It has been argued that children learning a second language (L2) omit agreement inflection because of communication demands. The conclusion of these studies is that L2 children know the morphological and syntactic properties of agreement inflection, but sometimes insert an inflectional default form (i.e., the bare verb) in production. The present…

In this study, a sentence interpretation experiment based on Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model was administered to second language learners of English and Chinese at three different stages of learning. Examined how transfer patterns at the sentence processing level change as a function of proficiency and investigates whether or how transfer…

Investigates the applicability of the Subset Principle in the second-language acquisition of the Oblique-Case Parameter by 45 learners of French. The results of a grammaticality judgment task and a correction task provide partial support for the Subset Principle. Further research is needed to conclude whether the Oblique-Case Parameter really is a…

Investigates the determinants of adult usage of various syntactic and semantic cues in sentence interpretation. Native French speakers and advanced English/French bilinguals were tested for the strength of usage of word order, clitic pronoun agreement, verb agreement, and noun animacy cues in the assignment of the role in French sentences. (46…

Comparison of the cue usage of English/Dutch and Dutch/English bilinguals with varying amounts of second language exposure to that of native speaker control groups reveals that, with increasing exposure, cue usage in the second language gradually shifts from that appropriate to the first language to that appropriate for the second. (Author/CB)

Describes the "Competition Model" (Bates and MacWhinney, 1982) dealing with second-language sentence processing by bilinguals and research that has further developed theories dealing with the model. (CB)

Study of the probabilistic nature of processing strategies in Dutch/English bilinguals indicated that sentence interpretation in English generally paralleled that in Dutch, with divergence toward similarity in performance by English monolinguals. (Author/CB)

Investigates the interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragamatics from the perspectives of functional constraints on sentence processing. Findings reveal that native speakers of Italian first become aware of the importance of the concept of word order in a second language before being able to determine the specifics of word order in that…

The question explored is whether native speakers'"simplified" or modified utterances, as in foreigner-talk (FT), actually facilitate comprehension for nonnative speakers hearing such utterances. It is concluded that linguistically more complex input will not necessarily impede comprehension. (49 references) (Author/LB)

Native Spanish early and late acquirers of English and Vietnamese early and child acquirers of English made grammaticality judgments of sentences in their second language. Native acquirers of English were not distinguishable from native English speakers, whereas native Spanish late acquirers had difficulty with all aspects of the grammar tested…

Study of native speakers of Yoruba who spoke English as a second language found that transfer of learning from one language to the other decreased with increasing proficiency in English. Transfer from Yoruba to English was higher than from English to Yoruba at lower levels of proficiency in English. (Author/CB)