind of technique. Rather, it should be a whole program designed to re-teach problem structures. It may be, then, that there will be times when teachers might choose to ignore errors or offer on-the-spot corrections. Teachers have frequently noted, however, that such spontaneous corrections are often ignored. The first part of the remedial approach should involve a review of the syntax which has been incompletely learned. Using the example of question-formation, the teacher should engage in a thorough re-teaching of how to form questions. It is entirely possible that the students know all of the elements of question-formation, but each little mechanical step may be jumbled around and confused with each other in the students minds. Since most of the errors which the intermediate students in my study made were attributable to the inherent complexities of English and not to their native language, lessons emphasizing contrasts within the target language itself are necessary. Contrast, then, should be the second key element in

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this review. It is not enough simply to recite the rules to the students, but rather the teacher should give numerous examples of statements in all tenses, both with and without modals, be, and have, and transform them into questions on the blackboard, having students help in the transformations. Intellectualization, however, is not enough. The teacher should also use drills and exercises. Again, the drills should be based on contrasts. Since the students, most likely, already know the rules intellectually, the purpose of the contrast drills is to force them to use those rules appropriately. Mindless repetition drills, then, have no place within this framework. The exercises should be designed so that the students must think about what they are doing. The exercises need not be only of the type make this sentence into a questions, where students are offered all kinds of statements containing modals, be, have, and other verbs in all tenses; they can and should also be conversational in an attempt to help the students make the transition from intellectual drills to communication without the loss of syntactic accuracy. These exercises could be either directed, such as an exercise in which the teacher asks a student to ask another student a question (e.g., Jose, ask Carlos if he went to the art fair yesterday.) or they could be free exercises in which, for example, students are simply instructed to ask each other questions on topics which the teacher might provide. For example, one student could pretend to be an authority on a particular occupation and other students could ask him questions such as, Do you like teaching?, Are you a good teacher?, Do you earn a lot of money?, Do your students like you?, or Did you study hard in college? Another possible kind of free question exercise could be to have students interview each other by asking questions about their likes and dislikes (Do you like movies? Do you like spinach?), habits (Do you always wear sneakers? Are you ever late for class?), and families (Do you have any sisters? Are you an only child?). The possibilities are endless. The last characteristic of this remedial approach is re-review. We should not feel that even an intensive review, such as the one just outlined, will eradicate student errors in question-formation. For this reason, we should be prepared to review question-formation again at a later time if errors continue to appear. The second review should not need to be as intensive as the first, but rather should be designed more as a reminder to students that questions are still important, even though we may be working on relative clauses in the meantime. Periodic review and a quick return to previously taught material may be just what students need to keep all of the intricacies of the target language fresh and ordered in their minds. This brief discussion only dealt with question-formation. This remedial approach, however, need not be confined only to this one syntactic structure. Students confuse, and therefore overgeneralize, a large number of English structures which they have already learned. Review and re-teaching of contrasts which students fail to make seem to be valid techniques to deal with

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many structures such as Wh-questions involving subject and object focus (Who did he see?, Who ate the candy ?, but *Who did eat the candy?), questions versus embedded questions (Is she a student?, Did she leave early?, but *He asked me is she a student, *He asked me did she leave early), and sentence complements (I want to go, I want Jim to go, I know that Alice left, but *I want that I go, *I want that Jim goes). Conclusion Language learners begin relying on their ability to analogize, systematize, and regularize the target language data to which they are exposed immediately upon beginning to learn a new language. Because of their lack of familiarity with the new linguistic system, however, they also rely extensively on their native languages for support. With increased proficiency in the target language, they rely proportionately less frequently on their native language grammar, and rely more frequently on their ever-increasing knowledge of the target language, coping directly with it and overgeneralizing its rules. It is with students at this stage of proficiency that a remedial approach involving review, contrast, and re-review can be most profitably undertaken in order to re-acquaint the students with the intricacies of the target language grammar and to help them learn to use the target language rules which they have already mastered in an appropriate way.
REFERENCES Ausubel, David P. 1967. Learning theory and classroom practice. Toronto, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Brown, H. Douglas. 1972. Cognitive pruning and second language acquisition, Modern Language Journal, 56, 218-222. Chomsky, Noam. 1959. Review of Skinners Verbal Behavior. Language, 35, 26-58. Corder, S. P. 1967. The significance of learners errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161-170. Corder, S. P. 1972. The elicitation of interlanguage. Unpublished manuscript, University of Edinburgh. Dulay, Heidi C. and Marina K. Burt. 1972. Goofing: an indicator of childrens second language learning strategies. Language Learning, 22, 235-252. Jain, M. P. 1969. Error analysis of an Indian English corpus. Unpublished manuscript, University of Edinburgh. Newmark, Leonard and David A. Reibel. 1968. Necessity and sufficiency in language learning. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 6, 145-164. Richards, Jack C. 1971a. Error analysis and second language strategies. Language Sciences, 17, 12-22. Richards, Jack C. 1971b. A non-contrastive approach to error analysis. English Language Teaching, 25, 204-219. Selinker, Larry. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 209-231. Taylor, Barry P. 1974a. Overgeneralization and transfer as learning strategies in second language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Michigan. Taylor, Barry P. 1974b. Toward a theory of language acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 23-35.

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Taylor, Barry P. 1975a. The use of overgeneralization and transfer learning strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL. Language Learning, 25, in press. (This is a revised and expanded version of the Taylor 1975b article.) Taylor, Barry P. 1975b. The use of overgeneralization and transfer learning strategies by elementary and intermediate university students learning English as a second language. In Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, eds., On TESOL 1975, in press. Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1970. The contrastive analysis hypothesis. TESOL Quarterly, 4, 123-130. Wolfe, David L. 1967. Some theoretical aspects of language learning and language teaching. Language Learning, 17, 173-188.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

The Learner's Interlanguage as a System of Variable Rules*

Lonna J. Dickerson Reported in this paper is a longitudinal study of the acquisition and use of the English sound system by Japanese learners of English. The central point is that the learners second-language system must be a system of variable rules if it is to account for the variability (wide assortment of pronunciations) in his production, the fluctuations between his in-class and out-of-class performance, and the regularities in his process of acquisition. The model used in this research is the variability model of sociolinguistics. Discussed here are both the theoretical and practical values of this study. First, it captures the regular patterning of diversity in the learners speech, giving the developing theory of interlanguage1 a firmer grounding. Second, the study provides insights to help the classroom teacher better understand and evaluate student performance in pronunciation.

A New Look at Variability When we listen to foreign students speaking English, we are likely to hear a number of pronunciation errors. If we listen carefully for a particular consonant or vowel, we may notice that the students produce a wide variety of sounds, each intended to approximate the same target sound in English. For example, if we listen to a Japanese speaker struggling with the English /z/, we may encounter some or all of the following:

Because the speaker produces more than one sound for the target, we can say that his production is variable, and we can call each of the sounds, including the target sound, a variant. Variability is frustrating to the teacher and to the linguist alike. The teacher who has to cope with it in the classroom finds that sometimes a
* This paper was presented at the 1975 TESOL Convention in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Dickerson is an Assistant Professor, Division of English as a Second Language, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 1 The term interlanguage was originated by Larry Selinker who popularized it through his article entitled Interlanguage (Selinker 1972).

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student can produce the target sound correctly, and at other times he cannot. Inside the classroom a student may be able to say, Thank you, with Sank you. Problems with variability are not limited to the classroom teacher. The applied linguist also faces difficulty when he finds that he cannot account for variability by theories such as that of contrastive analysis. In brief, variability often proves to be frustrating to both the classroom teacher and the linguist simply because there appears to be little, if any, regularity or pattern. While the teacher and linguist frequently encounter problems with variability, there is one branch of linguistics, sociolinguistics, which is able to deal with variability in a way which shows the regularity or pattern of speech, where such regularity exists. The variability model used in sociolinguistics has been used extensively in studies of sound change in the native language, but little has been done to apply this model to second language acquisition (Labov 1965, 1972). The purpose of this paper is to describe an application of the variability model to second language acquisition. More specifically, this study was undertaken in order to understand how the language student gains control over the phonology of a second language, and to suggest some theoretical as well as practical implications of this process (Dickerson 1974). If the sociolinguistic model used for this study can, in fact, be used to study the learning of a second language, this model can become a much needed tool in future research. An Application of the Variability Model The subjects for this study were ten Japanese speakers who were studying English at the University of Illinois. On three separate occasions over a nine-month period, each subject was given a three-part test consisting of (1) free speaking, (2) the reading of dialogues, and (3) the reading of word lists. Altogether, over 22,000 segments of tape-recorded data were transcribed in fine phonetic detail. Figures 1 and 2 below illustrate the performance of Subject 1. The target sound is English /z/ as it occurred in the reading of dialogues. (Similar data was gathered for the reading of word lists and for free speaking.) The analysis of the data indicated that the production of all the subjects was similar in a number of respects. First, their production of a sound was influenced by the phonetic environment; that is, it was sensitive to the consonants and vowels adjacent to the target sound. To illustrate, each box in Figure 1 represents the subjects production of /z/ in a different phonetic environment. The shading of the bars in the boxes represents the different test times over the nine-month period: Test 1 (unshaded); Test 2 (solid bars); Test 3 (diagonal lines). The height of the bars indicates the proportion of words said with specific variants at one test time. In environment A, where English /z/ occurs before a vowel, the subject produces only the

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variant [z], the target sound. For each of the other environments, B, C. and D, the same subject uses a slightly different set of variants. A second regularity in the data also illustrated in Figure l is the learners progress over time. Progress from one test time to the next is seen as a decrease in the proportion of variants to the left accompanied by an increase in the proportion of variants to the right. For example, for environment C, there is a marked decrease in the proportion of [s] from test time to test time and a similar increase in the target variant, [z], from test time to test time. The same pattern can be seen in environments B and D. A second way to display the information given in Figure 1 is to use a line graph, as shown in Figure 2. The numbers at the left of the graph range from 0 to an upper limit of 100. These numbers represent an index

