scholarly journals Dutch gender in specific language impairment and second language acquisition

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Orgassa ◽  
Fred Weerman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
First Language ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Adult Group ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Adjectival Inflection

In this article we compare five groups of learners acquiring Dutch gender as marked on determiners and adjectival inflection. Groups of L1 (first language) children and L1-SLI (first-language specific-language-impairment) children are compared to three Turkish-Dutch L2 (second language) groups: adult L2, child L2 and child L2-SLI. Overall, our findings show that gender is vulnerable in both SLI and L2 groups. More particularly, they suggest that all child groups basically make the same type of errors and that they all differ from the adult group. It is suggested that any differences between the child learners can best be understood in terms of factors that influence intake (in both SLI and L2) rather than in terms of access to grammatical principles: SLI children have a (major) processing deficit and L2 children have received less input to Dutch, both factors causing poorer intake. That problems with the intake are crucial is further supported by the clear cumulative effect of bilingualism and SLI: the L2-SLI group not only differs from the child L2 controls but also from the Dutch L1-SLI group.

The Development of English as a Second Language With and Without Specific Language Impairment: Clinical Implications

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanne Paradis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
First Language ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
L2 Development

Purpose The purpose of this research forum article is to provide an overview of typical and atypical development of English as a second language (L2) and to present strategies for clinical assessment with English language learners (ELLs). Method A review of studies examining the lexical, morphological, narrative, and verbal memory abilities of ELLs is organized around 3 topics: timeframe and characteristics of typical English L2 development, comparison of the English L2 development of children with and without specific language impairment (SLI), and strategies for more effective assessment with ELLs. Results ELLs take longer than 3 years to converge on monolingual norms and approach monolingual norms asynchronously across linguistic subdomains. Individual variation is predicted by age, first language, language learning aptitude, length of exposure to English in school, maternal education, and richness of the English environment outside school. ELLs with SLI acquire English more slowly than ELLs with typical development; their morphological and nonword repetition abilities differentiate them the most. Use of strategies such as parent questionnaires on first language development and ELL norm referencing can result in accurate discrimination of ELLs with SLI. Conclusions Variability in the language abilities of ELLs presents challenges for clinical practice. Increased knowledge of English language learning development with and without SLI together with evidence-based alternative assessment strategies can assist in overcoming these challenges.

scholarly journals The acquisition of tense in English: Distinguishing child second language from first language and specific language impairment

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHANNE PARADIS ◽  
MABEL L. RICE ◽  
MARTHA CRAGO ◽  
JANET MARQUIS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
First Language ◽  
Internal Constraints ◽  
Specific Language

ABSTRACTThis study reports on a comparison of the use and knowledge of tense-marking morphemes in English by first language (L1), second language (L2), and specific language impairment (SLI) children. The objective of our research was to ascertain whether the L2 children's tense acquisition patterns were similar or dissimilar to those of the L1 and SLI groups, and whether they would fit an (extended) optional infinitive profile, or an L2-based profile, for example, the missing surface inflection hypothesis. Results showed that the L2 children had a unique profile compared with their monolingual peers, which was better characterized by the missing surface inflection hypothesis. At the same time, results reinforce the assumption underlying the (extended) optional infinitive profile that internal constraints on the acquisition of tense could be a component of L1 development, with and without SLI.

Another Look at Nonverbal Rule Induction in Children With SLI

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Kiernan ◽  
David Snow ◽  
Linda Swisher ◽  
Rebecca Vance
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Rule Induction ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Groups

This study focuses on the ability of preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) to extract target regularities from recurring nonverbal stimuli. As a step beyond previous methodologies, we also assessed their ability to shift and extract other regularities after feedback indicated that their choices were no longer correct. This step was motivated by Connell and Stone's (1994) hypothesis that difficulties manifested by children with SLI in extracting nonverbal "rules" from multiple problem sets may reflect difficulties in "flexible reconceptualization," that is, in the ability to flexibly shift across regularities. Thirty 4- and 5-year-olds with SLI and 30 age-matched children developing language normally participated in a discrimination learning-shift paradigm. Findings indicated that both language groups were successful in extracting regularities and making shifts. In fact, language groups did not differ in number of regularities extracted, number of shifts completed, or trials to criterion. As a consequence, findings failed to provide evidence that children with SLI are limited in either the ability to extract nonverbal regularities or to flexibly reconceptualize them. From a larger theoretical perspective, the findings fail to support theories positing that generalized "rule-induction" deficits underlie the verbal and nonverbal impairments of SLI.

scholarly journals Primary or “specific” language impairment and children learning a second language

2009 ◽  
Vol 109 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Kohnert ◽  
Jennifer Windsor ◽  
Kerry Danahy Ebert
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language

scholarly journals Multilingual native language identification

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHERVIN MALMASI ◽  
MARK DRAS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Binary Data ◽  
Native Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Identification ◽  
Ensembles Of Classifiers ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Fourth Experiment

AbstractWe present the first comprehensive study of Native Language Identification (NLI) applied to text written in languages other than English, using data from six languages. NLI is the task of predicting an author’s first language using only their writings in a second language, with applications in Second Language Acquisition and forensic linguistics. Most research to date has focused on English but there is a need to apply NLI to other languages, not only to gauge its applicability but also to aid in teaching research for other emerging languages. With this goal, we identify six typologically very different sources of non-English second language data and conduct six experiments using a set of commonly used features. Our first two experiments evaluate our features and corpora, showing that the features perform well and at similar rates across languages. The third experiment compares non-native and native control data, showing that they can be discerned with 95 per cent accuracy. Our fourth experiment provides a cross-linguistic assessment of how the degree of syntactic data encoded in part-of-speech tags affects their efficiency as classification features, finding that most differences between first language groups lie in the ordering of the most basic word categories. We also tackle two questions that have not previously been addressed for NLI. Other work in NLI has shown that ensembles of classifiers over feature types work well and in our final experiment we use such an oracle classifier to derive an upper limit for classification accuracy with our feature set. We also present an analysis examining feature diversity, aiming to estimate the degree of overlap and complementarity between our chosen features employing an association measure for binary data. Finally, we conclude with a general discussion and outline directions for future work.

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