This study examines the acquisition of the inflectional system by a Turkish child learner of English. Results from longitudinal data collected over 18 months are reported, presenting counterevidence for recent hypotheses on early L2 acquisition according to which missing functional items reflect missing functional categories (e.g., Vainikka & Young-Scholten, 1994, 1996a, 1996b). Despite robust evidence for the early production of copula be, auxiliary be, and overt subjects, the child L2 data analyzed in this paper do not show any evidence for tense and agreement morphology in the early stages of L2 development. In other words, although some functional elements related to IP are missing, the learner is able to perform other morphological and syntactic operations involving the functional projection IP. These findings lead us to question whether the lack of functional elements entails the lack of functional categories.

Due to the recognition of the centrality of the lexicon for SLA theory (see the 1987 thematic issue of SSLA, edited by Susan Gass), the last few years have witnessed an increased interest in understanding lexical knowledge. As Gass (1999) reminded us, learning vocabulary in a second language is a complex task that involves much more than learning sound-meaning pairings; it also involves learning how lexical information is morphologically expressed and syntactically constrained. The present issue provides a natural sequel to the 1999 SSLA thematic issue, “Incidental L2 Vocabulary Acquisition,” by addressing some of the questions raised in that volume, in particular the questions related to the intimate relationship between syntax and semantics at the lexical interface. This issue is devoted to the L2 acquisition of verb meaning and argument structure crosslinguistically, and it explores in detail the nature of linguistic systems that L2 learners acquire in this particular domain. The six central articles offer a coherent approach to the topic, using linguistic theory to help us understand the characteristics of learner grammars. Until recently, linguistic approaches to SLA have placed a strong emphasis on understanding the acquisition of functional categories, for example, and the acquisition of the lexicon has received less attention. Understanding how the lexico-syntactic interface is mentally represented, and how it evolves during the second language acquisition process, is crucial for developing an adequate theory of L2 knowledge in general, as well as for informing theories of the lexicon.

In much previous research, listeners' rating data have served as a dependent variable to demonstrate the effects of age of learning, length of residence, and motivation on L2 users' degree of foreign accent. However, the role of speaking rate in such judgments has not been ascertained. To gain new insight into this relationship, we carried out two experiments involving sentence-length utterances produced by English L2 users. In the first, we observed a significant curvilinear relationship between speaking rates and accentedness and comprehensibility judgments of utterances produced by users from a variety of L1 backgrounds. In the second experiment, by manipulating rates with speech compression-expansion software, we established that this effect was due to the rate differences themselves, rather than to differences in L2 proficiency that might co-vary with rate. In both experiments the listeners tended to assign the highest ratings to L2 speech that was somewhat faster than the rates generally used by L2 users; however, both very fast and very slow speech tended to be less highly rated. Researchers who use listener rating data should be mindful of the potential confounding effect of speaking rate in their data.

In this paper the concept of “lexical unit” as proposed by Cruse (1986) is introduced in the context of L2 vocabulary learning to replace the rather vague notion of “word.” In the first part of the paper, this concept is defined in terms of lexical semantics and then applied to the L2 learning task. The second part describes two experimental studies in which the learning of different types of lexical units is examined. In the first study, totally new lexical units are compared with multiword items that are made up of familiar forms. In the second experiment, different types of new senses of familiar forms are compared. Both studies underscore the importance of knowledge of form—but not of previously learned meaning—for the learning of new meanings for familiar forms.

In English, manner-of-motion verbs (walk, run) and directed motion verbs (go) can appear with a prepositional phrase that expresses a goal (goal PP) as in John walked (ran, went) to school. In contrast, Japanese allows only directed motion verbs to occur with a goal PP. Thus, English allows a wider range of motion verbs to occur with goal PPs than Japanese does. Learnability considerations, then, lead me to hypothesize that Japanese learners will learn manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs in English from positive evidence, whereas English learners will have difficulty learning that manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs are impossible in Japanese because nothing in the input will tell them so. Forty-two intermediate Japanese learners of English and 21 advanced English learners of Japanese were tested using a grammaticality judgment task with pictures. Results support this prediction and provide a new piece of evidence for the previous findings indicating that L1 influence persists when an argument structure in the L2 constitutes a subset of its counterpart in the L1.