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score based on an assigned point value and the frequency of each variant. (A full discussion of the procedures used in this study is presented in Dickerson, forthcoming a.) Tl, T2, and T3 at the bottom of the graph indicate the three test times. The lines on the graph represent the index scores of the four environments, A through D. For environment A, where the subject produced only [z], the index score is a perfect 100, indicated by horizontal dots across the top of the graph. For the other three environments, B, C, and D, where the subject used several different variants, Figure 2 shows the upward movement of lines reflecting the changing proportion of variants as the subject moved toward the consistent use of the target over the ninemonth period. For this particular subject, progress was generally more rapid (hence, a steeper line) from T1 to T2 than from T2 to T3. The fact that the lines in Figure 2 do not cross illustrates that the ordering of environments found at T1 was maintained at both subsequent test times. This happens despite the continually changing proportions of variants in all environments and despite differences in the amount of progress in each environment from one test time to the next. The method of analysis employed in Figures 1 and 2 was used individually for each subject in the study. From one subject to the next, there was the same pattern of variants and environments. For example, all ten subjects used a very similar set of variants. Differences were largely in the proportion of variants used at any one test time. Thus, the bar graphs of Figure 1 look much the same for all individuals. Secondly, all subjects used the same environments ranked in the same

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order as shown in Figure 2. Individual graphs show minor differences because the subjects differed in two principal ways: (1) by their proficiency in English and (2) by their rate of progress. Different proficiency levels are reflected by the location of the starting points of the lines at T1, while rate of progress is reflected by the slope of the lines. This study also tried to determine whether the speech of second-language learners, like that of native speakers, shows differences according to style. For this study, the sociolinguistic definition of style was used, namely, a change in linguistic behavior accompanying a change in verbal task. Studies dealing with the native language have shown that at any one time a persons speech differs according to his verbal task. For example, more prestigious variants and thus higher index scores are found in the reading styles than in the speaking styles. In an attempt to extend this model to second language acquisition, this study asked whether a change in verbal task would produce a change in index scores for Japanese speakers learning English. The hypothesis was that for each individual subject the index scores should be ordered according to the three styles, so that reading of word lists would be highest; next, reading of dialogues; and lowest, free speaking. The results for all subjects was almost perfect style layering according to verbal task. In 96 percent of the 227 instances of style stratification, the order was as predicted. This finding demonstrates a high degree of systematic behavior on the part of each subject and among the subjects as a group (Dickerson, forthcoming b). Theoretical Implications What is the theoretical significance of the regularities found in this data? What is the significance of the patterning of variants and environments in any one style, such as the reading of dialogues, and the patterning across the three styles? We have concluded that at any one time the language learner behaves in a consistent manner and that he maintains that consistency over time. Because this patterned behavior could not happen by chance, something significant is implied about what the learner has in his head. The learners systematic behavior must be the reflection of an internal system. This system is neither the native language system nor the target language system, not English distorted by native language overlay. Instead, the learner is demonstrating an internally unified system, frequently referred to as the learners interlanguage. It is not enough, however, to simply conclude that the learners interlanguage is systematic. For this conclusion does not answer the question: What is the nature of that system? From Figures 1 and 2 we see that the subjects behavior is consistent. The behavior is so consistent, in fact, that it can be captured in a rule. This rule must be sensitive to phonetic context, the use of multiple variants, and external style fluctuations. Such

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a rule is called a variable rule. The results of this study point clearly to a system which contains variable rules as the only kind of system which is compatible with the language learners variable production. (The formulation of rules using generative phonological notations is found in Dickerson, forthcoming a.) The extension of the sociolinguistic variability model to the learning of a second language phonology, then, makes a much needed contribution to the current study of interlanguage, because this model now allows us for the first time to see in what way the learners production is systematic. Classroom Applications The knowledge that the learner operates from a variable interlanguage system should be of practical value to the language teacher in such areas as teacher attitude, teacher expectations, and the evaluation of student progress. Profound changes in point of view should result when the classroom teacher views his students faulty pronunciation as rule-governed. The students production should no longer be looked upon as a defective approximation of the target language. His production is not a random, scattershot attempt at imitating the model. The learner is not deficient in cognitive ability, but he is generating utterances which are rule-governed according to his interlanguage system of variable rules. In short, the language teacher should not despair when be encounters variability; rather, he should adopt a point of view which expects variability. Since the learners language system is characterized by a very large number of variable rules, variability is the norm, not the exception. This study has indicated that it is by means of variable performance that the learner reaches the target. Thus, nontarget performance should not be considered erroneous, but viewed, first, as a necessary part of the language learning process, and secondly, as important information about the character of the learners changing language system. The teacher should understand that this change in phonology is not only systematic, but gradual. Rather than feeling that the learner is uninterested, stubborn, or otherwise distracted when he persists in a nontarget behavior pattern, the teacher should come to a realistic understanding of the gradual nature of student progress. Too frequently, teachers are ready to give up when pronunciation progress is not made as quickly as they would like. Ordinarily, the teachers approach has been to evaluate the students progress in terms of right versus wrong, not considering the various degrees of right and wrong. Given the results of this study, the teacher is urged to look at degrees of attainment, not just at a right/wrong dichotomy of English versus non-English. Even if the student never reaches the target sound, credit should be given when, over time, he modifies his pronunciation from very wrong to not so wrong or from not so wrong to almost right. In addition, even though the student may not reach the target 100

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percent of the time, credit should be given when, over time, he increases the use of variants closer to the target. The teacher who realizes that the learners pronunciation is sensitive to situation will not expect the same performance from one verbal task to another. We know that it is not at all unusual to hear comments from teachers who are distressed by students who seem to do moderately well to very well in the classroom, but display all their bad habits when they leave the teachers presence. The teacher should realize that these students are only exhibiting normal language behavior. Furthermore, the students acquiring a second language phonology are behaving in the same manner as native speakers using their own language. That is, the speech of both groups is modified according to the situation. When evaluating student progress, the only appropriate comparisons should be between a single style, such as free speaking, at one time with the same style at a later time. Comparisons of progress should not be made between two styles such as the reading of dialogues and free speaking, or between the more formal classroom speech and the more informal outof-class speech. Thus, the teacher who hears Thank you inside the classroom and Sank you outside the classroom should not conclude that his students are making no progress. These students are only producing utterances which are responsive to the demands of their verbal tasks. Summary This study was undertaken in order to understand how the language learner gains control over the phonology of a second language. The results overwhelmingly indicate that the acquisition of the phonology of a second language is similar to the process of sound change in the native language. Like native speakers, second-language speakers use a language system consisting of variable rules. Their achievement of the target language comes about through gradual change, by using, over time, greater proportions of more target-like variants in an ordered set of phonetic environments. The importance of the sociolinguistic variability model should not, however, be limited to its theoretical implications. For this model also speaks, in very practical terms, to the classroom teacher. The teacher who understands the nature of the students interlanguage system will be better able to cope with variability both inside and outside the classroom.
REFERENCES Dickerson, Lonna J. 1974. Internal and external patterning of phonological variability in the speech of Japanese learners of English: toward a theory of second-language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois. Forthcoming a. A model for research in interlanguage phonology. Forthcoming b. Style stratification in interlanguage phonology. Labov, William. 1965. On the mechanism of linguistic change. Georgetown University Series on Languages and Linguistics, No. 18, 91-114. 1972. The internal evolution of linguistic rules. Historical Linguistics and Generative Theory, ed. R. Stockwell and R. Macaulay. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 101-171. Selinker, Larry. 1972. Interlanguage. IRAL, 10, 209-31.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

The Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes by Adult ESL Students*

Diane E. Larsen Freeman This study was designed to determine if the reported sequence of acquisition of grammatical morphemes for second language learners (Dulay and Burt, 1973, 1974; Bailey, Madden and Krashen, 1974) would be found to exist in tasks other than that requiring speech production. A battery of five tasks: reading, writing, listening, imitating and speaking were administered to twenty-four adult ESL learners, six from each of four native-language backgrounds (Arabic, Japanese, Persian, and Spanish). After scoring for morpheme suppliance in obligatory contexts, and using the Group Score Method (Dulay and Burt, 1974) to order the morphemes, a high level of concordance was found across language groups with regards to morpheme ordering within task. There was, however, individual and language group variability apparent. When comparing morpheme sequencing across tasks for all subjects, there was not the same high degree of relationship. Speculations are made to account for these findings.

Introduction A claim that has captured much attention from second language acquisition researchers is that the second language learners, regardless of native language background, acquire certain English grammatical morphemes in the same or a similar sequence. The impetus for the research which resulted in this claim originated in the first language acquisition studies of Brown (1973) and his colleagues. After conducting a longitudinal study of three children acquiring English as their native language, these researchers reported there existed a developmental sequence of fourteen morphemes which was amazingly constant across these three unacquainted American children (1973: 272 ). The sequence was revealed by a procedure where the morphemes were scored for their suppliance in obligatory contexts (See Brown, 1973:255 for a discussion of this construct). Following this highly significant longitudinal report, deVilliers and deVilliers (1973), colleagues of Brown at Harvard, undertook a crosssectional study on the use of these fourteen morphemes in obligatory contexts in early child speech. The deVilliers subjects were 21 Englishspeaking children aged between 16 and 40 months. They reported a high
* This paper was presented at the 1975 TESOL Convention in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Freeman, Assistant Professor at UCLA, received her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1975. An article by her appeared in On TESOL 74.

