scholarly journals Second Language Acquisition of English Unaccusative Verbs: A Theoretical Critique and Prospects for Future Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 657
Author(s):  
Junhua Mo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Panoramic View ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
Shed Light

Unaccusative verbs are a focus of second language acquisition research. Taking the second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs as an example, this study first reviews the Unaccusative Hierarchy Hypothesis, the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis and the Semantic Verb Class Hypothesis, which are exclusively concerned with the acquisition of unaccusative verbs. Then it examines the Entrenchment Hypothesis and the Interface Hypothesis, which address language acquisition in general, but shed light on the second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs. This study maintains that these five hypothesis help to provide a panoramic view of second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs. But it also points out that these hypotheses need to be further tested. It advises future studies to take a usage-based theoretical approach. It also calls for more attention to the possible between-verb variations, the possible influence of L1 transfer and the online processing of English unaccusative verbs

scholarly journals Psycholinguistic techniques and resources in second language acquisition research

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Practical Information

In this article, a survey of current psycholinguistic techniques relevant to second language acquisition (SLA) research is presented. I summarize many of the available methods and discuss their use with particular reference to two critical questions in current SLA research: (1) What does a learner’s current knowledge of the second language (L2) look like?; (2) How do learners process the L2 in real time? The aim is to show how psycholinguistic techniques that capture real-time (online) processing can elucidate such questions; to suggest methods best suited to particular research topics, and types of participants; and to offer practical information on the setting up of a psycholinguistics laboratory.

Řečové akty omluvy u českých studentů v angličtině (L2): vybrané výsledky pilotáže

2019 ◽  
pp. 157-188
Author(s):  
Marie Vališová
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Shed Light

During the second half of the 20th century, there was a shift in focus in second language acquisition research from linguistic competence to communicative and pragmatic competence (Hymes, 1972; Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983; Bachman, 1990; Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Usó-Juan & Martínez-Flor, 2006). This resulted in a growing number of studies on speech acts in general. Motivated by a lack of studies on the speech acts of apology in conversations of Czech learners of English as a foreign language, my dissertation project aims to shed light on apology strategies used by Czech university students.

Stranger in Paradigm

Target ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Shlesinger
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Simultaneous interpreting holds rich potential for research whose results may shed light not only on the workings of this composite skill itself but also on other areas of study, including language processing, second language acquisition, mediated linguistic interaction, textlinguistics and translation theory. As more and more interpreters are university trained, the interest in less intuitive, more rigorous studies is bound to grow. This article explores potential interdisciplinary paradigms, the premise being that they will gradually evolve towards meeting the specific requirements of interpretation as an object of study.

L1/L2 parametric directionality matters

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 165-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Judy
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Syntactic Property ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Shed Light

Assuming transfer of the L1 grammar, in the present study the question of whether all parameters can be reset even with access to UG is examined in light of the subset/superset relationship. Specifically, the resetting of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) in L2 learners of English (L1 Spanish) is investigated by means of examining the application of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a property that clusters with the null subject setting only, as well as acceptance/rejection of null subjects in English. Since English does not syntactically license empty subjects, but Spanish does, the two languages are in a subset/superset relationship such that Spanish is the superset grammar. Therefore, the results stand to shed light on the validity of the Subset Principle (Berwick 1982; Manzini and Wexler 1987; Wexler and Manzini 1987) and its learnability constraints applied to second language acquisition (SLA) where transfer might impede convergence on the narrow syntactic property despite full access to Universal Grammar.

Second language acquisition and linguistics: A bidirectional perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patti Spinner ◽  
Susan Gass
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Language Data ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractWe argue for a bidirectional relationship between second language research and linguistic theories. It is our belief that SLA research should look to linguistics for concepts and models that provide a basis upon which to make hypotheses, conduct data analysis, and draw conclusions, and we also believe that linguistic theorists can develop and improve their understanding of linguistic concepts and models by examining the results from SLA studies. In this paper, we present arguments in favor of this approach, with examples from two different types of linguistic universals: the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and features such as tense and number. Second language acquisition data have been used to provide evidence for the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and provide a way to understand areas in which its predictions are not met. Similarly, second language data provide us with a view of what happens when there is a contrast between features in a speaker’s native language and the language being learned. The data thus may shed light on the universality of features, in addition to how features are represented, parsed, and processed. In both cases, we argue that second language data are valuable when examining certain linguistic questions because they illuminate areas of conflict or mismatch between two linguistic systems.

