Discusses the relationship between universal grammar and second language (L2) acquisition. Explores the phenomenon by testing children of contrasting first languages to see whether null-prep is a general acquisition phenomenon among L2 learners of English, and whether child learners, in contrast to adults, produce null-prep because of first…

This study focuses on how Chinese writing instruction can cause negative interference for Chinese English-as-a-Second-Language students writing in English. The study shows that in Chinese writing, the main idea can be more general, as a theme, or specific, as a thesis statement. It can also come at the beginning or end of a paper, and the writer…

Presents an analytic foundation of English-as-a-Second-Language pedagogical research and application extending beyond the traditional "superficial" categories of morphosyntactic rule violations and false cognates. The study focuses on lexical-semantics, syntax, text-analysis, and pragmatics, and synthesizes major categories of…

Cloze tests were administered to native- and second-language speakers in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom to analyze problems that demonstratives pose for second- language students of Japanese and English and to suggest future improvements for existing explanations and grammatical accounts for each language. (25 references)…

Addresses challenges faced by bilingual children transitioning to literacy in English when answering reading comprehension questions requiring interpretation and synthesis of information related to fictitious characters' thoughts. Notes that understanding a character's perspective may depend on inference, rather than on lexical content within a…