L'APPRENTISSAGE D'UNE SECONDE LANGUE CHEZ L'ADULTE

Résumé

Whereas many in North America (and in this issue of the Journal) consider the study of a second language and the acquisition of the mother tongue to be similar if not identical processes, Bouton is resolute in resisting this point of view. He deals here with a number of aspects of the instruction of adults in foreign languages that should give direction to research and practice: contrastive linguistics, analysis of the cognitive approach, the advantages and disadvantages of the "languages of specialization", and certain pathological difficulties that affect first language leaming also. He accompanies his exposition with a penetrating commentary of immediate relevance to specialists in the teaching of foreign languages.