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Piecemeal Crosslinguistic Influence and Multilingualism
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Morales-Front, Alfonso; Sanz, Cristina – Second Language Research, 2021
Saussure proposed the division language/parole and argued that language can be studied as a formal system. Fifty years later Chomsky declared competence the core interest of linguistics. Although for years Generative second language acquisition (GenSLA) has adopted this view, a number of recent publications poke holes into the competence bubble.…
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Transfer of Training, Second Language Learning, Native Language
The Generative Approach to SLA and Its Place in Modern Second Language Studies
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Rothman, Jason; Slabakova, Roumyana – Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2018
This article has two main goals. The first is to summarize and comment on the current state of affairs of generative approaches to SLA (GenSLA), 35 years into its history. This discussion brings the readership of SSLA up to date on the questions driving GenSLA agendas and clears up misconceptions about what GenSLA does and does not endeavor to…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Language Research, Misconceptions, Research Methodology
Evaluation, Use, and Refinement of Knowledge Representations through Acquisition Modeling
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Pearl, Lisa – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2017
Generative approaches to language have long recognized the natural link between theories of knowledge representation and theories of knowledge acquisition. The basic idea is that the knowledge representations provided by Universal Grammar enable children to acquire language as reliably as they do because these representations highlight the…
Descriptors: Generative Grammar, Language Acquisition, Linguistic Theory, Computational Linguistics
Learning Datives: The Tolerance Principle in Monolingual and Bilingual Acquisition
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Yang, Charles; Montrul, Silvina – Second Language Research, 2017
We study the learnability problem concerning the dative alternations in English (Baker, 1979; Pinker, 1989). We consider how first language learners productively apply the double-object and to-dative constructions ("give the book to library"/"give the library the book"), while excluding negative exceptions ("donate the…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Language Acquisition, Databases, Linguistic Input
The Role of Meaning and Emotion in Learning
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Wolfe, Pat – New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2006
The brain, a pattern-finding organ, seeks to create meaning through establishing or refining existing neural networks; this is learning. Emotion affects what is learned and what is retained.
Descriptors: Transformational Generative Grammar, Brain, Neurological Organization, Emotional Response
Syntactic Markedness and Language Acquisition.
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Mazurkewich, Irene – Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1985
Argues that Chomsky's theory of generative grammar provides a model for second language acquisition that meets the criteria of descriptive and exploratory adequacy in accounting for the language learning process. Illustrates this by presenting data on the acquisition of dative complements and dative questions in a passive context by second…
Descriptors: Case (Grammar), English (Second Language), Eskimos, French
Fads and Fashions in Foreign Language Teaching.
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Ney, James W. – Foreign Language Annals, 1979
Discusses the structuralist and the cognitivist theories of language learning, and emphasizes the importance of practice in second language learning. (AM)
Descriptors: Language Instruction, Learning Processes, Learning Theories, Linguistic Theory