Contrastive Analysis In Foreign Language Teaching

This paper, aiming at reappraising Contrastive Analysis's (CA) contribution to foreign language teaching, suggests a new model of Contrastive Analysis -- Neo- Contrastive Analysis. After giving a historical review of the three forms of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, CA's theoretical backgrounds, historical development and the criticisms it received, the paper reconsiders its theoretical foundation--Transfer Theory and Behaviorist psychology from a more cognitive aspect. It is argued that both language function and discourse structure should be included in the scope of CA besides its traditional language form, and that the computer-based electronic corpus be introduced as an innovation to its research methodology. The revised Neo-Contrastive Analysis can offer great help to the classroom organization, course material development, designing testing items and Error Analysis in foreign language teaching.