The main goal of this tutorial is to promote the study of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across different languages of the world. The cumulative effect of these efforts is likely to be a set of more compelling and comprehensive theories of language learning difficulties and, possibly, of language acquisition in general.…

This commentary discusses the recent keynote article by Westergaard (2021), which is an interesting contribution to the field of language acquisition and multilingualism, especially because it attempts to provide a wider perspective by embracing first, second and third language acquisition. I address major claims put forward by Westergaard, to…

The Bottleneck Hypothesis argues that properties of inflectional morphology explain why second-language learners may face persistent difficulties in articulating meaning in target-language forms. In particular, the acquisition task proves even harder when first and second languages differ in the way they organize the mapping of functional features…

This paper compares the initial state of second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition for English articles to examine the influence of L2 proficiency on positive transfer from L2 to L3. We tested 36 L1 Turkish/L2 German adolescent learners of L3 English (L3 group), 41 L1 Turkish adolescent learners of L2 English (L2 group), and 10…

This article reports on an investigation into the bilingual development of literacy skills in Portuguese heritage language speakers in Switzerland in which we sought to put Cummins' linguistic interdependence hypothesis to the test. Three predictions were derived from this hypothesis: (1) Literacy skill levels in one of the bilinguals' languages…

This article suggests a method to deal with cross-linguistic differences in children with Specific Language Impairment. The differences in vulnerable structures reflect typological properties of the surrounding language (e.g., Leonard 2014a, 2014b). This article adds a developmental perspective to the discussion by interpreting the vulnerable…

This paper is concerned with a specific case of L3 acquisition: the starting position for English vowel acquisition by infant German-Italian bilinguals will be investigated in light of prototype theory. The chosen example of triple language contact is characterised by consecutive bilingualism as the basis of L3 acquisition, where the learners' L2…

Offers a new classification of the indirect question clause, as one of four categories of subordinate clauses, according to content, while retaining the three traditional form categories, namely, conjunctional, relative, and those introduced by "w-" interrogative words. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Describes the surface structure of German adverbs proceeding from the standpoint of dependence-valence grammar. On the basis of their meaning, adverbs are classified as modal, temporal and locational. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Discussed in this article is the question of teaching Old Saxon in German departments. Usually, Old High German, Middle High German, and Gothic are taught in German departments where philology is included. Only in the large universities and colleges will one find a course in Old Saxon and Old Norsk. Greater emphasis on teaching Old Saxon is…

Papers included in this volume are: "The Muted Voice of Immigrant Workers;""The Situation of Foreign Workers in Sweden"; "Situation of Foreign Workers in the Federal Republic of Germany"; "Teaching German to Immigrant Children"; "Using Language Typology in Contrastive Studies"; "On Determining…