Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities.
During the 1960s, there was a widespread enthusiasm with this technique, manifested in the contrastive descriptions of several European languages,[1] many of which were sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC.
It was expected that once the areas of potential difficulty had been mapped out through contrastive analysis, it would be possible to design language courses more efficiently.
Contrastive analysis, along with behaviourism and structuralism exerted a profound effect on SLA curriculum design and language teacher education, and provided the theoretical pillars of the audio-lingual method.
In response to the above criticisms, a moderate version of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) has developed which paradoxically contradicts Lado's original claim.