Grammar competition has been proposed as a model for second language (L2) acquisition. Variational Learning provides a framework within which to investigate the idea of grammar competition as the model requires a marriage of quantitative properties of the input with Universal Grammar. A diachronic variational model of grammar competition is…

Acquisition of oral English verb morphology presents difficulties for bilinguals, learners of EFL and English-speaking monolingual children with specific language impairment. This study aimed to identify challenging English verb inflections among sixth grade speakers of Arabic (N = 85) and Hebrew (N = 86) using an elicited oral narrative task, and…

This pilot study investigates the performance in French of five English-speaking children, who are enrolled in their sixth year of a primary French immersion program in a Toronto elementary school. From speech data obtained in individual interviews, an analysis is made of the students' control of the French verb system. The subjects are found to…