This article examines the third language (L3) developing morphology of 78 Basque-Spanish bilinguals following a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program and a mainstream English as a foreign language (non-CLIL) program. The analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal oral data shows that (1) the omission of inflection in the L3…

Responds to an article that presents research (Kellerman & Yoshioka, 1999) on case drop in Japanese involving Dutch-speaking second language learners and claims there was no evidence their subjects had access to the Empty Category Principle (ECP). This claim is counter to those presented in Kanno (1996) and (1998). Reexamines Kellerman and…

Considers the current debate on the initial state of second language (L2) acquisition and presents critical empirical evidence from Hindi learners of English-as-a-Second-Language that supports the claim that the complementizer phase (CP) is initially absent from the grammar of L2 speakers.(Author/VWL)

Investigates the effects of pragmatic principles on the acquisition of the binding of English reflexives by adult Turkish second language (L2) learners. Compares pragmatically-biased and pragmatically-neutral sentences to determine whether pragmatic bias towards a non-local antecedent overrides the parameter setting of English and causes learners…

Presents an optimality theoretic account of syllable codas in Thai English as a Second Language (ESL). The main findings of the study were that the native language constraint rankings interact with target constraint rankings in a specific way, allowing a restricted and predictable range of production types by intermediate Thai learners of ESL.…

This article addresses the debate on the causes of variability in production of second language functional morphology. It reports a study on article production by first language (L1) Serbian/second language (L2) English learners and compares their behaviour to that of a Turkish learner of English, reported in Goad and White (2004). In particular,…

Presents a follow-up of a study of the perceptual acquisition of Thai laryngeal contrasts by native speakers of English, which found that subjects performed better on contrasts in voice than aspiration. This study further investigated possible task effects by examining the discrimination and categorization of the same stimuli in various…

Suggests that language change is driven by acquisition and argues that the triggers for establishing the properties of language-specific grammars differ according to whether first language or second language acquisition is involved. Presents two case studies of Mozambican African Portuguese, a nonnative variety of Portuguese acquired during…

A test of a hypothesis about the availability of Universal Grammar principles to adult language learners involved testing predictions about acquisition patterns in Hebrew speakers learning English as a Second Language. Results supported the view that second-language acquisition is a process of parameter reassignment of principles that are indeed…

To examine the perceptual acquisition of Thai voice and aspiration contrasts, Canadian native English and native French speakers were taught 18 Thai words and then tested midpoint during training, on the day following training, and after one week with no exposure to Thai. Results indicated that both groups lexically represented voice contrasts…

Reports on an experimental study that was conducted to examine how native speakers of Japanese acquire syntactic properties of English reflexive pronouns. In particular, the effects of two parameters of Universal Grammar, the Governing Category Parameter, and the Proper Antecedent Parameter were studied. (AUTHOR/GLR)

This case study examined the acquisition of pronominal reference by a Moroccan learner of Dutch with little formal education. It details the subject's acquisition of Dutch pronouns and their use in standard-like and nonformulaic conversation. (eight references) (MDM)

Incompleteness of competence--lack of command of certain second-language (L2) aspects--and divergence--interlanguage representations of L2 properties different from native representations--are distinct states of grammatical competence, as seen in French and English speakers of Italian (L2). Discussion argues that competence differences reflect…

Investigation of native Hindi, Japanese, and Korean speakers' acquisition of English phonology and syntax found that, at a certain stage of acquisition, learners arrived at a parameter setting that was midway between the native and target language settings, occurring when the target language employed either a more or less marked setting than the…

Argues that functional categories instantiated in the learners' first language (L1) transfer to the initial state of second language syntactic development. On the basis of Zulu interlanguage data on acquisition of the obligatory declarative complementizer "ukuthi" (that) by English native speakers, argues that Comp contains a null…