scholarly journals The Critical Period Hypothesisin Second Language Acquisition

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (123) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abu-Shnein
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The World ◽  
Shed Light

This paper discusses one of the most appealing subjects that is of interest to learners, educators, scholars, and researchers around the world. Researchers in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, and neurology paid a good deal of attention to the decline in the level of language proficiency that starts around a certain age and what may cause that decline after the end of that period. Many of them called it a critical period. In the following pages we are trying to shed light on this theory in an endeavor to look for factors influencing language acquisition bynew language learners. There is a clear uncertainty about factors that have an effect on second language acquisition. This paper aims to review the literature that approached this critical period hypothesis (CPH) and to draw conclusions related to the topic.

scholarly journals Processing epistemic modality in a second language: a self-paced reading study

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Mifka-Profozic
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Modal Semantics ◽  
Reading Study

AbstractThe current study brings together two novel perspectives: one is concerned with second language acquisition of complex modal semantics by learners of a Slavic (Croatian) language, and the other relates to online processing of modal auxiliary verbs in L2 English. The study sought to examine how English L2 learners process modal verbs

On the Interpretation of Null Arguments in L2 Japanese by L1 German Speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoichi Miyamoto ◽  
Kazumi Yamada
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Feature Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Current Proposal

We report that (i) L1 German learners of Japanese as a foreign language allowed a sloppy interpretation of null arguments in the course of their L2 development, and that (ii) the sloppy interpretation between the L1 German group and the Japanese control group was, statistically, significantly different. Under Ishino’s (2012) Feature Transfer and Feature Learning model on second language acquisition (SLA) which we adopt, it is not immediately clear what type of null arguments the L1 German learners permit in their L2 Japanese. We argue that L1 German learners of L2 Japanese adopt German verbatim topic drop (Trutkowski, 2016) to make sloppy interpretation of null arguments available in their Japanese, an instance of L1 transfer. The current proposal is consistent with Yamada and Miyamoto’s (2017) finding that null arguments available in the L2 Japanese grammar of other European non-pro-drop language speakers do not permit sloppy interpretation, for verbatim topic drop is an operation specific to German.

Second language acquisition and creolization

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick-André Mather
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Current Case ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
The Social ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
Acquisition Processes

There is increasing evidence that most European-lexifier plantation creoles developed over several generations, as successive waves of African slaves acquired increasingly basilectal varieties of the lexifier language, allowing shift-induced interference to play a central role in creole genesis. If in most cases the creators of creoles were adult learners of a second language, and if many of the creole features are the result of second language acquisition over several generations, the next step is to test the hypothesis and to see whether data from current case studies on second language acquisition can shed light on the gradual creolization process. This paper shows that many of the features found in French-lexifier creoles do occur in L2 French and other interlanguages, as a result of L1 transfer and other acquisition processes; examples discussed include word-order within the noun phrase, pronominal clitics, the absence of copula, reduplication, the reanalysis of articles, grammatical gender, verb movement and TMA markers. The major claim of the model of creole genesis advocated here, which can be called the ‘gradualist / second language acquisition model’, is that creole genesis does not involve any specific mental processes or strategies other than those found in ordinary second language acquisition. While in normal, successful second language acquisition, L1 transfer, relexification and reanalysis are relatively marginal in the end, they are nevertheless present, as illustrated in the examples provided here. It is the social and historical circumstances that accelerated the changes and allowed ?deviant? interlanguage structures to fossilize and to create a new language from the linguistic chaos of plantation societies.

scholarly journals Cognitive perceptions of second language acquisition in Chinese undergraduate ESL/EFL students: A mixed methods approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 510
Author(s):  
Robert W. Elliott ◽  
Di Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Global Education ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Efl Students

<span>With the continued demand for teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL/EFL) in China, colleges and universities in China continue to struggle with teaching oral English to high volumes of undergraduate students using faculty-centered strategies. This concurrent mixed-methods, single-level, case study intends to examine Chinese undergraduate students’ cognitive perceptions of their oral English ability as a segue to a more effective second language acquisition environment in a 21st Century global education. The data analysis revealed three main themes intersected by the findings of the quantitative and qualitative analyses. The findings from this and future studies are intended to guide leaders, administrators, scholars, and students to affect national and provincial policy, school and classroom-based practices, and personal strategies to enhance students’ ability to acquire their oral English skills.</span>

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