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degree of correspondence between the orderings found in the present study and the ordering reported by Brown (272). It was Dulay and Burt (1973), who, adopting Browns procedure and a subset of his morphemes, first attempted to find such an order for children learning English as a second language. Using an instrument they devised to elicit natural spontaneous speech data (the Bilingual Syntax Measure Burt, Dulay and Hernandez 1973) Dulay and Burt obtained results in a study of 151 Spanish-speaking subjects which prompted their claim for the existence of a common order of acquisition for the eight grammatical morphemes they had investigated (1973: 256). Since the ordering they found was not the one Brown and the deVilliers reported, Dulay and Burt explained that their own subjects (aged 5-8) were older than those previously studied and more sophisticated with respect to cognitive and conceptual development (1973: 252); therefore, a different order was not unexpected. The subjects for Dulay and Burts study were from three geographically separate areas, but all were Spanish-speaking children learning English as a second language. In an attempt to strengthen their contention that it is the L2 system and not the L1 system that guides the acquisition process, Dulay and Burt (1974) compared Chinese and Spanish-speaking childrens acquisition order for eleven English morphemes produced in natural speech as elicited by the same instrumentthe Bilingual Syntax Measure (hereafter referred to as the BSM). They concluded the sequences of acquisition of 11 functors [morphemes] obtained for Spanish and Chinese children are virtually the same (49). It was this evidence that produced the following questions which resulted in the present study: 1. Would this same acquisition order of morphemes, or indeed, any acquisition order be exhibited by adult ESL learners? 2. Would this acquisition order be found to exist if different data collection procedures were employed? 3. Would the data from other collection procedures be useful in helping to explain the morpheme ordering the BSM consistently elicits? After the present study was begun, it was learned that an attempt was being made to answer the first question. Bailey, Madden and Krashen (1974) administered the BSM to seventythree adult ESL students with varying native language backgrounds. Utilizing Dulay and Burts scoring procedure and scoring for the morphemes Dulay and Burt had reported on in their 1973 study, Bailey, Madden and Krashen found significant product-moment correlation with the sequences of two of Dulay and Burts three Spanish-speaking groups and significant Spearman rank correlations with all three groups. Since their subjects were adults, most of whom had experienced some ESL instruction, we were left with even a stronger conclusion: that an

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acquisition order of certain morphemes elicited by an instrument requiring natural speech exists for second language learners of English, regardless of age, amount of ESL instruction (at least as experienced by these subjects), type of ESL instruction or native-language background. Since Bailey, Madden and Krashen used the BSM, the other questions remained unresolved, i.e., whether or not the data collection procedure would affect the order of acquisition, and whether data from other collection procedures would have explanatory power in revealing the basis for the BSM morpheme sequence. This study addresses itself to their resolution. Procedure SUBJECTS Twenty-four adult students enrolled in an intensive English program at the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan were selected as subjects for this study. Four language backgrounds: Arabic, Japanese, Persian and Spanish were represented by six subjects each. The subjects in each of the four groups were matched in abilities as determined by their scores on a standard placement examination. They were all considered to be at an elementary level of English ability, and the study was conducted at the very beginning of the course before any language instruction had taken place. MORPHEMES Ten of the eleven structures studied by Dulay and Burt (1974) were included here: progressive ing, progressive auxiliary, short plural, long plural (es), third person regular present tense singular, regular past, irregular past, possessive (NPs), third person present tense singular copula and article (definite the and indefinite a ). The eleventh, case markers, was eliminated as there had been a question raised as to whether it was meaningful to consider case in a morpheme study. Furthermore, since case appeared in the first position in the acquisition sequence, it was felt that the elimination of it would not affect the established order of the others. All allomorphs of each of the ten morphemes (with the exception of the past tense irregular) which Dulay and Burt studied were included. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES Four data collection procedures (tasks) were developed and administered to the subjects, along with a fifth, the BSM, which was used for purposes of comparability. The tasks each involved a particular skill: reading, writing, listening, imitating and speaking. These five distinct tasks were structured with the hope that the data they would yield would provide clues in the search for an explanation for the morpheme ordering previously reported. If the same morpheme order resulted from all five tasks, we would know to look for an explanation for

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this common order in terms of the underlying complexity of the morphemes not how they are learned through the exercise of a particular skill, nor how they are manifested through a particular modality. For example, pronunciation difficulty could probably be obviated as the cause of the morpheme sequence attested to by previous researchers if the same order was produced through application of a graphic skill, such as the writing task in this study would necessitate. Certainly the five tasks involve different cognitive requirements, but the underlying syntactic and semantic feature complexity of the morphemes should be invariant across all modalities. COMPOSITION OF TASKS The BSM was developed for use with children, but it appeared to work well in Bailey, Madden and Karshens study and here as well. The instrument consists of seven color cartoons and corresponding questions designed to elicit utterances which contain the desired morphemes. The transcripts of the subjects utterances are scored using a ternary system. The subject receives two points if a morpheme is supplied in its correct form in an obligatory context. If the context calls for a morpheme to be produced and none is supplied, the subject receives a zero. If a morpheme is supplied, but in an incorrect form, a score of one is given. In the interest of comparability, this scoring schema was maintained in all five tasks, Thus, the listening task consisted of showing the subjects a picture which provided a context, and reading to them three sentences describing the picture. The sentences differed so that one contained the correct morpheme, one contained no morpheme and the other contained an incorrect form of the morpheme. There were five items like this for each of the ten morphemes for a total of fifty questions. In addition, there were seven other questions interspersed among the fifty which were best answered by the choice of the sentence not containing the morpheme being examined. These questions were included so that a discriminating subject could not deduce that a non-morpheme answer was always incorrect. Furthermore, questions like these would allow the scorer to see if the subjects were overgeneralizing the use of particular morphemes. For example, in the following pair: a. He can sing very well. b. He can sings very well. if a subject chose (b) he might be overgeneralizing the third person singular morpheme. A subject could get each of the five other questions per morpheme correct and yet incorrectly choose that morpheme where it was superfluous in one of the seven questions because he had not yet learned the boundaries of the semantic domain or syntactic application of a particular morpheme.

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The distracters contained morphemes which were inappropriate because of their failure to agree in number, tense, definite/indefiniteness or form with what was called for in the context created by the picture. Careful instructions were given and two examples were tried by all so there was an understanding of the task to be performed. In the reading task the subjects were given a copy of a story in which every sentence or sentence fragment appeared in three formswith the morpheme correctly supplied, with the morpheme missing and with the morpheme supplied incorrectly. The subjects were instructed to read the story and mark down next to each group of three sentences an A, B, or C corresponding to the form they believed to be appropriate. Once again there were fifty-seven questions, five for each of the ten morphemes and seven questions where the correct answer was the sentence without the morpheme. With few exceptions, the vocabulary of the story was taken from the Thorndike-Lorge (1944) count of the 500 most common words. Moreover, a synopsis was given to the subjects in advance of the task to minimize any interfering factors caused by a subjects misconstruing a vocabulary item. The distracters for this task were not only the result of structural or agreement errors as they were in the listening task; for in this task two out of every five questions for each morpheme had discourse or contextual distractorssentences that were legitimate English sentences, but which were not acceptable in the context of the story. For example, the first sentence of the story was: a. I have a friend whose name is Mark Andrews. b. I have the friend whose name is Mark Andrews. c. I have friend whose name Mark Andrews. A reasonable sentence in English would be (b), using the definite article, but it is not acceptable in this context as (a), the answer with the indefinite article, is. Use of a story rather than a series of isolated sentences was decided upon to determine if it was the failure to apply the discourse rules of English rather than the forms of the morphemes themselves which caused the morphemes to be ranked as reported. Once again, careful instructions were given and two examples were provided to insure an understanding of the task. The same story as the one in the reading task was used for the writing task. However, in the writing task version, blank spaces replaced the alternative morpheme answers and the subjects were asked to write in the correct morpheme or draw a line through the blank if they felt no morpheme was warranted. When a bound morpheme was required, the stem to which it was to be attached was provided in parentheses preceding the blank. Use of the same story for both the reading and writing tasks would make it possible to note if the commonality of items on the two tasks

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resulted in a higher correlation for the morpheme sequences they produced than when either the reading or writing sequence was compared with the one from any other task. An elicited imitation data collection procedure was the fifth task. Sixteen sentences were constructed containing ninety-one total occurrences of the morphemes under study. A picture was shown to a subject to engender a context for every sentence (a procedure suggested by Rodd and Braine, 1971). The experimenter read the sentence and the subject was to repeat the sentence. The sentences were constructed of sufficient length to discourage subjects repeating by rote. Naimans (1974) finding that model French sentences of fifteen syllables in length worked best for imitation by children and subsequent pilot testing from this study resulted in the decision to make each sentence 14-18 syllables long. The positions of each morpheme were arranged so that each allomorph appeared at least once in the beginning of a sentence (approximately syllables 1-6), medially (approximately syllables 7-12) and finally (approximately syllables 13-18). ADMINISTRATION The reading, writing and listening tasks were administered to groups of subjects. From the total of twenty-four subjects, two groups were randomly formed and each was presented the three tasks in a different order to control for a task-ordering or practice effect. Half the subjects, then, received the reading task first, then the listening task and then the writing task. The other group had this order reversed. The listening task was always given medially because the story for the reading and writing tasks was identical and it was therefore desirable to separate them. The listening task was taped so that each group received identical input and so that the time allotted each question was fixed. The other two tasks, the BSM and the elicited imitation task, were administered to each subject individually. Half the subjects were given the elicited imitation task first and the BSM second. The other half had this order reversed. The responses were taped on a Uher 4000 IC tape recorder for later scoring. SCORING AND STATISTICAL PROCEDURES The task results were scored using the ternary schema outlined above. This system was applied to the use or recognition of morphemes in obligatory contexts. The Group Score Method (Dulay and Burt 1974) was used to determine a rank for each morpheme. The ten morphemes in each task were ordered according to decreasing rank. Kendalls coefficients of concordance and Spearman rank correlation coefficients were computed among language groups for each task. Spearman rank correlation coefficients were determined among tasks for all subjects.

ACQUISITION OF MORPHEMES Results

415

In four of the five tasks, concordance was high (the reading task was the exception) among language groups with regards to morpheme ordering (significant at the .01 level for four of the five tasks). Language background did not seem to radically affect performance in morpheme ordering. However, even though there was language group task concordance for the four tasks, Spearman rank correlation coefficients between two language groups often were not significant within each task with the exception of the BSM where each of the six possible pairings of language groups were significant at the .01 level. (This was based on a comparison of only 9 morphemes because the number of obligatory occasions requiring the use of the past regular morpheme in this task was too low for it to be ordered with the others.) See Table 1.
TABLE 1 Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients Across Language Groups for Speaking Task

The imitating and writing tasks had the next highest number of significantly correlated pairs of language groups, but most of these were at the .05 level of significance. See Tables 2 and 3.

The listening and reading tasks each had one pair reaching statistical significance at the .05 level. See Tables 4 and 5.

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Since the BSM had produced higher Spearman rank correlation coefficients than the other tasks, the question arose as to whether or not the BSM was a more reliable measure of morpheme ordering than the other four tasks. An analysis of variance was performed on all five task results to see how much of the total variance was attributable to subject differences and how much to morpheme differences. With the exception of the reading task, the reliability of the measures for determining differences among morpheme difficulties were comparable.
TABLE 6 Reliability of Tasks for Determining Differences Among Morphemes Speaking .927 Imitating .919 Writing .872 Listening .906 Reading .679

Thus, in measuring differences across morphemes, the BSM is clearly more reliable than one of the other tasksthe reading. This seems to be due to the fact that the reading task is a more reliable instrument for ascertaining subject differences than morpheme differences. The subjects perform well on all the morphemes, so, by and large, most of the variance is accounted for by differences between individuals, not between morphemes. It is perhaps more reliable than anotherthe writingbut it is certainly not more reliable than the other two. Indeed, except in the cast of the reading task, the other tasks in this study should be as reliable as the BSM in measuring morpheme differences. Spearman rank correlation coefficients were next computed for rank orders of morphemes across tasks for all subjects. With the comparison of ordering on one task with another task, few statistically significant correlations were found. See Table 7.

