A formal model of learning L2 prosodic phonology

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Metrical Structure ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Prosodic Phonology ◽  
Learning Principles

In this article I discuss the various components necessary for a formal model of the acquisition of the prosodic phonology of a second language. I outline a model that includes an explicit theory of the representation of metrical knowledge (Dresher and Kaye, 1990; Idsardi, 1992) and the necessary learn ing theory to account for how those representations can be acquired. The learning theory which mediates the interaction between Universal Grammar (UG) and the linguistic environment is composed of such elements as appro priate cues, indirect negative evidence and a principle of lexical dependency. Empirical investigations of the acquisition of English metrical parameters by native speakers of Polish, Hungarian and Spanish are reported. Group data as well as case studies are presented. The data suggest that, in the domain of prosodic phonology, both the representations (metrical structure) and processes (learning principles) evidenced in second language learners are the same as those proposed for native speakers. Interlanguage grammars can be seen as a combination of UG principles, correct L2 parameter set tings (from resetting) and incorrect L1 parameter settings (from L1 trans fer).

The acquisition of parameterized grammars

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia White
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Identical Fashion

In this paper, I look at some problems that arise if second language learners are assumed to acquire the L2 on the basis of unconstrained hypothesis testing, since this crucially involves the assumption of the availability of negative evidence and does not seem to be sufficiently 'fine-tuned' for the learner to acquire certain aspects of the L2 grammar. Instead, it is proposed that L2 acquisition, like L1, may involve the prior knowledge of a number of highly contrained principles of Universal Grammar which restrict the number of options available to the learner. In some cases, these principles may be subject to parametric variation, so that they do not work in identical fashion in L1 and L2, allowing for the possibility of transfer of the L1 parameter setting. Taking subjacency as a case in point, a pilot study is reported in which native speakers of French and Spanish learning English as a second language were tested for their judgements on the bounding status of S in the L2 grammar. In English S is a bounding node, whereas in French and Spanish it is not. It was found that subjects were less accurate in their judgements on the bounding status of S in English than native-speaking controls, with a number of subjects consistently transferring the L1 parameter. In most cases, subjects showed improvement with increasing level of ESL proficiency. The majority of subjects adopted a consistent position with respect to the question of the bounding status of S, suggesting that they were not indulging in unconstrained hypothesis testing.

Access to UG and language transfer: a study of L2 learners' interpretation of reconstruction in Chinese

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Ying
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking

Twenty-seven English-speaking learners of Chinese (the experimental groups) and 20 native speakers of Chinese (the control group) participated in a study that investigated second language learners' knowledge of reconstruction (NP and predicate fronted sentences with ziji ‘self’) in Chinese. Results of a sentence interpretation task indicate that English-speaking learners of Chinese had knowledge of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved predicate, and lack of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved NP, although such information is not directly available in English. While the experiment produced evidence that they appeared to have access to Universal Grammar, English-speaking learners of Chinese bound ziji in non-movement sentences to an embedded subject, indicating that they mapped the narrower setting of reflexives in English onto a wider parameter setting of ziji in Chinese.

A CASE STUDY OF NL INFLUENCE IN UNIS FKIP ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS' INTERLANGUAGE

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Irmala Sukendra ◽  
Agus Mulyana ◽  
Imam Sudarmaji
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Similar System ◽  
The One ◽  
L1 Acquisition

Regardless to the facts that English is being taught to Indonesian students starting from early age, many Indonesian thrive in learning English. They find it quite troublesome for some to acquire the language especially to the level of communicative competence. Although Krashen (1982:10) states that “language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication”, second language acquisition has several obstacles for learners to face and yet the successfulness of mastering the language never surmounts to the one of the native speakers. Learners have never been able to acquire the language as any native speakers do. Mistakes are made and inter-language is unavoidable. McNeili in Ellis (1985, p. 44) mentions that “the mentalist views of L1 acquisition hypothesizes the process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which means the grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the ‘universal grammar’.” Thus this study intends to find out whether the students go through the phase of interlanguage in their attempt to acquire second language and whether their interlanguage forms similar system as postulated by linguists (Krashen).

scholarly journals Honorifics: A sociocultural verb agreement cue in Japanese sentence processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKI YOSHIMURA ◽  
BRIAN MACWHINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
New Type

ABSTRACTCase marking is the major cue to sentence interpretation in Japanese, whereas animacy and word order are much weaker. However, when subjects and their cases markers are omitted, Japanese honorific and humble verbs can provide information that compensates for the missing case role markers. This study examined the usage of honorific and humble verbs as cues to case role assignment by Japanese native speakers and second-language learners of Japanese. The results for native speakers replicated earlier findings regarding the predominant strength of case marking. However, when case marking was missing, native speakers relied more on honorific marking than word order. In these sentences, the processing that relied on the honorific cue was delayed by about 100 ms in comparison to processing that relied on the case-marking cue. Learners made extensive use of the honorific agreement cue, but their use of the cue was much less accurate than that of native speakers. In particular, they failed to systematically invoke the agreement cue when case marking was missing. Overall, the findings support the predictions of the model and extend its coverage to a new type of culturally determined cue.

