Author: Julia Rogers Herschensohn
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027224897
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Linking recent advances in theoretical syntax and empirical research in language development, the book claims that second language acquisition is not totally distinct from first language acquisition, but rather is a replay, a relearning of language. It argues that Universal Grammar is a template guiding acquisition of L1 while constraining acquisition of L2. Assuming that a syntactic distinction crucial for language and its acquisition is the division between lexical and functional categories, it argues that the key to L2 as well as L1 acquisition of syntax is the mastery of morphological features and their linking to functional categories. It thus supports the availability of UG to the second language learner and the minimalist claim that cross-linguistic variation is morpholexical. Constructionism, the hypothesis of L2A proposed in this account, argues for a period of feature underspecification after loss of the L1 value, followed by a progressive building of the L2 value through specific constructions.
Author: Kazue Kanno
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027224880
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202
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Book Description
This text aims to broaden the field of second language acquisition, focusing on Japanese rather than on more commonly studied European languages. Chapters include studies on input and interaction, research into the evaluation of proficiency, and grammatical investigations.
Author: Christina Lindqvist
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027270074
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 175
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Book Description
Within the field of second language acquisition, interest in the acquisition of French as a second language has a long-standing tradition, especially in the European context. The aim of this book is to offer a synthesis of current research within this area. It contains contributions from different researchers in the field, including studies on the acquisition of grammar, formulaic language, lexis and pragmatic devices, and covering interlanguage development from beginner level up to very advanced, presumably near-native levels of proficiency. The learners in the studies reported in the volume represent different L1 backgrounds and age groups. The chapters shed light on current issues in research on second language acquisition from different theoretical perspectives, and contribute to a better understanding of L2 French and SLA in general. The volume should be of interest for students, teachers and researchers of L2 French and SLA. Originally published in Language, Interaction and Acquisition 3:1 (2012)
Author: Bill VanPatten
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027253153
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 363
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Book Description
This volume is the first dedicated to the growing field of theory and research on second language processing and parsing. The fourteen papers in this volume offer cutting-edge research using a number of different languages (e.g., Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, English) and structures (e.g., relative clauses, wh-gaps, gender, number) to examine various issues in second language processing: first language influence, whether or not non-natives can achieve native-like processing, the roles of context and prosody, the effects of working memory, and others. The researchers include both established scholars and newer voices, all offering important insights into the factors that affect processing and parsing in a second language.
Author: Dal Pozzo, Lena
Publisher: Firenze University Press
ISBN: 8866558702
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 152
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Book Description
Recent work on second language acquisition within the generative framework has pointed out interfaces (syntax-discourse, syntax-semantics, etc.) as a residual domain of vulnerability in L2. Rather than in core syntax, it is at the interface level that the divergence between native and non-native grammars has been shown to be more prominent. In this book the investigation of answering strategies and the focalization of new information subjects, which require access to the syntax-discourse interface, will be pursued. Data is collected through an oral elicitation task on Finnish and Italian, a rather unexplored language pair, in various stages of language development: advanced and intermediate L2 acquisition, L1 under L2 attrition, early bilingualism, child monolingual L1 development.
Author: Belma Haznedar
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027253072
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
This volume presents recent generative research on the nature of grammars of child second language (L2) acquirers -- a learner population whose exposure to an L2 occurs between the ages of 4 to 8. The main goal is to define child L2 acquisition in relation to other types of acquisition such as child monolingual and bilingual acquisition, adult L2 acquisition, and specific language impairment. This comparative perspective opens up new angles for the discussion of currently debated issues such as the role of Universal Grammar in constraining development, developmental sequences in L2, maturational influences on the 'growth' of grammar, critical period effects for different linguistic domains, initial state and ultimate attainment in relation to length of exposure, and L1-transfer in relation to age of onset. These issues are explored using longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental data from L2 children acquiring a range of languages, including Dutch, English, French, and Greek.
Author: Clare Wright
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1788921631
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
This book examines key issues in theories of what language is and what happens in the mind during second language acquisition (SLA), inspiring readers to think in new and exciting ways about language learning and teaching. Chapters, written by both established and rising star scholars, provide cutting-edge insights and new empirical findings on major topics of formal and cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language development, and offer a coherent, wide-ranging, reader-friendly examination of learner-internal factors in SLA. The first section of the book focuses on issues that are pertinent to our understanding of language acquisition, particularly in relation to syntax. The second section comprises empirical chapters on syntax, the lexicon, phonetics/phonology and language production in English and other languages. These chapters refer to theories and frameworks from within SLA to enable the reader to grasp the key questions and issues that are currently relevant. The final section focuses on research relating to how second language (L2) learners make transitions from one stage of development to the next; it covers state-of-the-art psycholinguistic research concerning how L2 acquisition occurs in real time, and includes discussion of models of L2 development both in and out of the classroom.
Author: Silvina Montrul
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027252975
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
This is the first book on the acquisition of Spanish that provides a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of Spanish morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual situations. Its content is organized around key grammatical themes that form the empirical base of research in generative grammar: nominal and verbal inflectional morphology, subject and object pronouns, complex structures involving movement (topicalizations, questions, relative clauses), and aspects of verb meaning that have consequences for syntax. The book argues that Universal Grammar constrains all instances of language acquisition and that there is a fundamental continuity between monolingual, bilingual, child and adult early grammatical systems. While stressing their similarities with respect to linguistic representations and processes, the book also considers important differences between these three acquisition situations with respect to the outcome of acquisition. It is also shown that many linguistic properties of Spanish are acquired earlier than in English and other languages. This book is a must read for those interested in the acquisition of Spanish from different theoretical perspectives as well as those working on the acquisition of other languages in different contexts.
Author: Christine Dimroth
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902729643X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 367
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Book Description
The papers in this volume focus on the impact of information structure on language acquisition, thereby taking different linguistic approaches into account. They start from an empirical point of view, and examine data from natural first and second language acquisition, which cover a wide range of varieties, from early learner language to native speaker production and from gesture to Creole prototypes. The central theme is the interplay between principles of information structure and linguistic structure and its impact on the functioning and development of the learner's system. The papers examine language-internal explanatory factors and in particular the communicative and structural forces that push and shape the acquisition process, and its outcome. On the theoretical level, the approach adopted appeals both to formal and communicative constraints on a learner’s language in use. Two empirical domains provide a 'testing ground' for the respective weight of grammatical versus functional determinants in the acquisition process: (1) the expression of finiteness and scope relations at the utterance level and (2) the expression of anaphoric relations at the discourse level.
Author: Gunlög Josefsson
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027295522
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
This book provides a number of studies of different aspects of Swedish child language. Some of the thematic chapters present original, unpublished data: on the acquisition of tense, on the range and frequency of different word order patterns in early child Swedish, related to the input, meaning the language of adults talking to the children or in the presence of the children. The remaining chapters present overviews of previous research: on the acquisition of word formation rules, the noun phrase, and wh-questions. The introduction to this volume contains a concise overview of the basic features of Swedish grammar and a comprehensive overview of different Swedish child language corpora. The main body of research proceeds within a generative framework, but the text is designed to be accessible to researchers of different theoretical paradigms.