ACQUISITION OF MORPHEMES
TABLE 7 Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients Across Tasks for All Subjects

417

There are three significant relationship that exist: the BSM and the imitating task correlate with a rho of .58 which is just significant at the .05 level and there is a rho of .58 between the BSM and the writing task as well. The reading and writing tasks are also correlated at the .05 level of significance with a rho of .72. This leaves us with the intriguing question of whether it is the medium, i.e., the printed word, which produced the similar ordering on the reading and writing tasks or whether it was the commonality of the material, i.e., the same story, or the time allotted the subjects to respond on these two tasks which can be held accountable for the similarity of morpheme ordering. Thus, there is some consistency in morpheme ranking across tasks, but the morpheme orderings are by no means the same on all tasks. As expected, the BSM ordering from this study and the ordering Dulay and Burt (1974) found correlate highly at the .01 level of significance, rho = .87. The imitating task ordering also correlates with the order found by Dulay and Burt at the .05 level of significance, rho= .60. The morpheme orderings the other three tasks produced have low correlations with that of Dulay and Burts study, none of them reaching significance. What has been reported here are the results of the first phase of this study. The battery of tasks will be readministered to the same subjects after allowing for a two month hiatus during which the subjects are undergoing intensive English instruction. The results of this second phase will be examined to see if the instruction during the intervening period will have had any effect on the ordering found in the intial phase. At this point, however, there are several general conclusions which can be drawn. Conclusions 1. It became apparent that the notion of invariance used by first language acquisition researchers investigating morpheme acquisition (Brown 1973: 272; deVilliers and deVilliers 1973:268) was not appropriate when describing the sequences obtained in this second language acquisition study. There was variability apparent when comparing the performance of individual subjects and when comparing the morpheme orderings produced by each of the language groups. This variability among language groups was evident from the number of non-significant Spearman rank correlation

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coefficients between the morpheme orderings of any two language groups on several of the tasks (See Tables 1-5). A contrastive analysis was undertaken and it was learned that when a particular language group deviated from the generally agreed upon rank assigned a given morpheme, this deviation could usually be explained by examining the expression of that morpheme in the native language of the deviant group. It should be noted that Hakuta (1974), who collected natural speech samples from a five-year-old Japanese girl learning ESL, did not find the same ordering as Dulay and Burt did for their children subjects nor as this study did using the BSM with adults. However, for the eight morphemes which this study and Hakutas had in common, there was a statistically significant correlation coefficient found between the ordering Hakutas subject produced and the ordering found in this study for Japanese adults (rho = .79, p < .05). 2. Nevertheless, despite some evidence of individual and language group variability, there were significantly high coefficients of concordance produced among the language groups on tasks within this study. Native language background does not seem to radically influence the way in which learners order English morphemes. Then, too, the BSM seems to elicit a very similar order of morphemes, not only for learners from different native language backgrounds, but for learners of different ages and exposure to ESL instruction. 3. A common difficulty order (a term I prefer to acquisition order) does not seem to occur for all the skill areas tested here. There is, nevertheless, some consistency in the ranking of certain morphemes across all five tasks. It is premature to attribute the different orders to one source, as they may be due to modality differences, specific task effects, skill differences, etc. 4. At this point we can at least eliminate possible explanations for the continued elicitation of a certain order of morphemes by the BSM. It would seem we would want to put aside for the moment looking for an explanation for the productive speaking order as being determined by cognitive maturity, affective variables, or in an order of presentation in formal instruction since we get similar orderings when these are varied. Furthermore, since the same underlying semantic and syntactic complexity should be characteristic or both the long and short plural morphemes, and yet they are not ranked sequentially (ranked 9 and 6, respectively), syntactic and semantic complexity too, should not receive a great deal of attention in our search for an explanation for the production speaking ordering. An explanation in underlying phonological representation or pronunciation difficulty, too, is lacking since allomorphs of some morphemes like the third person singular present tense, the regular short plural and the posses-

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sive all share a common phonological form and yet occupy disparate ranks in the productive speaking order. What is remaining? Since we have eliminated subject variables because of the diversity among learner types and have eliminated deep structure semantic, syntactic and phonological complexity as well, it would seem we should look to the surface form for possible clues. Although admittedly the amount and type of English input might vary according to situation, there are probably stable factors that would be cogent for all learnersfrequency of occurrence is a possible contender. The possessive morpheme was repeatedly among the lowest ranked morphemes in all the tasks in this study. One might speculate this is because of its relative infrequency in usage by native speakers. Features of perceptual saliency in language such as stress, segmentation, vowel reduction and position might also be contributing factors in the production of a difficulty ordering. Since some of these factors would not be manifested the same way in all the tasks, this would help to explain the different orderings across tasks. A single explanation seems insufficient to account for the findings. It is now necessary to return to the data collected in this study and others for a more exhaustive analysis in light of these speculationREFERENCES Bailey, N., C. Madden and S. D. Krashen. 1974. Is there a natural sequence in adult second language learning? Language Learning, 24, 2, 235-243. Brown, R. 1973. A first language. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Burt, M. K., H. C. Dulay and E. Hernandez. 1973. Bilingual Syntax Measure (Restricted Edition). New York, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. deVilliers, J. and P. deVilliers. 1973. A cross-sectional study of the acquisition of grammatical morphemes in child speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2, 267-278. Dulay, H. C. and M. K. Burt. 1973. Should we teach children syntax? Language Learning, 23, 2, 245-258. Dulay, H. C. and M. K. Burt. 1974. Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 1, 37-53. Hakuta, K. 1974. A preliminary report on the development of grammatical morphemes in a Japanese girl learning English as a second language. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 3, Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Naiman, N. 1974. The uses of elicited imitation in second language acquisition research. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 2, Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Rodd, L. and M. Braine. 1971. Childrens imitations of syntactic constructions as a measure of Linguistic competence. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 10, 4,430-443. Tarone, E. 1974. A discussion of the Dulay and Burt studies. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 4, Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Thorndike, E. and I. Lorge. 1944. The teachers word book of 30,000 words. New York, Columbia University Press.

TESOL Quarterly Vol. 9, No. 4 December 1975

The Acquisition of the English Auxiliary by Native Spanish Speakers*

Herlinda Cancino, Ellen J. Rosansky, John H. Schumann This paper describes the appearance of English auxiliaries in the speech of five native speakers of Spanish (two children, two adolescents, one adult). In addition, it also describes these subjects acquisition of the negative and interrogative transformations. The acquisition of the negative transformation showed the following developmental pattern. The subjects began negating by using no + verb constructions (e.g. He no can play baseball). Then either simultaneously or shortly afterwards, they began using dont + verb constructions (e.g. I dont can explain). Next they acquired constructions in which the negative was placed after the auxiliaries is and can (e.g. He cant go). Finally, they learned the analyzed forms of dont (do not, doesnt, does not, didnt, did not ). The analysis of the interrogatives indicated that both Y/N and whquestions appear in the untransposed form, but there is no stage in which the untransposed form is consistently prior to the transposed. There is also no stage in which transposed Y/N-questions precede transposed whquestions or vice-versa. In general, however, transposition is more frequent in wh- questions. The results of the auxiliary analysis indicate that is copula appears first and that can and do appear shortly afterwards. Beyond these three auxiliaries the order of appearance for each subject is highly variable. This result contrasts with recent work on the acquisition of certain English morphemes which shows an invariant order of acquisition.

In our research on second language acquisition at Harvard University we have been examining the natural, untutored acquisition of English by six native Spanish speakers: two children age five, two adolescents ages 11 and 13, and two adult subjects, whom we visited approximately twice monthly for an hour over a period of ten months. All of the subjects had been in this country less than three months when we began. The data was collected in the following ways:
* This paper was presented at the 1975 TESOL Convention in Los Angeles, California. The research reported here was supported by Grant NE-G-00-3-0014 from the National Institute of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare to Courtney B. Cazden. However, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institute of Education, and the official endorsement by the National Institute of Education should not be inferred. Ms. Cancino and Ms. Rosansky are at present graduate students at Harvard. Ms. Rosansky is also principal of a Hebrew school. Mr. Schumann, Assistant Professor at UCLA, has until recently been an ESL teacher in Waltham, Massachusetts. All three have contributed to Working Papers in Bilingualism. Mr. Schumann has published previously in the TESOL Quarterly.