VanPatten (1990) found that L2 learners of Spanish have difficulty simultaneously attending to meaning and form of aural input. This partial replication of VanPatten (1990) addresses the effect of modality on attention to meaning and form by including a written mode and by using a different L2, that is, English as a foreign language. Six tasks were used in this study: (a) listening to the passage for content only, (b) listening for content while attending to the content word inflation, (c) listening for content while attending to the definite article the, (d) reading the passage for content only, (e) reading the passage for content while attending to the content word inflation, and (f) reading for content while attending to the definite article the. Task results in the aural mode mirrored those of VanPatten's original study, but significant differences were not observed for tasks in the written mode. Furthermore, results revealed that listening was more difficult than reading, suggesting that modality is a variable that influences how learners process input. Avenues for future research are discussed.

Reading in a second language (L2) is not a monolingual event; L2 readers have access to their first language (L1) as they read, and many use it as a strategy to help comprehend an L2 text. Owing to difficulties in observing the comprehension process, little research has been conducted to determine what role the L1 plays in the reading strategies of L2 readers. Using think-aloud protocols and retrospective interviews with 20 native speakers of Chinese and Japanese at three levels of language proficiency studying in the United States, this study explores further the question of when L2 readers use their L1 cognitive resources and how this cognitive use of the L1 helps them comprehend an L2 text. We conclude by suggesting that the results support a sociocultural view of the L2 reading process.

This paper explores the possibility that, contrary to the findings of past studies, the L1 and L2 mental lexicon may in fact be structurally similar, with depth of individual word knowledge determining a given word's degree of integration into the mental lexicon. The paper begins by reviewing the body of evidence relevant to the research question, and then presents the design and results of an investigation comparing nonnative and native speaker patterns of responses in light of depth of word knowledge scores. In discussing the results of the study, a tentative model for the process by which words are integrated into the mental lexicon is proposed, and the long-standing belief that a shift from predominantly syntagmatic to predominantly paradigmatic responses is indicative of lexical development is challenged.

The present study examines the relationship between second language (L2) proficiency and pausing patterns (i.e., pause duration, frequency, and distribution) in the speech of 30 Russian speakers of English performing two oral tasks—a topic narrative and a cartoon description—in Russian and in English. The subjects were divided into two oral English proficiency groups, high and intermediate, on the basis of a standardized test of spoken English. Baseline data were collected from a control group of 20 native English speakers. Statistical analyses were performed to determine: (a) the native norms of pause duration, frequency, and distribution for Russian and English on the two experimental tasks; (b) the effect of the level of L2 proficiency (high and intermediate) on the pausing of Russian speakers in English; and (c) the differences or similarities in pausing exhibited by native English speakers and native Russian speakers (with two different levels of English proficiency) when speaking English. The results of this study indicate that English and Russian informal monologue speech can be characterized as having different pausing conventions, thus suggesting that crosslinguistic differences involve, among many other aspects, contrasts in pausing patterns. Additionally, L2 proficiency was found to affect the pause duration of advanced nonnative speakers in that they were able to adjust the duration of their pauses in English to produce a nativelike pausing norm. It was also found that even highly proficient L2 speakers pause more frequently in their L2 than in their first language (L1). The examination of pause distribution patterns suggests that persons of intermediate to high L2 speaking proficiency make the same number of within-constituent pauses as native speakers. Overall, the findings of this study support the view that adherence to the target language pausing norms may lead to the perception of nonnative speech as more fluent and nativelike. The findings also highlight the importance of exposing L2 students to a richer variety of situations that illustrate native patterns of verbal communication.

Willingness to communicate (WTC) has been defined as the intention to initiate communication, given a choice. It was hypothesized that orientations toward language learning as well as social support would influence students' WTC in a second language. Grade 9 students of L2 French immersion, living in a relatively unilingual Anglophone community, participated in the study. WTC was measured in each of four skill areas: speaking, writing, reading, and comprehension. Five orientations or reasons for studying an L2 were examined: travel, job related, friendship with Francophones, personal knowledge, and school achievement. Results showed that endorsement of all five orientations for language learning was positively correlated with WTC both inside and outside the classroom. Results also showed that social support, particularly from friends, was associated with higher levels of WTC outside the classroom but played less of a role inside the classroom. The support of friends was also associated with higher orientations for travel and for friendship with Francophones. Results are discussed in terms of an emerging situated model.

