Syntactic Markedness and Language Acquisition

1985 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Mazurkewich
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Case Theory ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the role played by linguistic universals in second language acquisition. Research reported here focuses on the acquisition of dative structures and dative questions in a passive context in English by French and Inuit (Eskimo) students. Data were also elicited from native English-speaking students to serve as the norm. The data are interpreted within the theory of markedness and core grammar, as well as Case theory. The results of the testing, showing that unmarked forms are acquired before marked ones, are consistent with the predictions made by the theory of markedness and the property of adjacency which is crucial for Case assignment.

scholarly journals Language Learning Exposure and Grammatical Proficiency of Intermediate Pupils

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-74
Author(s):  
Marz Kimberly T. Salas ◽  
Ma. Judy B. Legaspi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Catholic School ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Holistic Process ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship

The Philippines is recognized globally as one of the largest English-speaking nations. The majority of its population has at least some degree of fluency in the language. Filipinos are exposed to the heavy usage of English, not just in school but also in their everyday lives. Exposing elementary pupils to different language learning sources (home, friends, school, and media) can help them acquire the language more easily. Thus, the second-language acquisition is a holistic process, which means acquiring the second language is not confined within the four walls of the classroom. This paper describes the extent of language learning exposure and the level of grammatical proficiency of Grade 6 pupils of a Catholic school in Bacolod City. Similarly, it explores the difference in the pupils' extent of language learning exposure and level of grammatical proficiency. Also, it determines the relationship between language learning exposure and grammatical proficiency.   

scholarly journals Input-output relation in second language acquisition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyu-Ho Shin ◽  
Boo Kyung Jung
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Input Output ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract Studies on the role of input in L2 acquisition often estimate L2 input properties through L1 corpora and focus on L2-English. This study probes the initial stage of L2-Korean learning for adult English-speaking beginners of Korean to investigate input-output relations in the acquisition of L2 that is typologically different from English in a more direct manner. We specifically ask how L2 beginner input affects L2 beginner production with respect to Korean postpositions. For this purpose, we investigate how the beginners receive input regarding Korean postpositions from a textbook and to what extent the input characteristics are manifested in learner writing. We found that, whereas the presentation of certain postpositions in the textbook was generally reflected in learner writing, individual postpositions showed disparity in their use between the textbook and the writing. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of L1-L2 differences and how the textbook presents form-function pairings of these postpositions.

Input, triggering and poverty of the stimulus in the second language acquisition of Japanese passives

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Hara
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Semantic Properties

This article adopts an input perspective in examining a poverty-of-the stimulus (POS) learning situation in second language acquisition (SLA). Analysis of grammaticality judgement data from 81 English-speaking and 85 Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese isolates triggering input that informed English learners of subtle semantic properties of the ni direct passive underdetermined by second language (L2) input. The study shows a sufficient correlation in the case of English learners between acquisition of the ni direct passive's triggering properties (available through input) and acquisition of its POS properties (unavailable through input). Importantly, those properties are direct consequences of affectivity, an underlying semantic property of the ni direct passive. That correlation does not obtain in the case of Chinese learners due to a positive first language (L1) effect. Additional corroborating evidence comes from acquisition of another Japanese passive, the ni yotte, for which no correlation was found between its non-triggering and non-POS properties for either English or Chinese learners as those properties are available through input. The article proposes that English learners' computation of a target-like conceptual representation of the triggering input leads to the restructuring of their lexical—conceptual representation of the ni direct passive.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESSES IN THE CLASSROOM: LEARNING JAPANESE. Amy Snyder Ohta. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2001. Pp. xviii + 298. $79.95 cloth, $34.50 paper.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-451
Author(s):  
Sufumi So
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Nonnative Language ◽  
Acquisition Processes

This book, as part of a series published by Erlbaum entitled Second language acquisition research: Theoretical and methodological issues, addresses the question as to how the acquisition of a nonnative language progresses through interaction in language classrooms. As the author admits (p. xiii), this is hardly a new topic in studies of SLA. The book, however, sheds some new light by introducing novel theoretical and methodological perspectives in dealing with this old topic. The author finds in Vygotskyan ideas a theoretical stance to frame her views of language, the language learner, and the language learning process. Furthermore, it focuses on the second language (L2) acquisition of Japanese by English-speaking learners, which has only recently begun attracting the attention of SLA researchers.

