We examine the second language (L2) acquisition of variable Spanish word order by first language (L1) speakers of English via the acquisition of unaccusative and transitive predicates in various focus-related contexts. We employ two bimodal linguistic tasks: (1) acceptability judgment task (B-AJT) and (2) appropriateness preference task (B-APT).…

Given that L1A of subject properties in non-null subject languages emerges later than that of null subject languages, this study aims at determining to what extent the same pattern of acquisition is observed in early child L2A in bilingual immersion settings where English and Spanish are both source and target languages. Using an elicited oral…

Compared the effects of negative evidence versus positive input on the acquisition of irregular past-tense verb forms. Young children from two London nursery schools participated in a within-subjects design over five weeks. Results indicated that improvements in the grammaticality of child speech were considerably greater in cases where negative…

Compared mother', fathers', and siblings' corrective repetitions to children's errors across different settings. Analyses revealed that mothers and fathers provided more corrective repetitions than did siblings. Results are discussed in terms of current negative evidence research. (Author/VWL)

This study investigated how Finnish-Swedish bilingual 10-year-olds (n=26) produce self-repairs in a narrative discourse, in comparison with monolingual agemates (n=10), in three respects: (1) types of repair; (2) number of repairs; and (3) the structural organization of repair. Altogether, 36 Finnish and 36 Swedish narratives were examined. The…