The purpose of this seminar is to examine research on child L2 acquisition, with particular emphasis on syntax and morphology and semantics. Research into child L2 acquisition has the potential to inform our understanding of adult L2 acquisition as well as L1 acquisition. We will examine some of the very few studies that directly compare L2 (and L1) children and L2 adults in the acquisition of particular grammatical phenomena. Students will become familiar with the theoretical issues at stake as well as the empirical base of recent work.<\/p>\n
We start off by focusing on the “critical period” issue, or more neutrally, on age-dependent effects of L2 acquisition in terms of ultimate attainment. We next consider the issue of endstate (“ultimate attainment”) vs. development for L2 children and L2 adults. The third area is research on child L2 acquisition itself, where exposure to the nonnative language starts approximately between the ages of 4 and 7; this is likely to be the crucial age range, because it is after the native grammar has been (more or less) established and yet falls clearly within what is traditionally considered to be the critical period for language acquisition. Of special interest here are three issues: (1) whether child L2 acquisition “replicates” L1 acquisition; (2) whether child L2 acquisition exhibits features of adult L2 acquisition, in particular L1 influence; and (3) whether there are characteristic differences between L2 child and L2 adult acquisition, especially with respect to different domains, specifically syntax vs. inflectional morphology.<\/p>\n
The course will be a combination of lectures, discussion and student presentations of readings. Participants will be required to post questions\/comments regarding readings on our Laulima site. While familiarity with introductory syntax is highly desirable, time will be taken in class to ensure understanding of the necessary linguistic background.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"