Der Zweitspracherwerb des deutschen Kasus in der Präpositionalphrase

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Turgay
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Primary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
First Language ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Special Case

AbstractCase is one of the grammatical categories that pose great challenges to children acquiring German, both in first and second language acquisition. The paper examines the special case of the second language acquisition of case within prepositional phrases (PPs). A prototypical German PP consists of a preposition selecting a determiner phrase (DP) whose case is governed by the prepositional head. One problem is that the case assigned by a preposition and its semantics are not related to each other, while in the case of socalled two-way prepositions, the semantics of the PP and the case within the DP are closely connected. This conflict between arbitrariness and semantically driven case assignment could pose an additional obstacle for learners of German. I have conducted an experiment in which I examined how case within PPs is acquired by 56 primary school children whose first language is not German. My study shows that the children have great difficulties regarding the dative and that the accusative is used instead very often. This overgeneralization decreases with an increase in age.

The Effect of Graphic Representation of Knowledge Structures on ESL Reading Comprehension

1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Tang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Esl Reading ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Representation Of Knowledge

Research suggests that English as a second language (ESL) students take upwards of 5 years to acquire a level of proficiency in academic language that is comparable to their English-speaking peers. They are likely to be denied full access to school knowledge unless teachers help to bring about student content knowledge learning and second language acquisition simultaneously.

Developmental Stages in Advanced SLA

2008 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 53-86
Author(s):  
Estela Ene
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers have yet to map the developmental stages language learners go through as they approach the target language. In studies of English as a Second Language (ESL) writing, the term 'advanced learner' has been applied indiscriminately to learners ranging from freshman ESL composition to graduate students. There is a need to examine the advanced stages of SLA in order to refine SLA theories and pedagogical approaches. A corpus of texts written by non-native English-speaking doctoral students in applied linguistics from several linguistic backgrounds was analyzed to determine the texts’ lexical, morphological and syntactic fluency, accuracy and complexity. A sub-corpus of papers by native-English-speaking peers was used for comparison. The texts were strictly-timed and loosely-timed exams written 2 to 3 years apart. Surveys and interviews were also conducted. Based on findings, the study defines data-based criteria that distinguish four quantitatively and qualitatively distinct developmental stages: the advanced, highly advanced, near-native, and native-like stages. Advanced learners make more frequent and varied errors which can be explained by transfer from the first language. Native-like writers make few errors that can be explained by overgeneralization of conventions from informal English and working memory limitations (similar to native speakers’ errors). The study suggests that SLA is a process of transfer followed by relearning of morpho-syntactic specifications (Herschensohn, 2000), with syntax being used with the greatest accuracy (Bardovi-Harlig & Bofman, 1989) and lexicon with the least. The relationships between accuracy and other social and cognitive factors are considered, and pedagogical recommendations are made.

scholarly journals An Experimental Study of L2 Acquisition of Mandarin Unaccusative Verbs by English-Speaking Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Shee Hei Wong ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking

The present study investigates the acquisition of Chinese Mandarin unacussative verbs by English-speaking L2 leaners of Chinese, in light of Universal Grammar and Interlanguage (IL) phenomenon. The results of the experiment show that there is no strong evidence for the overpassivization of Mandarin unaccusative verbs, which calls into question the claim that the overpassivization phenomenon of unaccusative verbs is universal in second language acquisition (SLA). The L2 learners in our experiment performed better with non-alternating unaccusative verbs than alternating unaccusative verbs, which might suggest that learners were probably treating the alternating unaccusative verbs in our experiment as underlyingly transitive and thus accepted the ungrammatical passivized unaccusative verbs in the Grammaticality Judgement task. This phenomenon is consistent with child’s L1 development. We attribute the overpassivization of the Chinese unaccusative verbs in our experiment to the hypothesis of non-target lexical causativization as in L2 acquisition of English.

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