Review of Zhang (2018): Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones: Beyond First Language

The open access copyright line contained within this page was not included in the original FirstView article or the print article contained within this issue. We sincerely regret these errors and any problems they may have caused.

Download Full-text

Long-distance wh-movement and long-distance wh-movement avoidance in L2 English: Evidence from French and Bulgarian speakers

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658314554939 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 179-210 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Nikolay Slavkov

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

First Language ◽

Processing Load ◽

Long Distance ◽

Canadian French ◽

Equivalent Length ◽

Show Evidence ◽

L1 Acquisition

This article investigates spoken productions of complex questions with long-distance wh-movement in the L2 English of speakers whose first language is (Canadian) French or Bulgarian. Long-distance wh-movement is of interest as it can be argued that it poses difficulty in acquisition due to its syntactic complexity and related high processing load. Adopting the derivational complexity hypothesis, which has so far been applied to long-distance (LD) wh-movement in L1 acquisition and child second language acquisition, I argue that adult L2 learners also show evidence that questions with LD wh-movement are often replaced by alternative utterances with lower derivational complexity. I propose that such utterances, which are sometimes of equivalent length and with similar meaning to the targeted LD wh-structures, are avoidance strategies used by the learners as an intermediate acquisition resource. That is, such strategies are used as an escape-hatch from the derivational complexity of LD wh-movement. Overall, the results of this research indicate that the link between the number and complexity of derivational steps in a given structure is a fruitful area with strong potential in the second language acquisition field.

Download Full-text

Raadsels van tweedetaalverwerving

Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/dujal.1.1.11hul ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 150-159

Author(s):

Jan H. Hulstijn

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Scientific Inquiry ◽

Multidisciplinary Approach ◽

First Language ◽

Fast Acquisition ◽

Developmental Sequences

This paper predicts that the study of second language acquisition, as a young discipline of scientific inquiry in its own right, faces a bright future, but only if its scholarly community critically re-examines some notions and assumptions that have too long been taken for granted. First, it is time to reconsider familiar dichotomies, such as second versus foreign language and natural versus instructed language learning. Furthermore, it is worth checking whether and to what extent the puzzling phenomena to be explained by language acquisition theories do really exist (such as uniformity and success and fast acquisition rates in first language acquisition and universal developmental sequences in second language acquisition). The paper furthermore pleas for a multidisciplinary approach to the explanation of the fundamental puzzles of first and second language acquisition and bilingualism, including bridging the divide between psycholinguistic and socio-cultural theories.

Download Full-text

Natural Phonology and Second Language Acquisition

Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen ◽

10.1075/ttwia.55.02abr ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 55 ◽

pp. 9-21

Author(s):

Niclas Abrahamsson

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

First Language ◽

First Language Acquisition ◽

Original Theory ◽

Preliminary Model ◽

Language Research ◽

Promising Application ◽

Phonetic Value

This paper looks at whether Natural Phonology can be directly applied to second language acquisition. First, the original theory, as presented by Stampe and Donegan in the 1970s, is outlined. Secondly, its application to first language acquisition is presented, as this is highly crucial for the following discussion on the naturalness of second language phonology. Thirdly, an attempt is made to establish a preliminary model of the application to second language speech. Findings indicate that Natural Phonology is able to, if not resolve, then at least shed some light on a controversial issue in second language research, namely the distinction between interference and development. With the dichotomy of processes vs. rules offered by Natural Phonology, and hence the interpretation of deviations in second language research as the result of failure of suppression and limitation of processes (instead of as the result of interference from LI phonological rules), the interference/ development distinction collapses. In addition, a principle of closest phonetic value' is postulated in order to explain substitutional variation across learners with differing LI backgrounds. Although highly promising, application of Natural Phonology to second language issues also raises inherent problems in the original theory that need to be resolved. Instead of the notions of innateness and latency of processes proposed by Stampean Natural Phonology, in this paper, suggestions are made concerning the brain's early programming of processes in the form of a model which covers both first and second language acquisition.

Download Full-text

Prosody transfer in second language acquisition: Mandarin Chinese tonal alignment in English pitch accent.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.3588886 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 129 (4) ◽

pp. 2659-2659

Author(s):

Miran Kim ◽

Yu‐an Lu

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Pitch Accent

Download Full-text

Second Language Acquisition as a Discipline: A Historical Perspective

Journal of NELTA Gandaki ◽

10.3126/jong.v2i0.26603 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 55-64

Author(s):

Nabaraj Neupane

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Foreign Language ◽

First Language ◽

Developmental Phase ◽

History Of ◽

Diachronic Study ◽

Background Phase ◽

Separate Discipline

Second language acquisition (SLA) generates and tests the theories concerning the acquisition of languages other than first language (L1) in different contexts. Even if SLA is a nascent discipline, its history is remarkable and helpful to seek the answers to the questions that researchers are raising in the field of second language or foreign language. Based on this context, this article aims to recount the history of the burgeoning discipline that heavily draws from numerous disciplines like linguistics, psychology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and so on. To achieve the objective, document analysis method has been used. The analysis and interpretation of the available documents exhibit that the traces of SLA were observed in the studies that address the issue of language transfer. Specifically, the diachronic study proves that the development of the discipline has undergone three evolving phases like background, formative, and developmental. The background phase caters for behaviourism, contrastive analysis hypothesis, and the attacks on the fundamental premises of behaviourism. The formative phase deals with Chomsky’s revolutionary steps, error analysis, interlanguane theory, morpheme order studies, and the Krashen’s monitor model that opened up the avenues for further studies of SLA. The developmental phase recounts various studies that have consolidated SLA as a separate discipline.

Download Full-text