Linking past and present

AILA Review ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 55-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Wilton ◽  
Holger Wochele
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Folk Linguistics ◽  
Language Issues

In this paper, we focus on comments on language issues from a historical perspective. The concept of the layperson (non-linguist) is discussed to identify laypeople and lay comments in history when the modern concept of a linguist did not yet exist. Two studies show how the historical perspective complements modern research on folk linguistics. Firstly, historical comments about Latin will be put in relation to comments about English, focusing on their roles as linguae francae and exploring the potential and application of the ‘Latin Analogy’. Secondly, an analysis of language appraisal texts of French and Romanian from 1500 to the present shows that the topoi used are still reflected in today’s perception of the languages by their native speakers, affecting the attractiveness of the languages for second language learners.

scholarly journals Ratings of Affective and Non-Affective Aspects of German Idioms in Second Language Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-42
Author(s):  
Teodor Petrič
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Language Technology ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions

AbstractIn this paper psycholinguistic and emotional properties of 619 German idiomatic expressions are explored. The list of idiomatic expressions has been adapted from Citron et al. (2015), who have used it with German native speakers. In our study the same idioms were evaluated by Slovene learners of German as a foreign language. Our participants rated each idiom for emotional valence, emotional arousal, familiarity, concreteness, ambiguity (literality), semantic transparency and figurativeness. They also had the task to describe the meaning of the German idioms and to rate their confidence about the attributed meaning. The aims of our study were (1) to provide descriptive norms for psycholinguistic and affective properties of a large set of idioms in German as a second language, (2) to explore the relationships between psycholinguistic and affective properties of idioms in German as a second language, and (3) to compare the ratings of the German native speakers studied in Citron et al. (2015) with the ratings of the Slovene second language learners from our study. On one hand, the results of the Slovene participants show many similarities with those of of the German native speakers, on the other hand, they show a slight positivity bias and slightly shallower emotional processing of the German idioms. Our study provides data that could be useful for future studies investigating the role of affect in figurative language in a second language setting (methodology, translation science, language technology).

GENERAL THEORIES AND SPECIAL THEORIES IN TEACHING LANGUAGE TO NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (05) ◽  
pp. 200-214
Author(s):  
Boukhmis SENOUBER ◽  
Chahrazed Bin YOUNES
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Language ◽  
Second Language Learner ◽  
Basic Hypothesis ◽  
Language Environment

The field of teaching language for non-native speakers is a rich field that has been addressed by various theories that tried to explain the process of acquiring a second language, as some of them pay great attention to the innate characteristics of the learner, and others focus on the role that the environment plays, especially in terms of providing contact with those who modify their language and patterns of interaction to suit the needs of the language learner, while other theories focus on the learner’s participation in the social contexts, or the so-called immersion in the target language environment, and the importance of research is highlighted in uncovering the mechanisms and curricula that these theories have adopted in order to achieve meaningful and distinct learning. The research aims to address this topic, trying to delve into the concepts and procedures of each theory separately in an attempt to clarify and present it to the Arab reader and student in an accessible and understandable form. We will try to rely in this study on a research plan that includes two main topics: A first topic, which we will devote to general theories in teaching language to non-native speakers; That is, theories that dealt with linguistic acquisition in general, whether related to the first or second language, and includes three main theories; They are the structural behavioral theory, the innate or Universal Grammar theory, and the functional theory. As for the second topic, we will devote it to the special theories, which are theories that dealt exclusively with teaching the language to non-native speakers, and it includes eight basic hypothesis. They are the Monitor hypothesis, the interaction hypothesis, the contrastive analysis hypothesis, the creative construction hypothesis, the fundamental difference hypothesis, Noticing hypothesis, the projection hypothesis, the competition model.In order to delve into this topic, we raise the following problems: How did cognitive theorizing for teaching a language to non-speakers of it contributed to addressing the difficulties and mistakes faced by the second language learner? How did these theories address the issue of second language teaching and acquisition?

The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Cecilia Yuet-hung Chan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Operator Movement

A number of studies in the research literature have proposed that Universal Grammar (UG) is partially available to adult second language learners. Attempts to provide a syntactic characterization of that partial availability have only recently begun to appear, however. In this article we will argue that speakers of Chinese (a language without wh-operator movement in overt syntax) learning second language English (a language with wh-operator movement in overt syntax) establish mental representations for English which involve pronominal binding rather than operator movement. It will be suggested that this divergence from native-speaker representations is an effect of the inaccessibility of features of functional categories in second language acquisition, what we will refer to as the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Implications are drawn from the findings for the syntactic characterization of accessibility to UG more generally in second language acquisition.

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