This article presents two experiments that examine the effects of the native language (L1) on the second language (L2) acquisition of argument structure. The linguistic focus is on agentive verbs of directed motion (march, walk) and change-of-state verbs (break, melt) in Spanish and English. Agentive verbs of directed motion undergo a transitivity alternation in English when there is a prepositional phrase (The captain marched the soldiers to the tents) but not in Spanish (*El capitán marchó a los soldados hasta el campamento). Two experiments are reported that examine whether Spanish and Turkish learners of English at the intermediate level undergeneralize the transitivity alternation with manner-of-motion verbs, and whether English learners of Spanish overgeneralize the alternation. In both experiments subjects performed a picture judgment task and a grammaticality judgment task. Results confirmed that the L1 constrains the acquisition of argument structure: There were overgeneralization errors with manner-of-motion verbs in the Spanish study and there were undergeneralization errors with these verbs in the English study. Learnability implications are discussed.

This article reports the findings of a study in which transfer of verb properties was investigated via syntactic data elicited from second language (L2) learners. It was hypothesized that a learner's first language (L1) would influence the acquisition of verbs in those L2 semantic classes where so-called L1-L2 translation equivalents could be found. To investigate lexical transfer, the performance of Hindi-Urdu speakers on tests of English causatives was compared with that of Vietnamese speakers, because there are significant differences between causativization patterns in Hindi-Urdu and Vietnamese. To account for proficiency-based variation in performance, learners were placed in one of three levels of lexical proficiency in English, and Mann-Whitney comparisons were made between Hindi-Urdu and Vietnamese speakers at corresponding proficiency levels. It was found that the performance of the Hindi-Urdu and Vietnamese groups differed significantly in several semantic contexts. Generally, the results suggest that there is some transfer of semantic information from the L1 verb lexicon to the emerging L2 verb lexicon. More specifically, the findings suggest that verb properties are transferred selectively and that transfer plays a role in the difficulty or ease involved in the shedding of overgeneralized lexical rules.

The English locative alternation relates sentences of the type John loaded hay onto the wagon to those of the type John loaded the wagon with hay. Some locative verbs occur in both of these patterns, others in only one or the other. It is known that there are differences among languages with respect to which verbs are possible. The present research focuses on the constructional meaning of the locative alternation and on the constraints governing verbs that can participate in the alternation. One characteristic of the “ground-object” locative is that the object tends to be viewed as completely affected. This is known as the holism effect. Additionally, English has certain narrow constraints on the verbs that can occur in the two constructions. This study investigates whether native speakers of Korean learning English develop knowledge of the holism effect in the English locative and knowledge of the narrow constraints. English native speakers and Korean learners of English participated in a forced-choice picture-description task. Native speakers of Korean also judged an equivalent test instrument in Korean. The primary results are these: When given a ground-object structure, both learners and English native speakers preferentially chose a ground-holism picture. We interpret this as a reflection of the holism effect: Learners, like native speakers, have knowledge of this aspect of the constructional meaning of the locative. English native speakers also show their knowledge of the narrow conflation classes by rejecting ground-object structures containing verbs that are not permitted in this structure, even if the picture would be appropriate. Korean learners show no effect for narrow verb class. We interpret this as showing that the learners have not achieved native-speaker knowledge of the narrow classes. Korean uses a different basis for verb classification.

Previous research has suggested that child but not adult immigrants to the United States and Canada make regular progress learning English as their length of residence (LOR) increases. If children and adults received the same kind of second language (L2) input, such evidence would support the existence of a critical period for L2 acquisition. The present study compared groups of Chinese adults living in the United States who differed in LOR in order to assess the role of input in adults' naturalistic acquisition of an L2. We assessed the Chinese participants' identification of word-final English consonants (experiment 1), their scores on a 144-item grammaticality judgment test (experiment 2), and their scores on a 45-item listening comprehension test (experiment 3). The Chinese participants were assigned to one of four groups (n = 15 each) based on LOR in the United States and their primary occupation (students vs. nonstudents). Significantly higher scores were obtained for the students with relatively long LORs than for the students with relatively short LORs in all three experiments. However, the difference between the nonstudents differing in LOR was nonsignificant in each instance. The results suggested that the lack of an effect of LOR in some previous studies may have been due to sampling error. It appears that adults' performance in an L2 will improve measurably over time, but only if they receive a substantial amount of native speaker input.

