Referential communication tasks. George Yule. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbuam, 1997. Pp. 125.

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-457
Author(s):  
Richard Ricard
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Walk Away ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Conversational Skills ◽  
Communication Paradigm ◽  
First Time

George Yule's Referential Communication Tasks explores the utility of the referential communication paradigm for addressing issues in language use and language acquisition. Yule begins this work with an excellent overview and discussion of the historical context of the referential communication paradigm. Yule presents key distinctions and parallels between the referential communication and other approaches to understanding language acquisition in both first (L1) and second language (L2) contexts. Finally, Yule presents a valuable body of resource literature for further research. In general, this monograph is a welcome summary of the referential communication (RC) approach, which has become a little out of date. Yule presents an especially honest appraisal of the usefulness of RC approaches for understanding the development of L2 processes, which he concludes is currently limited to a focus on semantics (e.g., vocabulary) and pragmatics (e.g., conversational skills). While the RC enthusiast will walk away from this reading without the feeling of an enthusiastic endorsement of RC approaches for L2 acquisition research to date, the discussion and contextual explanations are insightful. The author has clearly taken charge of discussing the usefulness of a particular methodology seriously. A major contribution of this work is that, perhaps for the first time, a matrix of referential communication tasks is spelled out in a way which allows for the analysis of various dimensions and for a discussion of the construct as a whole. I found the book readable and interesting. I expect others will find it to be a useful resource as they explore the use of a variety of methodologies for work in language development.

scholarly journals Conversation in language development and use: An Introduction

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 241-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edy Veneziano
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Editorial Introduction ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Conversational Skills ◽  
Basic Language ◽  
Conversational Interactions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Children's Development

This editorial introduction summarizes the background to, and contents of, a special issue devoted to children’s development of conversational skills and their relation to language acquisition and use. The centrality of conversation to language development is well recognized and this introduction identifies two key approaches to research: the impact of conversational processes on language acquisition itself, and the ways in which basic language skills are put to use in conversational interactions. The articles included in this issue were organized according to these themes and are outlined accordingly.

scholarly journals New information subjects in L2 acquisition: evidence from Italian and Finnish

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Dal Pozzo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
New Information ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Language Pair ◽  
Discourse Syntax

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.

Language Revitalisation in Gaelic Scotland

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Dunmore
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
School Based ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Medium Education ◽  
Language Revitalisation ◽  
First Time

Situated within the interrelated disciplines of applied sociolinguistics and the sociology of language, this book explores the language use and attitudinal perceptions of a sample of 130 adults who received Gaelic-medium education (GME) at primary school, during the first years of that system’s availability in Scotland. The school is viewed by policymakers as a crucial site for language revitalisation in such diverse contexts as Hawai’i, New Zealand and the Basque Country – as well as throughout the Celtic-speaking world. In Scotland, GME is seen as a key area of language development, regarded by policymakers as a strategic priority for revitalising Gaelic, and maintaining its use by future generations of speakers. Yet theorists have stressed that school-based policy interventions are inadequate for realising this objective in isolation, and that without sufficient support in the home and community, children are unlikely to develop strong identities or supportive ideologies in the language of their classroom instruction. For the first time, this book provides an in-depth assessment of language use, ideologies and attitudes among adults who received an immersion education in a minority language, and considers subsequent prospects for language revitalisation in contemporary society. Based on detailed analyses using mixed methods, the book offers empirically grounded suggestions for individuals and policymakers seeking to revitalise languages internationally. 

Deutsch als schwächere Sprache bei deutsch-polnisch bilingualen Kindern: Studie zur Negation- und Verbstellung

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-297
Author(s):  
Aldona Sopata ◽  
Kamil Długosz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Development Characteristic ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Constrained Input

AbstractThis article examines the acquisition of German as the weaker language in the cases of German-Polish bilingual children. Focusing on negation and verb position, phenomena that have frequently been taken as diagnostic when distinguishing between the course of language development characteristic for first (L1) and second language acquisition (L2), we analyse experimental and productive data from six simultaneously bilingual children. Due to the constrained input, German is their weaker language. The results in Forced Choice and Grammaticality Judgements tasks are compared with the results of monolingual children. We show that in the area of negation the acquisition of German as the weaker language resembles L1, and in the area of inversion and verb final position the development of the weaker language is delayed. The striking difference between bilinguals’ results in the experimental vs. productive tasks points to specific processing mechanisms in bilingual language use. In narrative contexts of the production tasks the language of the performance is activated, while the other is inhibited, which leads to a target-like performance. Structural properties of the stronger language tend to be activated, however, in the experimental tasks involving the weaker language, resulting in non-target-like responses.

scholarly journals Can Frequency Account for the Grammatical Choices of Children and Adults in Nominal Modification Contexts? Evidence from Elicited Production and Child-Directed Speech

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Emanuela Sanfelici ◽  
Petra Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Production Rate ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
High Production Rate ◽  
High Production ◽  
Acquisition Order

There is consensus that languages possess several grammatical variants satisfying the same conversational function. Nevertheless, it is a matter of debate which principles guide the adult speaker’s choice and the child’s acquisition order of these variants. Various proposals have suggested that frequency shapes adult language use and language acquisition. Taking the domain of nominal modification as its testing ground, this paper explores in two studies the role that frequency of structures plays for adults’ and children’s structural choices in German. In Study 1, 133 three- to six-year-old children and 21 adults were tested with an elicited production task prompting participants to identify an agent or a patient referent among a set of alternatives. Study 2 analyzed a corpus of child-directed speech to examine the frequency of passive relative clauses, which children, similar to adults, produced very often in Study 1. Importantly, passive relatives were found to be infrequent in the child input. These two results show that the high production rate of rare structures, such as passive relatives, is difficult to account for with frequency. We claim that the relation between frequency in natural speech and use of a given variant in a specific context is indirect: speakers may opt for the less grammatically complex computation rather than for the variant most frequently used in spontaneous speech.

What is the Role and Nature of Language and Language Development?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Alessandro Benati
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
System Input ◽  
Knowledge Of Language

In this paper, the role and nature of language and language development will be discussed. Research and theory in second language acquisition has demonstrated that (i) language is an abstract, implicit and complex system. Input (ii) plays a key role in language development; despite the fact that some knowledge of language is innate (iii). Overall, language development (iv) is ordered and stage-like and instruction (v) has a limited role. Theoretical and pedagogical implications will be highlighted.

What we have to explain in foreign language learning

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 718-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bley-Vroman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Development Theory

AbstractWhile child language development theory must explain invariant “success,” foreign language learning theory must explain variation and lack of success. The fundamental difference hypothesis (FDH) outlines such a theory. Epstein et al. ignore the explanatory burden, mischaracterize the FDH, and underestimate the resources of human cognition. The field of second language acquisition is not divided into camps by views on “access” to UG.

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