Examines evidence offered to support the idea of a sensitive period for second language acquisition. Findings indicate that there is insufficient evidence to accept the claim that mastery of a second language is determined wholly, or even primarily, by maturational factors. (34 references) (Author/CK)

A study used the think-aloud method to determine how adult learners beginning to learn a second language through oral input construct meanings, and what processing behaviors they engage in to help them construct future meanings more effectively. The subjects, 5 adult undergraduate and graduate students aged 23-55, were taught 20 Hindi lessons…

This graduate level text on second language learning is divided into three sections. The first two sections provide a survey of the historical underpinnings of second language research in contrastive analysis and error analysis. The third section includes discussions of recent developments in the field. The first section contains articles on the…