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1. Spontaneous speech recording in which the experimenter engages the subject in conversation; 2. Experimental elicitation in which the subject is asked to do such things as imitate or negate a model utterance; 3. Pre-planned socio-linguistic interaction in which subjects are taken to parties, restaurants, museums, sports events, etc., in order to collect speech in varied natural situations. All of the data was taped and in addition to the investigator, a bilingual transcriber was always present, taking notes. The transcribers then transcribed (and where necessary, translated) the tapes in a standard format along the lines suggested in the Slobin Manual. Studies of second language acquisition have generally been either large cross sectional studies or studies of single individuals. While our study includes six subjects, this paper concerns itself with only five of them. Our initial intention was to analyze the auxiliary in all six subjects; however, one of our adults knew more English than the other subjects at the beginning of the study and therefore her linguistic development is too advanced for the present discussion. The five subjects discussed are Marta, Cheo, Juan, Jorge, and Alberto. Marta (5 years old) is an upper middle class Puerto Rican. Cheo (5 years old) is an upper middle class Colombian from Cali. Juan (11 years old) and Jorge ( 13 years old) are upper middle class Colombians from Bogota. Alberto (33 years old) is a lower middle class Costa Rican. In addition to age and socio-economic differences among our subjects, there are some differences in the nature of their exposure to English. While Jorge, Juan, Marta and Cheo were all exposed to English through peer speech in public schools (with practically no ESL instruction), Alberto worked in a factory where some of his input is from other non-native speakers of English. All of the subjects speak Spanish in the home. Our goal in this paper is to describe the acquisition of the English auxiliary. The auxiliary system occupies a crucial position in English grammar. It provides the means for the expression of negation and interrogation and less frequently, for the expression of emphasis. Auxiliaries generally carry semantic information and also mark tense and number. Their essential systematicity and their indispensability in the functioning of the English verb make the study of their development an essential focus for the acquisition of English. We will describe the development of the auxiliary as it appears in the declarative, negative and interrogative utterances of our subjects. Finally, an overall picture of auxiliary development will be presented by combining these categories, In addition, as we discuss the auxiliary in the negative and interrogative, we will also discuss the acquisition of the negative and interrogative transformations. Throughout our discussion we will be speaking only about the order of appearance of auxiliaries, not their order of acquisition. This is an

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important distinction. Our analysis answers the question of whether or not a particular auxiliary is present in obligatory context. It does not speak to the issue of whether or not the auxiliary is correctly supplied (in terms of number and tense) in that context. Thus, if a subject were to say they is boys, he would be given credit for having supplied the copula is. If he were to say they boys, he would be scored are copula. Hence what we will present is a there-not there analysis, not a correct-incorrect analysis. Future analyses may well include scoring for tense and number. Such analyses would then allow us to talk about order of acquisition. 1.0 The Auxiliary in Declarative. The auxiliary in declarative includes such forms as: She waS here yesterday and He is going to the store. To determine the order of appearance of the auxiliary in declarative utterances we established the following criterion: to say that an auxiliary has appeared it must be supplied at least 80% of the time in three consecutive samples and in each sample there must be at least two instances of the particular auxiliary under consideration with a total of ten or more auxiliaries in the sample. In scoring modals where obligatory context cannot be determined we simply considered an auxiliary to have appeared when it was present at least twice in three successive samples. On the basis of this criterion the order of appearance was found in declarative as displayed in Table 1.

From this analysis we can make the generalization that is (cop) and can appear very early and in that order. Beyond these two auxiliaries, the order of appearance seems to be quite variable.

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2.0 The Auxiliary in Negatives. When determining the appearance order for auxiliaries in negatives we used the same criterion as we did for declarative. An auxiliary was scored as present whether or not it was correctly formed with regard to the position of the negative particle. Thus, He cant go and the less frequent form He no can go were both credited for having the auxiliary can present. This analysis resulted in the orders of appearance displayed in Table 2:

These orders indicate that, as in the declarative, can and is (cop) appear early, but in the negative the order in which they appear varies from subject to subject. Do also shows up in the negative in three of the five subjects as one of the first auxiliaries to appear. Of course, in declarative do did not have the opportunity to appear. As we will see in a moment, early appearance of do in the negative (in the form of dont) results from the fact that dont is simply a negative marker similar to no and does not consist of do plus the negative. 2.1 The Negative Transformation.1 The acquisition of the negative transformation showed the following developmental pattern. The subjects began negating by using no + verb constructions such as, I no like ice cream. He no can play baseball. Then, either simultaneously or shortly afterwards, they began using dont + verb constructions, I dont understand. I dont can explain.
1 A preliminary analysis of the negative presented at the 1974 summer LSA meeting (Amherst) suggested that analyzed dont preceded isnt and cant. Subsequent analysis, as shown above, reversed this order.

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425

Next they acquired constructions in which the negative was placed after the auxiliaries is and can, She is not a teacher. He cant go. Finally, they learned the analyzed forms of dont (do not, doesnt, does not, didnt, did not), I do not go every day. He doesnt speak English. They didnt have time. This sequence led to the speculation that Spanish speakers first hypothesis is that negation in English is like negation in Spanish; hence the learners place no in front of the verb. The learners next hypothesis appears to be that the negator in English is not no, but dont, and dont is placed before the verb. At this point, it is argued that dont is simply an allomorph of no and that dont + verb constructions are still essentially Spanish negation but with the negator slightly more Anglicized. Then when the learners begin using cant, isnt, and the analyzed forms of dont, it would appear that they have learned that English negatives are formed by putting the negative particle (nt, not) after the first auxiliary element. 3.0 The Auxiliary in Interrogatives. Once again using the criterion of 80% supplied in obligatory context for three consecutive samples, we established the order of appearance of the auxiliary in the interrogative, which can be seen in Table 3. The one generalization deriving from this analysis is that is (cop) appears to precede do and can (with the exception of one subject, Juan, where do and is (cop) appear at the same time). The appearance order beyond is (cop), can and do is, once again, variable.

3.1 The Interrogative Transformation.2 Interest in the development of the interrogative in studies of first language acquisition was initially motivated by the desire to see whether the
2 A more extensive discussion of the interrogative can be found in Cazden, Cancino, Rosanaky, and Schumann, Second Language Acquisition Sequences in Children, Adolescents and Adults. Final Report to National Institute of Education, Grant No. NE-600-3-0014, 1975.

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acquisition sequence reflected the rules represented in the transformational analysis of adult English grammar. For our purposes the transformational rules for questions are: Yes/No questions: a. She is playing soccer. b. Is she playing-soccer? [Transposition] (Aux is moved in front of the subject.) Wh-questions: a. He is going where. b. Where he is going? [Preposing] (Wh-word is moved to the front of the string.) c. Where is he going? [Transposition] (Aux is moved in front of the subject.) In first language acquisition, Klima and Bellugi (1966) found what they called Stage C, in which Y/N-questions were inverted but wh-questions were not. We examined our data on the interrogative to see whether indeed their description characterizes the interrogative in second language learning. In doing so we asked the following questions. a. Do wh-questions appear in the untransposed form? When looking at all wh-questions for all auxiliaries in all subjects the answer is yes. b. Do untransposed wh-questions appear prior to transposed? When all the auxiliaries for each subject are considered the answer is no. c. Do untransposed Y/N-questions appear? Totaling for all auxiliaries we find that the answer is yes for all subjects. d. Do untransposed Y/N-questions appear prior to transposed? When all auxiliaries are considered the answer is no for all subjects. e. Does Klima and Bellugis Stage C exist for our second language learners? The answer is no when we look at all the auxiliaries for each subject. f. Is there a stage for our second language learners which is the exact opposite of Stage C, i.e., where wh-questions are inverted and Y/Nquestions are not? With the exception of one subject (Jorge), this is not the case. Thus, for second language learners the development of the interrogative unfolds in the following manner: Both Y/N and wh-questions appear in the untransposed form, but there is no stage in which the untransposed form is consistently prior to the transposed. There is also no stage in which transposed Y/N-questions precede transposed wh-questions or vice versa. In general, however, transposition is more frequent in wh-questions (which might be expected because it is here that transposition is obligatory in adult English). If one were to characterize the sequential development of inversion in our subjects questions, the best statement that could be made is that from the beginning interrogatives appear in both the transposed and un-

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transposed forms. And for some subjects transposition appears to be more frequent in later development. 4.0 The Auxiliary in Declarative, Negatives and Interrogatives (totaled). When a tally of auxiliaries is made, combining the declarative, negative and interrogative the following appearance order for auxiliary emerges (see Table 4). The order can be more clearly seen in Table 4a, which displays the rank orderings for the appearance of auxiliaries. TABLE 4 Appearance Order for the Auxiliaries (totaled)

The most obvious finding is that is (cop) is acquired first, universally, and do and can are the other two auxiliaries that appear early for most of the subjects. As we move beyond these three auxiliaries there is a great deal of variability in terms of order of appearance. This reflects the same variability observed in the order of appearance of the auxiliary when considered separately in the declarative, negative and interrogative. The early appearance of is (cop), can and do might be explained on the following grounds. a. is (cop) is a form that exists in Spanish and which functions similarly to the English form. Of course, there is a second be form in Spanish, estar. But this does not seem to cause problems, because it is generally easy to move from two categories in the native language to one

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category in the target language. The Spanish counterpart to is (cop) is es, (ser), which is even phonologically similar to the English form. This similarity undoubtedly facilitates positive transfer. b. The early appearance of can is probably explicable on the basis of its functional utility in early second language acquisition. It allows the learner to express notions of ability and requestsnotions which are essential for functioning in the second language even at elementary stages. c. The early appearance of do can be explained, in part, by the fact that it serves as a negative particle similar to no. In this case, however, although do appears early (in the form of dont) it is not functioning as an auxiliary, but simply as a negator. The reason for the early appearance of do in questions is more difficult to explain. It could perhaps result from the existence of certain stereotyped forms, i.e. high frequency utterances heard in the input and simply repeated as such: Do you know what I mean? and How do you say X?, or do might simply be placed in front of a statement as a question marker. After having rank ordered the appearance of the auxiliaries for our subjects, we wanted to determine whether or not the orders for our subjects were at all similar. Clearly from eye-balling the data we can see that is (cop) appears early for all subjects. But beyond that, we wished to determine statistically whether or not there were any correlations between the subjects orders. We analyzed our rank orderings with the Kendall Correlation of Concordance W. With an N (the auxiliaries in this case) as large as 18, the distribution approaches the x2 distribution. The H. was that the orders are independent or unrelated. The correlation was nonsignificant (P> .90). So, not only were we unable to disprove the null hypothesis, but 93% of the time our correlations would not be significant. In other words, we find that our subjects orders appear to be highly variable. Of course, had we had a larger sample of subjects there is the possibility that this measure of concordance would have revealed similar orders for the appearance of the subjects auxiliaries, or it might have revealed a similarity in orders across subjects with the auxiliaries appearing in clusters. With a larger sample it is also possible that different orders might have emerged for children, adolescents, and adults. It is equally possible, however, that a larger sample would reveal the very same variable orders that we have found in our study to date. Assuming that our findings are indeed representative of what occurs in second language acquisition, some very interesting issues arise: 1. There have been recent claims (Dulay & Burt, 1973, Madden, Bailey, and Krashen, 1975) that acquisition of English by speakers of other languages follows an invariant order for certain grammatical morphemes. Our analysis which considers grammatical features, some of which are similar to morphemes, finds considerable variability.

