Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar

Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar
Author: Yan-kit Ingrid Leung
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1847691315

This volume presents studies which approach the relatively new field of third language (L3) acquisition from the generative linguistic perspective. It aims to bring together researchers who are interested in L3 acquisition and who are at the same time working within the generative framework i.e. Chomsky's Universal Grammar (UG) approach to language acquisition. A total of nine contributions are included, reporting research on L3 involving different combinations of source/target languages and investigating various UG-related properties.

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: Susan Foster-Cohen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-07-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 023024078X

This book provides a snapshot of the field of language acquisition at the beginning of the 21st Century. It represents the multiplicity of approaches that characterize the field and provides a review of current topics and debates, as well as addressing some of the connections between sub-fields and possible future directions for research.

Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition

Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition
Author: Usha Lakshmanan
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 175
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027224757

This book examines child second language acquisition within the Principles and Parameters theory of Universal Grammar (UG). Specifically, the book focuses on null-subjects in the developing grammars of children acquiring English as a second language. The book provides evidence from the longitudinal speech data of four child second language (L2) learners in order to test the predictions of a recent theory of null-subjects, namely, the Morphological Uniformity Principle (MUP). Lakshmanan argues that the child L2 acquisition data offer little or no evidence in support of the MUP s predictions regarding a developmental relation between verb inflections and null-subjects. The evidence from these child L2 data indicates that regardless of the status of null subjects in their first language, child L2 learners of English hypothesize correctly from the very beginning that English requires subjects of tensed clauses to be obligatorily overt. The failure on the part of these learners to obey this knowledge in certain structural contexts is the result of perceptual factors that are unrelated to parameter setting. The book demonstrates the value of child second language acquisition data in evaluating specific proposals within linguistic theory for a Universal principle.

Universal Grammar and the Second Language Classroom

Universal Grammar and the Second Language Classroom
Author: Melinda Whong
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2013-06-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 940076362X

This book proposes that research into generative second language acquisition (GenSLA) can be applied to the language classroom. Assuming that Universal Grammar plays a role in second language development, it explores generalisations from GenSLA research. The book aims to build bridges between the fields of generative second language acquisition, applied linguistics, and language teaching; and it shows how GenSLA is poised to engage with researchers of second language learning outside the generative paradigm. Each chapter of Universal Grammar and the Second Language Classroom showcases ways in which GenSLA research can inform language pedagogy. Some chapters include classroom research that tests the effectiveness of teaching particular linguistic phenomena. Others review existing research findings, discussing how these findings are useful for language pedagogy. All chapters show how generative linguistics can enhance teachers’ expertise in language and second language development. “This groundbreaking volume ably takes on the gap that currently exists between generative linguistic theory in second language acquisition (GenSLA) and second language pedagogy, by gathering chapters from GenSLA researchers who are interested in the relevance and potential application of their research to second/foreign language teaching. It offers a welcome and thought-provoking contribution to any discussion of the relation between linguistic theory and practice. I recommend it not only for language teachers interested in deepening their understanding of the formal properties of the languages they teach, but also for linguists interested in following up on more practical consequences of the fruits of their theoretical and empirical research.” Donna Lardiere, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA

Third Language Acquisition in Adulthood

Third Language Acquisition in Adulthood
Author: Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2012
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027241872

Provides an overview of present trends in the study of adult additive multilingualism from formal, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, adding new insights into adult multilingual epistemology. This book includes critical reviews of L3/Ln morphosyntax, phonology, and the lexicon.

Third language acquisition

Third language acquisition
Author: Camilla Bardel
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 276
Release:
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3961102805

This book deals with the phenomenon of third language (L3) acquisition. As a research field, L3 acquisition is established as a branch of multilingualism that is concerned with how multilinguals learn additional languages and the role that their multilingual background plays in the process of language learning. The volume points out some current directions in this particular research area with a number of studies that reveal the complexity of multilingual language learning and its typical variation and dynamics. The eight studies gathered in the book represent a wide range of theoretical positions and offer empirical evidence from learners belonging to different age groups, and with varying levels of proficiency in the target language, as well as in other non-native languages belonging to the learner’s repertoire. Diverse linguistic phenomena and language combinations are viewed from a perspective where all previously acquired languages have a potential role to play in the process of learning a new language. In the six empirical studies, contexts of language learning in school or at university level constitute the main outlet for data collection. These studies involve several language backgrounds and language combinations and focus on various linguistic features. The specific target languages in the empirical studies are English, French and Italian. The volume also includes two theoretical chapters. The first one conceptualizes and describes the different types of multilingual language learning investigated in the volume: i) third or additional language learning by learners who are bilinguals from an early age, and ii) third or additional language learning by people who have previous experience of one or more non-native languages learned after the critical period. In particular, issues related to the roles played by age and proficiency in multilingual acquisition are discussed. The other theoretical chapter conceptualizes the grammatical category of aspect, reviewing previous studies on second and third language acquisition of aspect. Different models for L3 learning and their relevance and implications for representations of aspect and for potential differences in the processing of second and third language acquisition are also examined in this chapter. As a whole, the book presents current research into third or additional language learning by young learners or adults, considering some of the most important factors for the complex process of multilingual language learning: the age of onset of the additional language and that of previously acquired languages, social and affective factors, instruction, language proficiency and literacy, the typology of the background languages and the role they play in shaping syntax, lexicon, and other components of a L3. The idea for this book emanates from the symposium Multilingualism, language proficiency and age, organized by Camilla Bardel and Laura Sánchez at Stockholm University, Department of Language Education, in December 2016.

Constructing a Language

Constructing a Language
Author: Michael TOMASELLO
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0674044398

In this groundbreaking book, Tomasello presents a comprehensive usage-based theory of language acquisition. Drawing together a vast body of empirical research in cognitive science, linguistics, and developmental psychology, Tomasello demonstrates that we don't need a self-contained "language instinct" to explain how children learn language. Their linguistic ability is interwoven with other cognitive abilities.

Chomsky's Universal Grammar

Chomsky's Universal Grammar
Author: Vivian Cook
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2014-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9788126517473

This new edition introduces the reader to Noam Chomsky's theory of language by setting the specifics of syntactic analysis in the framework of his general ideas. It explains its fundamental concepts and provides an overview and history of the theory.

Point Counterpoint

Point Counterpoint
Author: Lynn Eubank
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 450
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9027224641

Point Counterpoint offers a series of papers and replies originally presented at a special session of the Second Language Research Forum, UCLA, March 1989. The focus of the papers is primarily the role of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition, though the agenda also includes discussion of other fundamental questions, viz., the explanatory potential of linguistic theory in native-language development. It may come as no surprise that the contributors and their respondents often present very different perspectives on the issues, for most of the authors were known in advance to hold contrasting points of view. Contributors (c) and Respondents (r) are: Wolfgang Klein (c)/Nina Hyams (r); Sascha Felix (c)/Jacquelyn Schachter (r); Suzanne Flynn & Sharon Manuel (c)/David Birdsong (r); Lydia White (c)/Robert Bley-Vroman (r); Peter Jordens (c)/Lynn Eubank (r); Jurgen Meisel (c)/Bonnie Schwartz (r); Sharon Hilles (c)/William O'Grady (r); Daniel Finer (c)/Margaret Thomas (r); Usha Lakshmanan (c)/Nina Hymans & Ken Safir (r).