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:

L'A. veut montrer que, dans la production de la L2, le fait de prendre conscience d'un probleme linguistique peut amener les apprenants a modifier leur production. Ce faisant, ils sont obliges d'utiliser un mode de traitement plus syntaxique, qui apparait dans la comprehension. Ce qu'il advient entre la production originale et la production finale modifiee par la prise en compte du probleme, fait partie du processus d'acquisition d'une L2

Problems in Output and the Cognitive Processes They Generate: A Step Towards Second Language Learning

This paper argues for the re-examination of the time-honoured view that the first language should be avoided in the classroom by teachers and students. The justifications for this rest on a doubtful analogy with first language acquisition, on a questionable compartmentalization of the two languages in the mind, and on the aim of maximizing students' exposure to the second language, laudable but not incompatible with use of the first language. The L1 has already been used in alternating language methods and in methods that actively create links between L1 and L2, such as the New Concurrent Method, Community Language Learning, and Dodson's Bilingual Method. Treating the L1 as a classroom resource opens up several ways to use it, such as for teachers to convey meaning, explain grammar, and organize the class, and for students to use as part of their collaborative learning and individual strategy use. The first language can be a useful element in creating authentic L2 users rather than something to be shunned...

Using the First Language in the Classroom

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) can reveal online processing differences between native speakers and second language (L2) learners during language comprehension. Using the P600 as a measure of native-likeness, we investigated processing of grammatical gender agreement in highly proficient immersed Romance L2 learners of Dutch. We demonstrate that these late learners consistently fail to show native-like sensitivity to gender violations. This appears to be due to a combination of differences from the gender marking in their L1 and the relatively opaque Dutch gender system. We find that L2 use predicts the effect magnitude of non-finite verb violations, a relatively regular and transparent construction, but not that of gender agreement violations. There were no effects of age of acquisition, length of residence, proficiency or offline gender knowledge. Additionally, a within-subject comparison of stimulus modalities (written vs. auditory) shows that immersed learners may show some of the effects only in the auditory modality; in non-finite verb violations, an early native-like N400 was only present for auditory stimuli. However, modality failed to influence the response to gender. Taken together, the results confirm the persistent problems of Romance learners of Dutch with online gender processing and show that they cannot be overcome by reducing task demands related to the modality of stimulus presentation.

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An ERP study on L2 syntax processing: When do learners fail?

This article reviews previous studies of the effects of implicit and explicit corrective feedback on SLA, pointing out a number of methodological problems. It then reports on a new study of the effects of these two types of corrective feedback on the acquisition of past tense -ed. In an experimental design (two experimental groups and a control group), low-intermediate learners of second language English completed two communicative tasks during which they received either recasts (implicit feedback) or metalinguistic explanation (explicit feedback) in response to any utterance that contained an error in the target structure. Acquisition was measured by means of an oral imitation test (designed to measure implicit knowledge) and both an untimed grammaticality judgment test and a metalinguistic knowledge test (both designed to measure explicit knowledge). The tests were administered prior to the instruction, 1 day after the instruction, and again 2 weeks later. Statistical comparisons of the learners' performance on the posttests showed a clear advantage for explicit feedback over implicit feedback for both the delayed imitation and grammaticality judgment posttests. Thus, the results indicate that metalinguistic explanation benefited implicit as well as explicit knowledge and point to the importance of including measures of both types of knowledge in experimental studies.This research was funded by a Marsden Fund grant awarded by the Royal Society of Arts of New Zealand. Researchers other than the authors who contributed to the research were Jenefer Philip, Satomi Mizutami, Keiko Sakui, and Thomas Delaney. Thanks go to the editors of this special issue and to two anonymous SSLA reviewers of a draft of the article for their constructive comments.

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Implicit and Explicit Corrective Feedback and the Acquisition of L2 Grammar.

A number of studies in the research literature have proposed that Universal Grammar (UG) is partially available to adult second language learners. Attempts to provide a syntactic characterization of that partial availability have only recently begun to appear, however. In this article we will argue that speakers of Chinese (a language without wh-operator movement in overt syntax) learning second language English (a language with wh-operator movement in overt syntax) establish mental representations for English which involve pronominal binding rather than operator movement. It will be suggested that this divergence from native-speaker representations is an effect of the inaccessibility of features of functional categories in second language acquisition, what we will refer to as the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Implications are drawn from the findings for the syntactic characterization of accessibility to UG more generally in second language acquisition.

http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/thesis/The%20partial%20availability%20of%20UG%20in%20SLA--the%20'failed%20functional%20features%20hypothesis'.pdf

The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’

Dans cet article, l'A. declare que la proceduralisation de la connaissance linguistique est le facteur le plus important dans le developpement de la facilite d'expression chez les etudiants lors de l'acquisition d'une langue seconde. Une enquete realisee aupres d'etudiants en francais lui permet de montrer que ce developpement est principalement attribuable a la proceduralisation de la connaissance de la syntaxe et des syntagmes lexicaux. Ce temoignage quantitatif et qualitatif montre que les augmentations de la facilite d'expression sont dues aux augmentations du degre de proceduralisation de la connaissance

The development of fluency in advanced learners of French

Adopting the objectives of Chomsky's Principles and Parameters approach to Universal Grammar, Second Language Syntax takes the reader through the main research findings in second language grammatical development. For each area, empirical findings are linked to proposals made by linguists working within the Principles and Parameters framework, with the aim of developing a theory of second language syntax.

Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction

The observable phenomena of SLA early linguistic approaches to explaining the observable phenomena of SLA sociolinguistic approaches to explaining the observable phenomena of SLA cognitive approaches to explaining the observable phenomena of SLA the approach to SLA based on universal grammar parametric variation and transfer in SLA parametric variation and incompleteness in SLA parametric variation, staged development and cross-learner systematicity in SLA parametric variation, variability and the limits of the explanatory power of universal grammar in SLA explanations of variability hypothesis creation and revision the development of language processing approaches to learner strategies towards a model of SLA.

Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

In recent work by Tsimpli (2003) and Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (to appear) an explicit claim is made about the nature of end-state grammars in older second language (L2) learners: uninterpretable...

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Roger Hawkins

Papers

The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: the ‘failed functional features hypothesis’

The development of fluency in advanced learners of French

Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction

Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: a missing uninterpretable feature account