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As more such research results become available earlier explanations for second language acquisition may have to be considered from a different perspective. It is obvious that there is a lot more to be learned, and therefore it is our hope that research in this area will continue.
REFERENCES Dulay, H. and M. Burt. 1973. Should we teach children syntax? Language Learning, 23, 245-158. Cazden, C., H. Cancino, E. Rosansky and J. Schumann. 1975. Second Language Acquisition Sequences in Children, Adolescents and Adults. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. National Institute of Education Office of Research Grants. (Grant No. NE-6-OO-3-O014, Project No. 730-744) Klima, E. S. and U. Bellugi. 1966. Syntactic regularities in the speech of children. In J. Lyons and R. J. Wales (Eds.) Psycholinguistics papers. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Madden, C., N. Bailey and S. Krashen. 1975. Acquisition of function words by adults learners of ESL: evidence for universal strategies? Paper presented at the Ninth Annual TESOL Convention, Los Angeles, March 1975. Siegel, S. 1956. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York, Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Slobin, D. I. (ed.). 1967. A field manual for cross-cultural study of the acquisition of communicative competence. University of California, Berkeley.

REVIEWS
TEACHING CULTURE: STRATEGY FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATORS. H. Net Seelye. Skokie, Illinois: National Textbook Company in conjunction with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1974. pp. vii, 188. While applied linguists often see language teaching as an end in itself, and language teachers are often trained to consider it merely as preparation for reading great literature, there are many who argue that learning a language is a means of access to and understanding of other cultures. The bare assertion is clearly not enough, but only recently have there been attempts to demonstrate precisely how foreign language teaching can also involve teaching about the culture involved. There have been brief references to the issue in the standard books on language teaching and an increasing number of articles in professional journals and publications. An impressive number of these articles have been the work of H. Ned Seelye who has now synthesized his own work and that of many others into this first major study in the field in over thirty years. The fact that the author seems equally at home with anthropological, psychological, linguistic, and pedagogical approaches to the subject, being afraid neither to recognize theoretical complexity nor to suggest practical classroom applications, makes this a most useful book which should add a valuable dimension to the pre-service and in-service training of foreign language teachers. Apart from one brief minidrama, there are no direct applications to the TESOL situation but teachers of English as a second language will easily see the books many applications and implications. Seelye starts by trying to bury the issue of what culture is. Rather than a definition, he proposes a description, accepting that culture embraces all aspects of the life of man, from folk tales to carved whales. He is concerned then to show how a teacher of a foreign language might teach culturally, using his or her imagination freely to add depth to the classes. He presents simply a number of different approaches to culture, outlining Hsus postulates of U.S. culture and Nostrands model of cultural themes to prevent imagination running wild and aimless. He is thus able to establish an overall aim: All students will develop the cultural understandings, attitudes, and performance skills needed to function appropriately within a society of the target language and communicate with the culture bearer (39). Within this aim he sets up seven goals for students: recognizing that each culture has its own set of culturally conditioned behaviors, understanding that social variables like sex and age affect behavior, being able to act appropriately in conventional situations, being aware of the cultural connotations
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of common words, being able to distinguish valid from invalid generalizations about a culture, and being curious about a culture and a people who belong to it. Seelye demonstrates how this model might be applied even to such a seemingly trivial topic as food. Showing his own sensitivity to the present educational culture, Seelye sets out the measurable end-of-course objectives which might be developed for the culture lessons. For each goal he establishes some performance objectives. The humanistically trained foreign language teacher might find these procedures somewhat repulsive, but knowledge of them will help him live more easily with administrators who worship accountability. For each of the objectives, then, examples are given of the most appropriate learning activities. The examples are good and clear and should stimulate the imagination of teachers. The use of mini-dramas is encouraged and exemplified. Techniques are described for teaching cultural concepts and for helping students to ask significant questions. Two final chapters illustrate the nature of end-of-course objective tests and provide a fairly full list of sources of cultural material. All in all, this book should be a useful corrective to those who believe language teaching can lead only to the understanding of linguistic principles, the reading of classics, or conversations in a foreign post office, and a strong aid to those who seek ways to help their students understand another culture. BERNARD SPOLSKY The University of New Mexico

DEVELOPING READING SKILLSADVANCED. Louise Hirasawa and Linda Markstein. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, 1974. Pp. vii, 169. The title decribes the purpose of the text. It consists of twelve articles on a variety of topics of general interest to college and college preparatory students. The subjects range from Margaret Meads opinion on youth to recent research in genetics and body language, presented in a style that is lively, challenging, and at times controversial. The authors have adapted recent magazine articles to pre-college level, keeping the original style and frequently using quotes for an added personal touch. Each article is written in a serious tone, using terminology appropriate to the subject. Thus, through a magazine article format, the student is eased into technical writing he is likely to encounter in the academic texts and professional journals of his regular college courses. The articles themselves are fascinating enough for leisure reading. It is the authors method, however, that makes this book a unique and valuable

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pedagogic instrument. The method is geared toward developing independence and self-direction while increasing the students skill in reading easily and efficiently. The reading is done silently, there are no marginal notes, footnotes, nor glossary, and dictionaries are not used in class. Each article is speed timed, which may at first arouse anxiety in students who are used to laboring over unfamiliar terminology and complex phrasing. But the time limits are usually generous and most students find they save time by being made to guess at the meaning of a word, rather than taking several minutes to leaf through the dictionary. After the first reading, the student turns to the comprehension check at the end of the chapter and answers ten true-false questions. He then reads the article again, within a shorter time limit, this time recalling some of the true-false questions and looking for specific information. Again he answers the comprehension check questions, without looking at his first set of answers. He then looks up the answers in the back of the book. It is hoped that his second score will be better than the first. The test can be quite effective for independent study, but the first few chapters are best done in class until the student is confident of his ability to follow the method. It is important to note that the comprehension checks are never used as quizzes. Rather, they are intended as the students personal record of progress. Since the articles are of increasing length and difficulty, the student must be consistent in his efforts in order to see his progress. While the articles are relatively short, 500-2000 words, they are accompanied by a wealth of exercises for developing reading skills, most of which have the answers in the back of the book. In addition to the basic comprehension checks, there are exercises for the analysis of ideas and relationships, in which the student has to identify the main idea of the paragraph and make inferences about things that are implied, but not directly stated. Paragraphs are numbered for quick reference. Distinguishing fact from opinion seems to present the greatest challenge to the student, but the authors have included exercises to tackle this problem, too. Some exercises involve arranging sentences in logical order for practice in paragraph organization and pre-composition writing. Other standard exercises deal with interpretation of words and phrases, providing practice with idioms and colloquial usage. There are exercises for synonym identification, multiple word verbs, determiners, prepositions and verb completers. The vocabulary exercises are oriented to usage more than definition. In addition to the traditional use-the-word-in-a-sentence exercises, each chapter contains a set of word form exercises to help the student learn to identify parts of Speech and to use appropriate word forms in context. While the student may know the meaning of the root word, he is certain to be challenged by the distinctions between reliant / reliable and to necessitate / to need. Other exercises involve recall and manipulation skills. The sentence con-

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struction exercises require the student to use the exact forms of the words in the given order to make complete complex sentences. In the reading reconstruction, the student reads a paragraph several times, then with the help of several key words as guides, tries to restate the ideas of the original paragraph. Both exercises are excellent for oral and written practice and give a reflection of the students overall level of proficiency. The book contains three periodic review examinations to monitor the students progress in word form usage and his control of determiners, prepositions and verb completers. In summary, Developing Reading SkillsAdvanced is an interesting and challenging book for students who already have good command of English but who need to refine their reading skills. The design of the text makes it flexible enough for use in the traditional classroom and in individualized/ independent learning programs. While the method concentrates on developing speed and comprehension in reading, the abundance of varied exercises makes the book a well balanced text for general improvement of both receptive and productive language skills. It is a welcome alternative to standard literature-based reading texts. MARIA STIEBEL Atlantic Community College

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TESTS AND REVIEWS. Oscar K. Buros, editor, Highland Park, New Jersey: Gryphon Press, 1975. Pp. 312. Foreign Language Tests and Reviews succinctly describes the state of the art of foreign language testing for the past fifty years. This monograph is part of the classic Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) series, edited by Oscar K. Buros. Foreign language sections of the first seven Mental Measurements Yearbooks (193872) and Tests in Print (1974) are reprinted in this volume. Buros argues that the early objectives of MMYs remain valid for the present volume . The publications are essentially designed: (1) to present frankly critical test reviews , written by either testing experts or subject matter specialists; (2) to provide information regarding tests currently available throughout the English-speaking world; (3) to provide bibliographies on the construction, validation, and use of specific tests; (4) to make available the critical portions of test reviews appearing in professional journals; and (5) to provide listings of new and revised books on testing. Two types of reviews are included in the monograph. The shorter types include title, test population, copyright date, acronym, part scores, author(s), publishers, brief special comments, cost, time, and scoring information. Selected longer reviews include all of the above information plus a succinct narrative assessment written by a testing or subject-matter specialist. It is in the latter form that a frankly critical review, with both

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strengths and weaknesses highlighted, is presented. These assessment reviews include contributions by well-known figures like Brooks, Carroll, Clark, Hagiwara, Lado, Pimsleur, and so forth. Foreign language tests in most of the commonly taught languages are presented. For purposes of this review, however, English as a Second Language test listings and assessment reviews were checked. The Tests in Print reprint includes fourteen different tests of English as a second language, ranging from comprehensive English language tests, to ESL placement tests, to vocabulary and reading tests for students of ESL. Basic reference data on each of these tests is given. The most recent Mental Measurements Yearbook (Seventh) provides both basic reference data and an assessment review of A Comprehensive English Test for Speakers of English as a Second Language (John Carroll, reviewer) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (Clinton I. Chase and George Domino, reviewers). In each case, the review is written in a very comprehensible and systematic manner. While reliability coefficients and statements of validity are given, and these can be confusing to the uninitiated, the reviewers have been quite skillful at rendering clear explanations. Also listed in this section of the text are six other ESL tests. Since the number is so small, the titles are included here for the readers benefit: (1) English Knowledge and Comprehension Test; (2) English Usage Test for Non-Native Speakers of English; (3) Listening Test for Students of English as a Second Language; (4) Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency; (5) Oral Rating Form of Rating Language Proficiency in Speaking and Understanding English; and, (6) A Vocabulary and Reading Test for Students of English as a Second Language. This monograph is potentially useful to those searching for appropriate ESL tests and/or to those seeking information on ESL tests which they currently utilize. There are excellent reviews throughout the monograph, reviews which will serve a basic information-seeking need which a user has. In that respect this text will be most useful as a type of handbook which individuals, departments of foreign language, and libraries should make available. Plans are being made to publish as Eighth Mental Measurement Yearbook in 1977 and to revise Tests in Print (1978). It is anticipated that the foreign sections of these volumes will supplement and update the material in the present monograph. While the need which this type of volume fills is a very real one and a significant one, the wisdom of reprinting so extensively, without any appreciable modification in either the format or the content seems questionable. Such a luxury seems misplaced in an age of ecologically-minded efforts and an even more obvious need to economize financially. CHARLES HANCOCK State University of New York at Albany

