Although it has been suggested that

Although it has been suggested that the strategies of learning a first and second language may . be . the same, it is nevertheless necessary at this point to posit a distinction between the two. Whilst one may suppose that the first language learner has an unlimited number of hypotheses about the nature of the language he is learning which must be tested (although strong reasons have been put forward for doubting this) we may certainly take it that the task of the second 0 language learner is a..simpler one,: that the only hypotheses he needs to test are: 少 'Are the systems of tKe new language the same or different from those of the language I know?' 'And if different, what is their nature ?* Evidence for this is " tiaat a large'number, But by no means all, of his errors, are related to the systems of his mother-tongue.