This paper reports on a test of the validity of Pienemann's (1998) Processability Theory (PT). This theory predicts that certain morphological and syntactic phenomena are acquired in a fixed sequence. Three phenomena were chosen for this study: attributive adjective morphology, predicative adjective morphology, and subordinate clause syntax (placement of negation). These phenomena are located at successive developmental stages in the hierarchy predicted by PT. We test whether they actually do appear in this predicted hierarchical order in the L2 of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish learners. The three languages mentioned are very closely related and have the same adjective morphology and subordinate clause syntax. We can, therefore, treat them as one language for the purposes of this study. Three analyses have been carried out: The first follows Pienemann's theory and is concerned only with syntactic levels; the second is a semantic analysis of the acquisition of number versus that of gender; the third analysis studies the various kinds of mismatches between the inflection of the noun, the controller, and the adjective. The results are the following: The first test supports PT as it has been described by Pienemann. The second analysis shows that there is an acquisitional hierarchy such that number is acquired before gender (in adjectives), and the mismatch analysis raises questions about the fundamental assumptions of the theory.

This paper critically examines Tomlin and Villa's (1994) fine-grained analysis of attention and Leow's (1998) attempt to operationalize their model. Our position is that whereas Tomlin and Villa have moved the attention research forward by describing the nature of attentional processes and by pointing out that detection is a critical function of SLA, their claim that alertness and orientation are not necessary for detection to occur is currently unsupportable and does not reflect the complex nature of SLA. We argue that Leow's efforts to provide empirical support for this model fall short of that goal. Additionally, we cast doubt on Tomlin and Villa's position that awareness is not required for the detection of L2 data by arguing that the issue of awareness as well as the role of attentional functions must be viewed from a more interactive perspective in terms of the nature of the task, the nature of the linguistic item, and individual learner differences. We conclude by proposing research orientations that may help advance the discussion on this topic.

These two books by Geoffrey Finch are designed to be accessible and practical guides to the study of linguistics. The first book listed (HTSL) introduces the major aspects of linguistic study. After the introductory chapter on how language works and how one can describe language, Finch starts with notions such as linguistic competence and performance and the various functions of language (chap. 2). The next three chapters present the central aspects of the core areas of linguistics: phonetics and phonology (chap. 3), syntax (chap. 4), and semantics and pragmatics (chap. 5). Chapter 6 explores the core areas further by discussing topics such as distinctive feature analysis, intonation, morphology, X-bar theory, and transformational grammar, and then provides a brief introduction to sociolinguistics, stylistics, and psycholinguistics. One interesting feature of this book is that Finch often uses literary work and quotations to illustrate his points in the discussion of linguistic concepts. HTSL ends with a chapter that offers advice on how to write a linguistics essay and is complete with a glossary and an index. At the end of each chapter there is a list of references for further reading, but there are no exercises that one usually expects of an introductory linguistics book.

Aimed at pre- and in-service ELT professionals, Research methods for English language teachers introduces basic premises of research in language learning and teaching. The authors approach qualitative and quantitative research from a reflective perspective, emphasizing techniques that guide and shape action research. The book presents an effective, reader-friendly survey of theoretical principles, data collection processes, and analytic procedures.

This book is delightful but needs to be approached with care.

This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the acquisition of Japanese unaccusative verbs by English-speaking learners. Following Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995), it is assumed that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined. The experiment is devised specifically to examine whether L2 learners are sensitive to syntactic and semantic properties associated with unaccusative verbs in Japanese, which contrast with the properties of unergative verbs. In particular, the experiment involved picture tasks with two structures: the takusan construction as a syntactic test and the -teiru construction as a semantic test. Overall results of the experiment show that L2 learners generally know the properties investigated; that is, that subjects of unaccusative verbs originate in object position, and semantic notions such as telicity and change of state are aspects of meaning relevant to the classification of unaccusativity in Japanese. Based on these results, it is argued that the mapping of verb arguments to syntactic positions is not random, but rule governed, for most of the L2 learners in the present study.