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THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING. Leon A. Jakobovits and Barbara Gordon: Rowley, Mass.; Newbury House, 1974. Pp. 286. Apparently, the principal author of this work has given up on previous attempts to apply psycholinguistics to the foreign language classroom as in his Foreign Language Learning: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of the Issues (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1970). He has therefore turned to applying sociolinguistics, or more exactly, sociology to the problems of teaching foreign languages. As a result, the truly innovative suggestions in the text owe their original impetus to persons such as Garfinkel (Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1968)) and Goffman (Relations in Public (New York: Basic Books, 1971)). These persons have studied the context of conversational interchanges intensively and have thus developed the rules to describe these inter-changes. Jakobovits and Gordon have developed a methodology, which they call Transactional Engineering Analysis, to employ the findings of these sociologists. The authors of this work see their transactional engineering analysis as synthesizing the teaching of the basic skills in language learningthe teaching of pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence patterns-with advanced language training designed to liberate the student from speaking sentences to partaking in a conversational exchange (p. 60). They envision this as being done by the use of pattern practices which in effect are constructed according to the rules governing conversational interchanges such as the rules for conversation openers. Thus a pattern practice may be constructed as foIlows: May I please join you now? 1. May I please join you now? May I please go now? go now? 2. May I please leave now? leave? 3. May I please use your telephone? use your telephone? 4. May I please leave it here? 5. leave it here? May I please borrow your umbrella? borrow your umbrella? 6. (The above is adapted from p. 65 of the work under review.) It is this type of exercise which these authors use to lend legitimacy to their claim that transactional engineering analysis is a new rationale for an old habit, pattern practice. There is no doubt that pattern practices could be written with more finesse and with more common sense behind their composition. The rationale provided by Jakobovits and Gordon certainly will aid in this dimension of language textbook writing. But what of the great debates which caused Jakobovits to reject the ALM and pattern practice in his earlier work and to seek a new rationale for the pattern practice at least in the present work? What of the questions of stimulus/response learning versus innate mechanisms, and conditioning versus cognition, questions which occupied the methodologists of a previous decade? Evidently, if the present work is any

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indication, these questions are now of little relevance. They have been left for concerns such as the rules governing conversational exchanges, which somehow can be fashioned into a method for teaching foreign languages. This is not to say that the text deals exclusively with transactional engineering analysis. On the contrary, the first chapter deals with the possibility of becoming bilingual under the title of The Psychology of FL Learning. The second chapter deals largely with individualization of instruction in FL learning while the third and fourth chapters deal largely with transactional engineering analysis. The fifth chapter is largely the text of a speech delivered by Jacobovits at the 1972 TESOL convention in Washington, D.C. under the title of Freedom to Teach and Freedom to Learn. The chapter, like the speech, recommends that teachers throw off all social restraints so that they can do their thing, whatever that may be. This is a rather unrealistic goal since all societies place restraints on the behavior of members within the society, including teachers. The sixth chapter is concerned primarily with an encounter workshop. The remaining chapters, seven, eight and nine, are back to the topic of transactional engineering analysis. There are two very irritating aspects of the work under review: (1) The use of trite sayings which are obviously biased, and (2) The sexist view of the teaching situation which seeps through the use of pronouns. Among the first, consider the following: . . . lo and behold the world isnt as it is . . . (p. 11) And there goes another lost cause . . . (p. 12) Witch hunting must at all costs be avoided. (p. 97) If you are an old-fashioned old-timer, you are no doubt ready to scoff at all that we have written in this chapter. O. K. Goodbye. It was nice knowing you. Dont call us, [sic] well call you. (p. 101) Oh, so much idealism! Sitting in our ivory tower . . . (p. 101) Is it really possible? Isnt it dangerous? It may even be immoral! Isnt it subversive . . .? p. 112) The girls are out fighting for their rights. (p. 155) The second of these may be inadvertent, but it is nevertheless there. For instance, on page 84, the word teacher is pronominalized by he; in this instance, the comment is favorable: . . . he is honest and searching . . . On page 127, the word teacher is pronominalized by she; in this instance, the view of the teacher is considerably less flattering: She is encountering a great deal of trouble in her task. . . . She has reached a frustrating and incomprehensible impasse. What can she do? It is strange that Ms. Gordon would let herself be associated with such a faux pas. JAMM W. NEY Arizona State University

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THE STUDY OF SOCIAL DIALECTS IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. Walt Wolfram and Ralph W. Fasold. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974. Pp. XV, 239. This is an introductory textbook on social dialects in American English written by two socioIinguists whose names are closely connected with the study of nonstandard dialects of English in the U.S. and the quantitative approach to problems in language variation. Basically, it is an introduction to the nature and extent of linguistic variation in American English, with particular emphasis on social dialects. The sociology of language and the ethanography of speaking excluded, its scope is restricted to the following major topics in general linguistics and the ecology of language: the relativistic view of linguistic differences and the dualistic interpretation of language as code and behavior (Chap. 1); social dialects as a field of study (2); field methods in social dialectology (3); theoretical models for describing sociolinguistic variation (4, 5); socially diagnostic phonological and grammatical features (6, 7); and educational implications as well as practical applications of language differences for American education (8). In comparison with other recent works dealing with various aspects of American English dialectology (e.g., Evertts 1967; Shuy 1967; Labov 1970, 1972a, 1972b; and Reed 1973), the work under review seems to come closest to filling the need for an elementary text on social dialectology. Like most texts, however, it contains strong points and weak ones. Among the assets of the book, I would list the following. The selection of topics treated, though biased, is consonant with the authors views of language in general and of language variation in particular; the overall organization is good; and the presentation is lucid for the most part. The chapters devoted to field methods and educational applications are especially commendable. In a typical class of students with varied interests, even the more specialized chapters such as the one on theoretical Linguistic models, should be useful for those who are genuinely interested in such matters. Practically all will benefit from the numerous figures and tables included in the work to clarify detailed and complicated sociolinguistic data and analytical results which are difficult to grasp by means of words alone. Among liabilities, first of all, the audience to whom the book is addressed seems to be too heterogeneous. By design, it includes students of general linguistics, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in fields related to linguistics (e.g., English and sociology) who have not had previous training in linguistics, and professional linguists (xiv-xv). By chance (or so it would appear), it could also include laymen because of the extremely wide range of linguistic sophistication that is assumed of potential readers. For example, the degrees of technicality included on the phonological level run the gamut from popular paraphrases (e.g., the pronunciations aritmetic, mont, nuttn (136)), to standard phonetic transcriptions and generativephonology rules, to highly technical variable rules containing such minutia

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as formalized versions of the hierarchical ordering of constraints on variability and the probabilities of occurrence associated with such constraints. The solution suggested to this problem of span is that the most specialized parts of the book be considered optional and used only by those who are really interested (xiv). Since the book is designed as a text, however, I think that there is a better solution. To wit, it would have been preferable for the authors to have assumed minimal linguistic training (i.e., familiarity with and/or command of materials presented in introductory linguistics courses or their equivalents) on the part of all readers and had presented their materials accordingly. In phonology, to continue the example, this would have meant dispensing with popular (but awkward) paraphrases and couching statements at a level no lower than that of articulatory phonetics. Although the suggestion would impose a prerequisite on prospective users of the book, I do not think that it is an impractical nor unrealistic limitation because of the complexity of some of the materials treated. The countersuggestion of providing needy students with minimal linguistic training in conjunction with a course in social dialectology is a possibility, but not as good a solution, in my opinion, as the one suggested. Although the suggested alternative would result in a more technical work, it would be a better textbook because of its restricted audience. Secondly, some of the terms used in the book could prove to be misleading. For example, the rubric Nonstandard English, particularly in the second half of the work, turns out by and large to be a restricted class of American English dialectsviz., Vernacular Black English, White Southern nonstandard speech, Puerto Rican English, and Appalachian English. To put it differently, the principal nonstandard dialects considered seem to be limited largely to those that have been studied by the authors themselves or their colleagues. Granted that work on these dialects has contributed disproportionately to the modern study of nonstandard dialects and variation theory, they nevertheless comprise only a fraction of all the nonstandard dialects of American English. Readers are well advised therefore to be wary of the label, even if they feel favorably inclined toward the authors views on dialect and variatione. g., the descriptive strategy of giving priority to dialects of English that diverge most radically from Standard English because they are said to contain most of the features found in the less divergent varieties (33) and multi-valued (as opposed to two-valued) implicational analyses of variable data (113). Similar, though less serious, caveats could be stated for the terms linguistic constraint and socially diagnostic phonological and grammatical features. Contrary to usage in other works, the former refers to factors which encourage, rather than discourage, the operation of a variable rule (101, n. 2). And the latter refers to more or less closed, rather than open, sets of stigmatized features, primarily because certain categories, such as features which are immediately traceable to the influence of foreign languages, were automatically excluded (128-29).

