June 1, 1982

THE Defense Language Institute, once considered a pioneer in the teaching of foreign languages, has been reviewed by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and found deficient in management, priorities and performance. It has, the report said, spent 159 man-years and $4.2 million on efforts to improve the quality of its courses without producing the necessary basic teaching materials. According to testimony taken, ''staffing priorities were so erratic that realistic planning was meaningless.'' The review was initiated by Representative Leon E. Panetta, Democrat of California, who had been a member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

Because of an editing error in an ar- ticle on the yacht Sea Cloud that ap- peared in the Travel section Sunday, a quotation from ''Two Years Before the Mast'' by Richard Henry Dana was changed slightly and incorpo- rated into the article without attribu- tion.

Paratroops and Royal Marines have battled to within 15 miles of Stanley, the main Argentine stronghold on the Falkland Islands, the Defense Ministry indicated tonight. The ministry said British troops were fighting Argentine forces in the hills west of Stanley. Brian Hanrahan of the BBC reported fighting in the area of Mount Kent, a steep 1,535-foot hill dominating both of the rough tracks leading to the capital. Reports of Second Landing It appeared from reports from correspondents on the Falklands that a combat group taking the northern route across East Falkland Island had linked up, probably early today, with another approaching Stanley along another route to the south.

FOSSIL hunters led by a Johns Hopkins University paleontologist have discovered foot bones of what they report is the oldest known true primate. The fossils, extracted from 50-million-year-old rocks in Wyoming, provide clear evidence of the earliest animal with a grasping big toe, considered by primatologists a definitive feature in the early evolution of modern primates, which include monkeys, apes and humans. The foot skeletons belonged to Cantius trigonodus, a species long extinct but not unlike the living lemurs and tarsiers. The animal was the size of a small house cat. It may have been, according to the new evidence, close to the common ancestor of all later, higher primates.

As Governor Carey enters his last six months in office, he and members of his administration have been taking many steps that are likely to influence the state government for years. One of the most important steps has placed Mr. Carey's top aide, Robert J. Morgado, in the position of influencing how hundreds of millions of dollars of housing money will be spent. Asked about his future role, Mr. Morgado said it ''potentially could be very important.'' But he said that changes in housing programs had been advocated ''on their own merits'' and were much needed. ''We were working on these changes long before there was any consideration of my role,'' he said. In the final months of the administration, Mr. Carey and Mr. Morgado are supporting a series of changes in state housing programs that enhance Mr. Morgado's role.