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[Abstract]
This paper discusses the development and eventual rejection of Contrastive Analysis, which emerged in the 1950's as a strategy for comparing specific languages and predicting the difficulties students would experience in learning them. Using an historical perspective, the paper traces initial enthusiasm for Contrastive Analysis, along with related unsupported pedagogical applications, one of which was the audio-lingual method. The link between structuralist linguistics and behaviorism is noted, and the process of Contrastive Analysis is described. The questionable predictive claims of Contrastive Analysis are analyzed and discussed, and the later modifications of the theory described. The possible utility of Contrastive Analysis in phonology is recognized, as is its total absence of semantic application. The paper details how Chomskyan concepts of language acquisition and deep structure forced a complete revision and eventual discrediting of Contrastive analysis. Noted are concomitant findings from language acquisition research, which also influenced the demise of Contrastive Analysis.
Error Analysis and Interlanguage Theory are presented as subsequent developments in second language acquisition researches, which have attempted to describe issues once addressed by Contrastive Analysis. Readers are encouraged to view earlier theoretical perspectives in historical context.
[Keywords] Contrastive analysis; audio-lingual; linguistics; audiolingual method; TEFL; China; Army method; FLT
Introduction
The success of the "Army Method" had a significant effect on Foreign Language Teaching (henceforth FLT) in the US. It was designed to provide the American government with personnel fluent in a wide range of languages such as German, French, Italian and Chinese. After the emergence of the US as a world power, it was extended to civil ends. A demand for foreign expertise in the teaching of English increased as thousands of foreign students entered American universities and required training in English to begin their studies. Thus in 1958, the US government allocated funds for the development of teaching methods that would ensure effective teaching. Around the same time, Lado developed his theory of Contrastive Analysis (hereafter CA). His Linguistics across Cultures (1957) was published in 1957.
CA is concerned with solving the problems that second language learners have in learning a second or foreign language. (In this paper, the terms second and foreign language are used interchangeably learning and referred to as L2.) This is supported by behaviorist/ structuralist studies...