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Thirdly, some of the minor oversights in the book could turn out to be distracting. Those that I found most annoying were discrepancies between the minimal forms of bibliographical references given in the text and the full citations in the bibliography. The following are examples: Taylor 1969 in n. 4 and p. 11; Warner 1960 on pp. 41, 43, and 44; Labov . . . (1972: . . .) on pp. 49 and 57; Fasold 1969: . . . on p. 63; Shuy, Baratz, and Wolfram (1968) on pp. 68 and 82; Fishman . . . ( 1969: . . .) on pp. 69 and 200; Shuy 1971 on p. 178; Whyte and Homberg (1965: . . .) on p. 183; Kochman . . .(1969: . . .) on p. 190; Davis, Gladney, and Leaverton (1969) on p. 200; and sterberg (1964) on p. 202. Many of these are discrepancies in dates of publication, some of which can be explained in terms of supplementary sources of background information being added to the original bibliography of works cited after the text of the work had been completed. This would account for cases in which two or more entries by the same author bearing the same publication date are clearly differentiated (by lower case letters after the year) in the bibliography, but not in the text. Despite the foregoing criticisms, however, I think that the book under review is an appropriate and usable text in courses devoted exclusively or primarily to social dialects. I also think that the less technical chapters can be used as collateral reading in introductory linguistics courses in which dialects of American English are covered. Until a better elementary text on the subject is published, I intend to take advantage of its availability. STANLEY M. TSUZAKI University of Hawaii REFERENCES
Evertts, Eldonna L. (editor). 1967. Dimensions of dialect. Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English. Labov, William. 1970. The study of nonstandard English. Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English. . 1972a. Language in the inner city: studies in the Black English Vernacular. Conduct and Communication No. 3. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1972b. Sociolinguistic patterns. Conduct and Communication No. 4. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Reed, Carroll E. 1973. Dialects of American English. Second printing. [Amherst, Mass]: The University of Massachusetts Press. Shuy, Roger W. 1967. Discovering American dialects. Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English

Problems in English Grammar

QUERY : Why did the traditional grammar long taught in the schools lose support so rapidly in the face of attack? RESPONSE : The traditional school grammar had come to seem unsatisfactory to manyperhaps to mostof those who taught it. Part of the trouble doubtless lay in the presentation. There was too much repetition of elementary grammatical matters, year after year, and not enough attention to more complex grammatical matters of equal or greater importance. But dissatisfaction extended beyond presentation. A vigorous statement of frequently mentioned reasons for dissatisfaction is to be found in a chapter entitled Grammarians Funeral in the late Paul Roberts Understanding English (1958). Professor Roberts found the traditional school grammar unsatisfactory because it followed Latin grammar too slavishly, because it made indefensible distinctions between good English and bad English, and because it showed too many evidences of poor thinking. Professor Roberts was an extraordinarily successful writer of traditional, Structural, and (finally) Transformational textbooks of the fifties and sixties; his judgment of the school grammar deserves attention, and seems fundamentally correct. An important point is made in the second edition of Dwight Bolingers Aspects of Language (1975). Unlike Professor Roberts, Professor Bolinger treats traditional grammar with respect. But he does say that textbook treatments of it are likely to be the work of amateurs rather than of professionals (p. 513). Professor Bolingers opinions on linguistic matters deserve special notice because of his position at Harvard, his recent presidency of the Linguistic Society of America, and (most important) the extraordinary amount and quality of his scholarly publication on both English language and general linguistic theory. It is obviously true that much of what is said about English grammar in the handbooks and catch-all textbooks long used in the schools has been written by people who simply have not known enough grammar. The colleges and universities deserve much of the blame for this state of affairs: they have been slow to recognize the grammatical structure 441

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of modern English as a respectable field of study and investigation, and our textbooks have suffered as a result of this attitude. Beyond this, we must not forget that in competing with traditional materials Structural and Transformational materials have had in their favor their claim to be scientific in important new ways. Thus Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner could write, in Linguistics: A Revolution in Teaching (1967, p. 26), that to be modern, schools must claim to use a linguistic approachjust as they must teach the new math, the new science, and the new social studies. Traditional grammar has never stood still; no tradition can really stand still. But traditional grammarians have not regarded newness as of value in itself, and usually they have not called themselves linguistic scientists. Structural and Transformational grammar are both based in explicit theory, whereas traditional grammar carries no burden of explicit theory. In the inevitable conflict between Structural theory and Transformational illustrated notably in the published account of the 1958 Third Texas Conference on Problems in Linguistic Analysis in English (1962)Transformational theory emerged clearly victorious. But Transformational theory has gone through a bewildering evolution, and Transformational materials have been both very hard to read and (like Structural materials) notably incomplete in the range of topics dealt with. It should not be surprising that in her 1974 presidential address to the National Council of Teachers of English, Margaret Early remarked that in just five years we have been in and out of Transformational grammar (English Journal, November 1974, p. 12). Meanwhile we should remember that not all traditional grammars have the defects of the school grammars of the past. Some are the products of lifetimes of careful work in the field, and are notably broad in coverage. Solid traditional grammars are still being published in the seventies, as Professor Bolinger points out (Aspects, pp. 513-514). It is true, of course, that traditional grammars are inevitably purist in some degree. As Professor Bolinger says in the Foreword to the 1975 Aspects (p. vi), purism can be regarded as one of the inevitable forces that maintain stability. Traditional grammarians are characteristically interested in describing a relatively stable standard variety of contemporary English. (RL) QUERY : Is may used correctly in the following sentences? 1. You may use my typewriter if you wish. 2. At this time of the year excellent accommodations may be found almost anywhere along the coast. 3. If the Indians that Cortez encountered had been united, the history of Mexico may have been different. RESPONSE : In the first of these sentences may obviously means have permission to. It is certainly correct in the sentence given, but you can use my typewriter if youd like to is a less formal-and more comfortableequiv-

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alent of this sentence, and is perfectly acceptable. May is more graciously used in asking permission than in granting or refusing it. In the second of the three sentences presumably may expresses feasibility. With this meaning, in contemporary usage can is more satisfactory than may. In the third sentence may is obviously used with what is now its commonest meaning, expressing possibility (mixed with doubt) of the kind the adverb perhaps also expresses. If the Indians that Cortez encountered had been united, perhaps the history of Mexico would have been different. The subjunctive past form might, rather than the indicative present form may, is needed in the third of the three sentences, which is a rejected (contrary-to-fact) condition in past time. If the Indians that Cortez encountered had been united, the history of Mexico might have been different. In meaning the history of Mexico may have been different is like it is possible that the history of Mexico was (or has been) different, and this meaning is not compatible with that of the subordinate clause if the Indians that Cortez encountered had been united. (RL) QUERY: Is at idiomatic, for American English, in such sentences as the coffee grounds were at the bottom of the cup? RESPONSE : Yes. This use of at can be seen as a result of peoples habit of measuring depth on a scale and describing things, even without precise thought, as at points on the scale. One might describe watching a diver at the bottom of a clear lake and seeing him setup a tripod on the rocky bottom of the lake. When the bottom comes into focus as a surface rather than as an end point on a scale of depth, the preposition becomes on. The following sentences contract at with on similarly: The elevator stopped at the third floor. My dentists office is on the third floor. (RL) QUERY: Does the verb float always imply motion on the surface of a liquid, in American English? RESPONSE: In American English float can certainly mean hang in suspension, without motion and between the top and bottom of, for example, a cup of coffee. Both the American Heritage Dictionary (1969) and Websters New Collegiate Dictionary (1973) recognize this meaning. These two volumes are cited here because they are excellent rather recent American desk dictionaries done from very different points of view. (RL)

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QUERY: Are if only it would rain! and if only it rained! equivalent in meaning? And what positions can only occupy in these two sentences? RESPONSE : If only it would rain! is appropriately usable when and where rain seems possible but not very probable. If only it rained! is appropriately usable where it never or practically never rainsfor example, in a desert. Rained is a subjunctive past form here, used to express present unreality. Would rain can be regarded as a past-future subjunctive concerned with future time. Or would can be felt as the past-subjunctive form of the modal will, expressing willingness. Itthe great neuter of naturecan be felt as uncooperative but (in the first of the two sentences) not hopelessly so. In the first of the two sentences given, only can precede it, would, or rain; in the second sentence it can precede either it or rained. From the point of view of meaning, it seems not to matter which of its possible positions only is placed in. (RL) QUERY: What is the meaning of must in you must have finished by tomorrow evening? If finish is substituted for have finished in this sentence, how is the meaning affected? RESPONSE : In this sentence the modal must expresses necessity. In Mary must have finished by noon yesterday the same modal expresses inference. Semantic equivalents of these two sentences follow: It is necessary that you have finished by tomorrow evening. It seems clear that Mary had finished by noon yesterday. In the original sentence, if the present infinitive finish is substituted for the present-perfect infinitive have finished the meaning is not really affected. The presence of the preposition by makes the perfect-tense component essentially redundant here. The presence of after makes the same component unnecessary in the first of the following sentences. Call me after you have finished. Call me after you finish. (RL) QUERY : When we need a pronoun to use of a particular person whose sex we do not know, why do we not solve our problem by using it? Dorothy Sayers does this in her mystery novel Strong Poison (1958 edition, p. 82) in speaking of a violinist of inderterminate sex who, she says ultimately put down its instrument and stood up, revealing itself by its legs to be female. RESPONSE : Unfortunately it sounds scornful or sarcastic in this use, and Dorothy Sayers must have intended such an effect in the sentence quoted. It is usable inoffensively in identifications: for example, when the question who was that? (asked of someone who had just received a telephone call) is answered by it was Harry again. And it is usable of babies of unknown sex. Otherwise it is simply not usable inoffensively of people.

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It is of course much more generally usable of other living beings. But when a friendly feeling colors our attitudes, we are likely to prefer he or she to it. Thus a kitten or a rabbit is likely to be called he or she, and a person who lives in the tropics may call a lizard (or unknown sex) hunting insects on a window screen he, but would be much less likely to call a snake he. In his Meaning and the Structure of Language (1970, p. 111) Wallace L. Chafe says that when we use he of, for example, an elephant, we are anthropomorphizing the animal. Certainly when we use he or she of people we are in effect recognizing that they have personality. When we speak of any one human being, ordinarily we are expected to recognize this personality, whether or not we respect the person. It is one of the oddities of the grammar of modern English that when we use a plural third-person pronoun no such recognition is even possible. They is used of people without regard to sex, of other living beings without regard to our attitudes toward them, and of lifeless objects or anything else that is felt as plural. We can use they informally to refer to such unspecific singulars as someone, but we cannot use either they or it satisfactorily of a particular person whose sex we do not know. (RL)

Olsson, Margareta. A Study of Errors: Frequency, Origin and Effects. Gothenburg School of Education (Sweden), 1974. 140 pp. ED 102831 The report describes an analysis of errors yielded by a written test in English given to 424 Swedish 14-year-olds from 24 different classes in the comprehensive school. The analysis discusses the difference in attainment between pupils of high and low proficiency, frequencies and types of errors for regular and irregular verbs, and the occurrence of systematic and non-systematic errors. It also tries to trace the errors back to the influence of the pupils first language, to mechanisms regulating the acquisition of skills in general, and to unsatisfactory teaching strategies and teaching material. The investigation is part of a large-scale project trying to establish frequencies and types of errors in oral as well as written production by the age group in question. Informant tests based on the most frequent errors are to be administered in England in order to lay down the communicative value of the errors.