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Westergaard, Marit – Second Language Research, 2021
In this article, I argue that first language (L1), second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition are fundamentally the same process, based on learning by parsing. Both child and adult learners are sensitive to fine linguistic distinctions, and language development takes place in small steps. While the bulk of the article focuses on…
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Linguistic Input, Second Language Learning, Native Language
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Hudson Kam, Carla L. – Language Learning and Development, 2018
Adult learners know that language is for communicating and that there are patterns in the language that need to be learned. This affects the way they engage with language input; they search for form-meaning linkages, and this effortful engagement could interfere with their learning, especially for things like grammatical gender that often have at…
Descriptors: Infants, Adult Learning, Grammar, Language Patterns
Austin, Alison C. – ProQuest LLC, 2010
When linguistic input provides inconsistent evidence for grammatical structures, children tend to regularize. For example, children learning languages from parents who are imperfect users of the language regularize their parents' inconsistent usages (Singleton & Newport, 2004). Previous studies (Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005, 2009) have examined this…
Descriptors: Evidence, Sentences, Form Classes (Languages), Grammar
Haynes, Erin Flynn – ProQuest LLC, 2010
This dissertation compares the phonetic and phonological features of adult non-speakers' productions of words in an endangered Native American language, Oregon Northern Paiute (also known, and hereafter referred to, as Numu), to productions by fluent speakers. The purpose of this comparison is two-fold. The first purpose is to examine the…
Descriptors: Language Maintenance, Language Dominance, Language Variation, Phonetics
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Hudson Kam, Carla L.; Newport, Elissa L. – Cognitive Psychology, 2009
When natural language input contains grammatical forms that are used probabilistically and inconsistently, learners will sometimes reproduce the inconsistencies; but sometimes they will instead regularize the use of these forms, introducing consistency in the language that was not present in the input. In this paper we ask what produces such…
Descriptors: Form Classes (Languages), Artificial Languages, Adult Learning, Linguistic Input
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Blom, Elma; Polisenska, Daniela; Weerman, Fred – Second Language Research, 2008
A comparison of the error profiles of monolingual (child L1) learners of Dutch, Moroccan children (child L2) and Moroccan adults (adult L2) learning Dutch as their L2 shows that participants in all groups massively overgeneralize [-neuter] articles to [+neuter] contexts. In all groups, the reverse gender mistake infrequently occurs. Gender…
Descriptors: Form Classes (Languages), Second Language Learning, Language Acquisition, Adult Learning
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Fernandez, Eva M. – Applied Psycholinguistics, 2006
Understanding the mechanisms learners use to process target language input is crucial to developing a complete model of both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. If adult L2 learners are found to process the target language with mechanisms that differ from those used by child L1 learners and adult native speakers, what…
Descriptors: Evidence, Syntax, Second Languages, Adult Basic Education