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Textbook Analysis of Surface‐Structure Difficulty
Author(s) -
LaVergne Marcel
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1977.tb03034.x
Subject(s) - sentence , linguistics , surface structure , psychology , philosophy , physics , molecular physics
Every sentence in the first ten lessons of a high school French I textbook was examined to determine the extent to which the textbook writers did or did not control the French syntactic surface structures in terms of their differences with the English equivalents. The results show that students were exposed to many sentences which exhibit L 1 ‐L 2 syntactic differences prior to any explanation of these differences–in some cases with no explanation at all. It is argued that such sentences will cause difficulty for students in the form of linguistic interference, and that they should not be included unless they are explained. Sentences should not be used only as a vehicle for certain patterns to be taught; rather, every sentence should be viewed in light of the total L 1 ‐L 2 situation.