Four- and five-year olds and adults looked at cards depicting five identical objects named with plural or collective nouns, and then looked at cards depicting one or five objects and chose one of the cards in response to the collective noun. Children were able, but less so than adults, to choose the card depicting the five objects. (BC)

Responds to various commentaries written in response to an earlier article published by the author on filler syllables and their status in emerging grammar. (Author/VWL)

Examined whether there are principles invoked in learning words not invoked in learning facts. Found that learning count nouns and facts involved at least two common components: establishing a mapping to a designated individual, and retaining this mapping over time. Children systematically extended a novel count noun to other category members; no…

Argues that Deacon's coevolutionary theory provides a basis for changing how we think about language and brains. Instead of ascribing language to either nature or nurture, it is seen as intrinsic to both: biological principles ensure the brain can only function by attuning to its body's worlds. (Author/VWL)

Researchers and clinicians have recommended that sign language be taught to typically developing children during their first 2 years of life; however, existing research does not provide adequate information regarding appropriate methods of sign training. We used delayed physical prompting and reinforcement to teach manual signs to 3 children…

Previous research has found developmental decreases in temporal variability in speech. Relatively less work has examined spectral variability, and, in particular, variability in consonant spectra. This article examined variability in productions of the consonant/s/by adults and by 3 groups of children, with mean ages of 3;11 (years; months), 5;04,…

We describe the case of a child with severely unintelligible speech, referred to our clinic after unsuccessful therapy elsewhere. Thomas's speech was characterized by deapicalization and velodorsal articulations, together with hypernasality. Unusually, Thomas was also able to produce a small number of items normally. His speech was investigated by…

In this study, we investigated the expressive language development of 186 18-35 months old Chinese girls adopted into American families. The adoptees were adopted between 3 and 25 months (M=11.0, S.D.=3.1) and had lived in the adoptive families for 3-27 months (M=16.2, S.D.=5.8) at the time of the study. The adoptive mothers provided information…

Children who produce one word at a time often use gesture to supplement their speech, turning a single word into an utterance that conveys a sentence-like meaning ('eat'+point at cookie). Interestingly, the age at which children first produce supplementary gesture-speech combinations of this sort reliably predicts the age at which they first…

The construct of the native speaker is germane to second language acquisition (SLA) research; it underlies, and permeates, a significant bulk of SLA theory construction and empirical research. Nevertheless, it is one of the least investigated (and for that matter, least understood) concepts in the field. Even a cursory reading of the major SLA…

Explaining the persistent optional use of overt forms of certain grammatical properties in adult second language acquisition (SLA) raises the question of whether or not such difficulties are directly attributable to first language (L1) influence. Using Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theoretic framework (1986/95), this paper considers how a…

This article explores a number of points at which Relevance Theory makes a useful contribution to second language theoretical models, specifically those of Bialystok and Schmidt and their respective notions of "analysis", "control" and "noticing". It is suggested that the inferential mechanisms of Relevance Theory can account for the contingencies…

The aim of this article is to provide a selective review of event-related potential (ERP) research on second language processing. As ERPs have been used in the investigation of a variety of linguistic domains, the reported studies cover different paradigms assessing processing mechanisms in the second language at various levels, ranging from…

Recasts have continued to be the object of intensive empirical and theoretical inquiry following Nicholas, Lightbown, and Spada's (2001) review. The current article identifies a number of problems with this research and the supporting theory. These problems concern the fact that recasts can take many different forms and perform a variety of…

This article represents an attempt to draw together findings from a range of second language acquisition studies in order to formulate a set of general principles for language pedagogy. These principles address such issues as the nature of second language (L2) competence (as formulaic and rule-based knowledge), the contributions of both focus on…