This paper presents an extension of the Multiple Grammars Theory (Roeper, 1999) to provide a formal mechanism that can serve as a generative-based alternative to current descriptive models of interlanguage. The theory extends historical work by Kroch and Taylor (1997), and has been taken into a computational direction by Yang (2003). The proposal…

In the tradition of work by Shaughnessy (1977) and Bartholomae (1980) applying concepts from second language acquisition research to developing writing, we explore the commonalities of L1 and L2 writers on the specific level of linguistic choices needed to order information within and across sentence boundaries. We propose that many of the kinds…

This paper outlines some reasons for why gestures are relevant to the study of SLA. First, given cross-cultural and cross-linguistic gestural repertoires, gestures can be treated as part of what learners can acquire in a target language. Gestures can therefore be studied as a developing system in their own right both in L2 production and…

This article discusses the reasons why Chinese learners of English avoid using phrasal verbs in an English community context or when using English as an inter-language in China. The avoidance of phrasal verbs often leads to ineffective communication. By adopting appropriate pedagogical and methodological approaches or providing proper guidance to…

Just as learning a first language is sometimes compared to existence within the relatively sheltered world of the Garden of Eden, the process of learning a second language is viewed as analogous to survival after expulsion from the Garden into a relatively harsh world, in which the learner must come to a conscious understanding of form and meaning…

Previous investigations of the variable marking of past time by the L2 learner have given rise to a number of hypotheses which predict the patterns of acquisition and use of past time markers in interlanguage (IL). However, given the complicity between their predictions, it has been previously noted that hypotheses such as the aspect and discourse…

This brochure discusses, in lay terms, the degree to which language shapes thought. The first section describes briefly the questions that linguists have addressed in studying this issue, including how things such as location or time may be conceptualized differently in different language groups, offering examples from other languages in addition…

The first contacts between linguistics and second language acquisition date from the period of contrastive analysis of languages, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When contrastive analysis failed as an explanatory model, linguists lost interest in second language research and descriptive/contrastive studies declined, resulting in a changed…

Second language instruction in the U.S. and Europe is in difficulties. The choice of a second language is artibrary and the motivation dubious. In Europe and now also in the U.S., attention has turned to the planned interlanguage Esperanto, which offers a maximally regularized structure, is considered "easy" by learners, and has the…

While resumptive pronouns (RPs) are generally not allowed in English relative clauses, Chinese allows the use of RPs in indirect object position and genitive position but not in subject and direct object positions. Arabic languages allow RPs in direct object position as well as in indirect object position and genitive position, although not in…

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) has been fruitfully applied in L2 research that examines second and foreign language learning. This paper considers the applicability of the ZPD to interlanguage pragmatics instruction and research. First, the ZPD is defined [Vygotsky, L.S., 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher…

A study examined the stages of acquisition of Spanish definite articles by two groups of English-speaking learners enrolled in their first semester of Spanish. The approach taken was to analyze writing samples produced by the groups at different times during the semester, to obtain the basis for a pseudo-longitudinal analysis of article usage. The…

A discussion of the transfer of first language (L1) skills to second language (L2) learning focuses on the development of this transfer in second language reading instruction. A program integrating L1 and L2 study skills is outlined. First, the common components of the L1 syllabus are examined, including reading strategies, language-universal…

Analysis of language production skills of French immersion students in grades 1-6 over 3 years revealed rapid growth of oral competence in the first three years of acquisition, followed by a much slower annual rate of progress. Lexical and syntactic structures most difficult to acquire emerge in five distinct patterns. (50 references) (Author/MSE)

The review of research presented here examines studies based on Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativity, which states that cultural traditions encourage certain types of thinking and are reinforced by structural characteristics of particular languages. Studies were selected for inclusion if: (1) the subjects were learners and speakers…