The Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2000) developed in line with the Minimalist theory of grammar (Chomsky, 1995 et seq.) supports the view of L2 acquisition that syntactic properties are acquired early while the acquisition of interface properties is delayed. One of the interface properties is inflectional morphology on English verbs, which…

Over the past 45 years, the construct of syntactic sophistication has been assessed in L2 writing using what Bulté and Housen (2012) refer to as absolute complexity (Lu, 2011; Ortega, 2003; Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim, 1998). However, it has been argued that making inferences about learners based on absolute complexity indices (e.g., mean…

This collection of essays includes topics from several areas of linguistics with special attention paid to the issue of language diversity, especially as confronted in the multilingual and multicultural southwestern United States. The first section contains essays on various topics ranging from the value of abstract syntax to "Homophones and the…

Works by European and American educators from the Renaissance to the twentieth century are presented. A historical re-evaluation of foreign-language teaching combined with the scientific approach of modern linguistics can provide valuable insights for current teaching and learning approaches. Selections are presented from the writings of the…