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Research on second language (L2) acquisition in the generative tradition (GenSLA) addresses the nature of interlanguage competence, examining the roles of Universal Grammar, the mother tongue and the input in shaping the acquisition, representation and use of second languages. This field is sometimes dismissed by applied linguists as irrelevant because it does not provide direct applications for language teaching. However, the assumption that theories "must" have applications involves a fundamental misconception: linguistic theories explore the nature of grammar; GenSLA theories explore the nature of language learning. No such theory entails that language must be taught in a particular way. Nevertheless, potential applications can be identified: examples are presented that describe aspects of language that do not need to be taught, properties that might benefit from instruction, and cases where textbooks provide inadequate information. I argue that linguistic theory and GenSLA theory have more to offer in terms of considering what aspects of language might or might not be taught rather than how languages should be taught.

In this commentary, I question Westergaard's argument that third language (L3) data can be used to decide between theories such as Full Transfer Full Access, involving wholesale transfer initially, and Full Transfer Potential, involving property-by-property transfer. I suggest that much L3 data will be amenable to explanation under either theory. Furthermore, it is not clear what kind of data would constitute counter-evidence to Full Transfer Potential.

According to generative linguistic theory, certain principles underlying language structure are innately given, accounting for how children are able to acquire their mother tongues (L1s) despite a mismatch between the linguistic input and the complex unconscious mental representation of language that children achieve. This innate structure is referred to as Universal Grammar (UG); it includes universal principles, as well as parameters which allow for constrained variation across languages.

This article examines how changes in linguistic theory affect the debate between the fundamental difference hypothesis and the access-to-Universal Grammar (UG) approach to SLA. With a focus on subjacency (Chomsky, 1973), a principle of UG that places constraints on "wh"-movement and that has frequently been taken as a test case for verifying second language (L2) access to UG, we reanalyze earlier L2 findings in terms of a revised constraint, which effectively prohibits extraction out of subjects and adjuncts. We show that L2 learners indeed observe such a constraint on "wh"-movement, and, at the same time, we suggest that recent claims for a universal computational system (e.g., Chomsky, 1995; Uriagereka, 1999) make the respective roles of the first language and UG difficult to tease apart.

In this commentary, differences between feature re-assembly and feature selection are discussed. Lardiere's proposals are compared to existing approaches to grammatical features in second language (L2) acquisition. Questions are raised about the predictive power of the feature re-assembly approach. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Provides a case study of the fossilized endstate of the second language (L2) English grammar of an adult native speaker of Turkish. Results are presented from production data, concentrating on verbal and nominal inflection and associated syntactic properties. (Author/VWL)

Comments are provided by ten authors in response to an article on language separation and crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition. (Author/VWL)

Two accounts of the variable use of inflection in adult second language (L2) acquisition are examined: The Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH) and the Impaired Representation Hypothesis (IRH). These hypotheses make different predictions for adult L2 acquisition. Spontaneous production data from two adult learners of French and two adult learners of German are examined. (Author/VWL)

Reports on an experiment investigating adult second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish object clitic placement by native speakers of English and French. Two experimental methodologies are compared: an on-line sentence matching task and an off-line grammaticality judgment task. (Author/VWL)

Responds to a reanalysis of study findings that refute the claim that negative evidence can lead to parameter setting in second-language acquisition, presenting empirical evidence from French learners of English, suggesting that positive second-language acquisition data do not guarantee the loss of native language parameter settings. (26 references) (Author/CB)

Describes a study which tested the proposal that adults learning second languages transfer errors from their first language (L1) to their second language (L2) when the L1 has activated a parameter of Universal Grammar which is not operative in the L2. The subjects were native Spanish speakers learning English. (SED)

Examines the changes in how researchers perceive the relationship between theories of language and theories of language acquisition. It is determined that a theory of grammar is a necessary component in native language acquisition and may also be required for second-language acquisition. (Author/CB)

Discusses various definitions of markedness in terms of second language acquisition and describes a study testing one such definition which found that second language learners did not accept preposition stranding in the second language but did accept double object construction and suggested that transfer took place only with one of two marked structures. (Author/CB)

This paper provides an overview of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH), which accounts for certain difficulties that learners experience with L2 morphosyntax. We focus on inflection and articles, which have often been accounted for through defective syntactic representations or problems with the interface between morphology and syntax (inflection) and between semantics or discourse/pragmatics and syntax (articles). We argue that some problems in these domains reflect transfer of L1 prosodic constraints: certain forms cannot be prosodically represented as target-like and hence are omitted or mispronounced. We trace how the PTH has developed over time, from its initial instantiation as involving permanent L1 transfer, to currently, where L1 representations are seen as adaptable to the needs of the L2, and new representations can in fact be acquired. We provide an overview of work conducted in this framework and discuss how the theory has been extended beyond production to encompass comprehension and processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study investigating restrictions on definiteness (the Definiteness Effect) in existential constructions in the two languages of Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Turkish and German differ in how the Definiteness Effect plays out. Definite expressions in German may not occur in affirmative or negative existentials, whereas in Turkish the restriction applies only to affirmative existentials. Participants were adults and fell into two groups: simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German before age 3 and early sequential bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German after age 4; there were also monolingual controls. The tasks involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with contexts, each followed by a sentence to be judged, including grammatical and ungrammatical existentials. Results show that the bilinguals, regardless of age of acquisition, make judgments appropriate for each language. They reject definite expressions in negative existentials in German and accept them in Turkish, suggesting distinct grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to generative linguistic theory, certain principles underlying language structure are innately given, accounting for how children are able to acquire their mother tongues (L1s) despite a mismatch between the linguistic input and the complex unconscious mental representation of language that children achieve. This innate structure is referred to as Universal Grammar (UG); it includes universal principles, as well as parameters which allow for constrained variation across languages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines how changes in linguistic theory affect the debate between the fundamental difference hypothesis and the access-to- Universal Grammar (UG) approach to SLA. With a focus on subjacency (Chomsky, 1973 ), a principle of UG that places constraints on wh -movement and that has frequently been taken as a test case for verifying second language (L2) access to UG, we reanalyze earlier L2 findings in terms of a revised constraint, which effectively prohibits extraction out of subjects and adjuncts. We show that L2 learners indeed observe such a constraint on wh -movement, and, at the same time, we suggest that recent claims for a universal computational system (e.g., Chomsky, 1995 ; Uriagereka, 1999 ) make the respective roles of the first language and UG difficult to tease apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, differences between feature re-assembly and feature selection are discussed. Lardiere's proposals are compared to existing approaches to grammatical features in second language (L2) acquisition. Questions are raised about the predictive power of the feature re-assembly approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments on internal versus external universals in linguistics. Linguist Fred Eckman argues that the typological approach to linguistic universals and markedness in contrast to an approach, which assumes domain specific and innate principles of Universal Grammar (UG), offers a superior explanation of the facts of second language acquisition, because it allows for levels of explanation, in particular explanatory ascent. Eckman's article is predicated on the assumption that an explanation is only valid if it raises further questions that lead to higher levels of explanation. According to him, an approach to universals grounded in UG is not fruitful because, in some sense, one reaches a ceiling, beyond which no further questions can be asked as in his illustration involving Subjacency. Eckman's claim raises the issue of what the object of study of a theory of second language acquisition (SLA) is, what the goals of such a theory should be. According to him, the goal of an SLA theory is to explain the facts of SLA.