Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition
Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Author: Danuta Gabryś

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1847690653

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This volume presents a selection of second language acquisition studies at the level of morphosyntax. It looks at different aspects of morphosyntactic development of bilingual language learners/users such as language transfer, syntactic processing, morphology and the pragmatics of language among others. The studies report on projects carried out in different language contact contexts, ranging from: English, German, Polish, Greek and Turkish. The volume also includes those studies which show the interface between research findings and pedagogy of foreign language teaching.

Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition
Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Author: Danuta Gabryś-Barker

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2008-05-14

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1788920589

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The volume consists of articles on issues relating to the morphosyntactic development of foreign language learners from different L1 backgrounds, in many cases involving languages which are typologically distant from English, such has Polish, Greek and Turkish. It highlights areas which may be expected to be especially transfer-prone at both the interlingual and intralingual levels. The articles in the first part report empirical studies on word morphology and sentence patterns and also look at the interface of lexis and grammar in the discourse and syntactic processing of foreign language learners. The second part elaborates on pedagogical issues concerning the acquisition of difficult grammatical features such as the English article system or the ‘s’ ending in the third person singular. It also comments more generally on the way pedagogic grammar functions in the learning of the L2.

Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax
Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax

Author: Mohammad T. Alhawary

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2009-05-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0300159153

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While the demand for Arabic classes and preparation programs for Arabic language teachers has increased, there is a notable gap in the field of linguistic research on learning Arabic as a second language. Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax presents a data-driven and systematic analysis of Arabic language acquisition that responds to this growing need. Based on large data samples collected from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, this book explores a broad range of structures and acquisition issues. It also introduces new and comprehensive research, and it documents the successes and problems that native speakers of other languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Japanese, are likely to encounter in learning Arabic. By integrating previously published findings with new research, the author has created a unified and streamlined resource for teachers, teachers-in-training, linguists, Arabic textbook authors, and second-language acquisition experts.

Language Acquisition and Change
Language Acquisition and Change

Author: Jurgen M Meisel

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2013-10-17

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0748677992

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Under which circumstances does grammatical change come about? Is the child the principle agent of change as suggested by historical linguistics?This book discusses diachronic change of languages in terms of restructuring of speakers' internal grammatical knowledge. Efforts to construct a theory of diachronic change consistent with findings from psycholinguistics are scarce. Here, these questions are therefore addressed against the background of insights from research on monolingual and bilingual acquisition. Given that children are remarkably successful in reconstructing the grammars of their ambient languages, commonly held views need to be reconsidered according to which language change is primarily triggered by structural ambiguity in the input and in settings of language contact. In an innovative take on this matter, the authors argue that morphosyntactic change in core areas of grammar, especially where parameters of Universal Grammar are concerned, typically happens in settings involving second language acquisition. The children acting as agents of restructuring are either L2 learners themselves or are continuously exposed to the speech of L2 speakers of their target languages. Based on a variety of case studies, this discussion sheds new light on phenomena of change which have occupied historical linguists since the 19th century and will be welcomed by advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the fields of historical linguistics and language acquisition.

The Acquisition of Spanish
The Acquisition of Spanish

Author: Silvina Montrul

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9789027252975

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This is the first book on the acquisition of Spanish that provides a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of Spanish morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual situations. Its content is organized around key grammatical themes that form the empirical base of research in generative grammar: nominal and verbal inflectional morphology, subject and object pronouns, complex structures involving movement (topicalizations, questions, relative clauses), and aspects of verb meaning that have consequences for syntax. The book argues that Universal Grammar constrains all instances of language acquisition and that there is a fundamental continuity between monolingual, bilingual, child and adult early grammatical systems. While stressing their similarities with respect to linguistic representations and processes, the book also considers important differences between these three acquisition situations with respect to the outcome of acquisition. It is also shown that many linguistic properties of Spanish are acquired earlier than in English and other languages. This book is a must read for those interested in the acquisition of Spanish from different theoretical perspectives as well as those working on the acquisition of other languages in different contexts.

The Acquisition of Italian
The Acquisition of Italian

Author: Adriana Belletti

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9027268533

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A major contribution to the study of language acquisition and language development inspired by theoretical linguistics has been made by research on the acquisition of Italian syntax. This book offers an updated overview of results from theory-driven experimental and corpus-based research on the acquisition of Italian in different modes (monolingual, early and late L2, SLI, etc.), as well as exploring possible developments for future research. The book focuses on experimental studies which address research questions generated by linguistic theory, providing a detailed illustration of the fruitful interaction between linguistic theorizing and developmental studies. The authors are leading figures in theoretical linguistics and language acquisition; their own work is featured in the research presented here. Students and advanced researchers will benefit from the systematic review offered by this book and the critical assessment of the field that it provides.

Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Author: Lourdes Ortega

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 144411705X

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Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading. Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science. Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.

The Affective Dimension in Second Language Acquisition
The Affective Dimension in Second Language Acquisition

Author: Danuta Gabryś-Barker

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2013-05-03

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1847699693

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This volume presents a series of empirical studies which focus on affectivity in relation to both individual learner differences, and language learning experiences, motivation and attitudes. The volume also elaborates on affectivity in various contexts of FL use and in different educational settings such as CLIL or e-learning.

Arabic Second Language Learning and Effects of Input, Transfer, and Typology
Arabic Second Language Learning and Effects of Input, Transfer, and Typology

Author: Mohammad T. Alhawary

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2019-02-25

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1626166471

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Despite the status of Arabic as a global language and the high demand to learn it, the field of Arabic second language acquisition remains underinvestigated. Second language acquisition findings are crucial for informing and advancing the field of Arabic foreign language pedagogy including Arabic language teaching, testing, and syllabus design. Arabic Second Language Learning and Effects of Input, Transfer, and Typology provides data-driven empirical findings for a number of basic and high-frequency morphosyntactic structures with two novel typological language pairings, examining Arabic second language acquisition data from adult L1 Chinese- and Russian-speaking learners of Arabic as a foreign language. Alhawary’s study examines the different processes, hypotheses, and acquisition tendencies from the two learner groups, and documents the extent of the successes and challenges faced by such learners in their L2 Arabic grammatical development during the first three years of learning the language. In addition, the book offers both theoretical and practical implications related to input exposure, L1 and L2 transfer, and typological and structural proximity effects. This book serves as a valuable resource for both second language acquisition experts and foreign language teaching practitioners.

Critical Reflections on Data in Second Language Acquisition
Critical Reflections on Data in Second Language Acquisition

Author: Aarnes Gudmestad

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2018-09-15

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 9027263558

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This edited volume offers critical reflections on an essential component of research method in the field of second language acquisition – data. Scholars working on diverse areas (e.g., pragmatics, corrective feedback, phonology) and approaches (e.g., corpus linguistics, concept-oriented analyses, variationism) have come together to identify challenges researchers face when collecting, coding, and analyzing data and to provide guidance for making advancements regarding these aspects of research method. This volume also showcases three types of critical reflection. One involves building a relevant corpus of published investigations and using that database to identify methodological issues in existing research. Another consists of recoding and reanalyzing published work, before reflecting on the impact that these decisions have on observations made about interlanguage. The third begins with a particular area of or approach to second language acquisition and then offers a critical examination on the challenges that characterize the selected area or approach. Researchers and graduate students alike will benefit from an open discussion on methodological issues that are in need of improvement.