The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition

The term "design experiments" was introduced in 1992, in articles by Ann Brown (1992) and Allan Collins (1992). Design experiments were developed as a way to carry out formative research to test and refine educational designs based on principles derived from prior research. More recently the term design research has been applied to this kind of work. In this article, we outline the goals of design research and how it is related to other methodologies. We illustrate how design research is carried out with two very different examples. And we provide guidelines for how design research can best be carried out in the future.

http://www.heybradfords.com/FormativeResearchInstructionalUnit/Collins,%20Joseph,%20&%20Bielaczyc%202004.pdf

Design Research: Theoretical and Methodological Issues

This article is a defence of the Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA) model. FT/FA hypothesizes that the initial state of L2 acquisition is the final state of L1 acquisition (Full Transfer) and that failure to assign a representation to input data will force subsequent restructurings, drawing from options of UG (Full Access). We illustrate the FT/FA model by reviewing our analysis of the developmental Turkish-German Interlanguage data of Schwartz and Sprouse (1994) and then turn to other data that similarly receive straightforward accounts under FT/FA.We also consider two other competing hypotheses, both of which accept Full Access but not Full Transfer: the Minimal Trees hypothesis (no transfer of functional categories) of Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994; 1996) and the Weak Transfer hypothesis (no transfer of the values associated with functional categories) of Eubank (1993/94). We provide an example of (extremely robust) L2 acquisition data that highlight the inadequacy of the Minimal Trees hypothesis in...

L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model:

Rules and Representations

This article examines the effects of negotiated interaction on the production and development of question forms in English as a second language (ESL). The study focused on one feature of interaction, recasts, which have recently been the topic of interactional work in the SLA literature (Long, 1996; Long, Inagaki, & Ortega, this issue; Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Oliver, 1995). The study compared groups of learners who received interactionally modified input with learners who received the same input containing intensive recasts in order to investigate: (a) the effect of recasts on learners' short term interlanguage (IL) development, and (b) the nature and content of learners' responses to recasts. The results suggest that for more advanced learners, interaction with intensive recasts may be more beneficial than interaction alone in facilitating an increase in production of targeted higher-level morphosyntactic forms. These positive developmental effects were found for recasts even though, as is generally acknowledged in the discourse, recasts were usually not repeated and rarely elicited modification by the learners. This study, therefore, suggests that recasts may be beneficial for short term IL development even though they are not incorporated in learners' immediate responses. In fact, the responses may be red herrings.

Conversational Interaction and Second Language Development: Recasts, Responses, and Red Herrings?

White (e.g., 1990/1991; 1992a) argued that grammatical representations in second-language development can be understood in terms of parametric values that are transferred from the learner's native language. Schwartz (1993a; 1993b) and Schwartz and Sprouse (1994) push this view of transfer to its logical limit: The initial state of L2 acquisition is determined in its entirety by the parametric values of the native language. This article presents early-stage learner data that are not compatible with this strong view of parametric transfer. An alternative proposal is made, a weak transfer view in which lexical and functional projections transfer, and the headedness of those projections transfers, but morphology-driven values of features like the strength of agreement do not transfer. This idea is checked against learner data and is also evaluated for the extent to which it follows in a principled fashion from linguistic theory.

On the Transfer of Parametric Values in L2 Development

In Eubank (1993/94), I argued that the apparent syntactic optionality one observes in, for example, the placement of medial adverbs vis-a-vis thematic verbs in French-English Interlanguage can be e

Negation in early German-English Interlanguage: more Valueless Features in the L2 initial state:

White (e.g., 1990/1991) and Schwartz (e.g., 1993) suggested that parametric values that determine verb raising transfer into initial second-language (L2) representations. However, reaction-time research by Eubank and Grace (1996) suggested that this type of transfer does not appear; rather, the value determining raising is radically underspecified, allowing raising to occur optionally. These findings are problematic, however, because reaction times require so much extrapolation. In this article, we employ a truth-value task to reexamine native-language (NL) transfer among Chinese-speaking L2 learners of English—that is, where neither NL nor mature L2 permits verb raising. Findings confirm largely the Eubank and Grace findings, indicating optionality effects. Discussion includes a comparison with the earlier findings of Eubank and Grace and analysis of developmental and transfer-based explanations for the observed optionality effects. In the end, only an explanation involving an impairment to verbal featur...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/20011463

"Tom Eats Slowly Cooked Eggs": Thematic-Verb Raising in L2 Knowledge.

1. Introduction: Universal Grammar in the Second Language (by Eubank, Lynn) 2. Seven Trivia of Language Acquisition (by Klein, Wolfgang) 3. Seven Not-So-Trivial Trivia of Language Acquistion: Comments on Wolfgang Klein (by Hyams, Nina) 4. The Accessibility of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition (by Felix, Sascha) 5. Issues in the Accessibility Debate: A Reply to felix (by Schachter, Jacquelyn) 6. Age-dependent Effects in Language Acquuisition: An Evaluation of "Critical Period" Hypotheses (by Flynn, Suzanne) 7. On the Notion of "Critical Period" in UG/L2 Theory: A Response to Flynn and Manuel (by Birdsong, David) 8. Second Language Competence versus Second Language Performance: UG or Processing Strategies? (by White, Lydia) 9. Processing, Contraints on Acquisition, and the Parsing of Ungrammatical Sentences (by Bley-Vroman, Robert) 10. Linguistic Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition (by Jordens, Peter) 11. Transfer or Universal Grammar: Reply to Jordens (by Eubank, Lynn) 12. Principles of Universal Grammar and Strategies of Language Learning: Some Similarities and Differencies between First and Second Language Acquisition (by Meisel, Jurgen M.) 13. Conceptual and Empirical Evidence: A Response to Meisel (by Schwartz, Bonnie D.) 14. Access to Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition (by Hilles, Sharon) 15. Language Acquisition and the "Pro-Drop" Phenomenon: A response to Hilles (by O'Grady, William) 16. Binding Parameters in Second Language Acquisition (by Finer, Daniel L.) 17. Do Second Language Learners Have "Rogue" Grammars of Anaphora? (by Thomas, Margaret) 18. Morphological Uniformity and Null Subjects in Child Second Language Acquisition (by Lakshmanan, Usha) 19. Evidence, Analogy and Passive Knowledge: Comments on Lakshmanan (by Hyams, Nina) 20. Abbreviations 21. Index

Point counterpoint : universal grammar in the second language

state’ refers to the starting point of non-native grammatical knowledge. This lacuna is particularly surprising within the framework of generativist L2 acquisition research. Even among those who maintain that L2 development is in some sense guided or constrained by the principles of Universal Grammar (UG),’ there are no standard assumptions regarding the linguistic properties of the initial system which will be modified or elaborated upon by the interaction of input and UG during the course of L2 development. The three articles in this thematic issue of Second Language Research2 seek to address this important research topic, which in one sense continues the long tradition of L2 acquisition research concerned with determining the extent of native-language (Ll) influence, but in another sense breaks new theoretical ground.’ A brief foray into the debate surrounding the initial state of Ll acquisition will perhaps help to show how the topic of the L2 initial state as conceived here is novel.

Lynn Eubank

Papers

On the Transfer of Parametric Values in L2 Development

Negation in early German-English Interlanguage: more Valueless Features in the L2 initial state:

"Tom Eats Slowly Cooked Eggs": Thematic-Verb Raising in L2 Knowledge.

Point counterpoint : universal grammar in the second language

What is the 'L2 initial state'?