In this article, two accounts of the variable use of inflection in adult second language (L2) acquisition are examined. The Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH) proposes that L2 learners have unconscious knowledge of the functional projections and features underlying tense and agreement. However, learners sometimes have a problem with realization of surface morphology, such that they resort to non-finite forms (e.g. Haznedar and Schwartz, 1997; Prévost and White, 1999). The Impaired Representation Hypothesis (IRH) claims that L2 inflection is essentially impaired, due to lack of functional categories, features or feature strength (e.g. Eubank, 1993/94; Meisel, 1997). These views make different predictions for adult L2 acquisition. Spontaneous production data from two adult learners of French and two adult learners of German are examined. The data show that finite forms do not occur in non-finite contexts, that learners exhibit syntactic reflexes of finiteness and that inflected forms largely show accurate agreement. These results suggest that adult L2 learners represent finiteness and agreement at an abstract level, rather than being impaired in this domain, supporting the MSIH.

This paper focuses on a parametric difference between French and English, namely the issue of whether or not the language allows verb movement. The lack of verb-raising in English causes a potential learnability problem for francophones, as far as English adverb placement is concerned. In particular, an adverb in English is not allowed to interrupt a verb and its direct object, in contrast to French. It is argued in this paper that form-focused classroom instruction, including negative evidence, is more effective in helping L2 learners to arrive at the appropriate properties of English than positive input alone. An experimental study on the effectiveness of teaching adverb placement was conducted with I 1 and 12 year-old francophone learners of English. One group (n = 82) was explicitly instructed on adverb placement, and another on ques tion formation (n = 56). Subjects were tested on a variety of tasks relating to adverb placement; they were pretested, and post-tested twice, immediately after the instructional period, and again five weeks later. Some of the subjects were followed up a year after the original testing. Results show significant differences between the two groups: only the group that received positive and negative evidence that was specifically oriented towards adverb placement came to know that adverbs may not interrupt the verb and object. The results from the follow up, however, suggest that this knowledge is not retained in the long-term.

This paper reports on an experiment investigating the acquisition of Spanish, a language that has a gender feature for nouns and gender agreement for determiners and adjectives, by speakers of a first language (L1) that also has gender (French), as well as an L1 that does not (English). Number (present in all three languages) is also investigated. Subjects were adult learners of Spanish, at three levels of proficiency, as well as a control group of native speakers. Oral production data were elicited. Subjects were also tested on an interpretation task, in which the selection of pictures corresponding to particular sentences depends on number and gender contrasts. The results from both tasks show significant effects for proficiency; low proficiency groups differ significantly from native speakers, but advanced and intermediate groups do not. There were no significant effects for L1 or for prior exposure to another second language with gender. The findings are discussed in the context of two different theories as to the possibility of parameter resetting in nonnative acquisition, namely, the failed functional features hypothesis and the full transfer full access hypothesis. The results are consistent with the latter hypothesis.

This authoritative 2003 textbook provides an overview and analysis of current second language acquisition research conducted within the generative linguistic framework. Lydia White argues that second language acquisition is constrained by principles and parameters of Universal Grammar. The book focuses on characterizing and explaining the underlying linguistic competence of second language learners in terms of these contraints. Theories as to the role of Universal Grammar and the extent of mother tongue influence are presented and discussed, with particular consideration given to the nature of the interlanguage grammar at different points in development, from the initial state to ultimate attainment. Throughout the book, hypotheses maintaining that second language grammars are constrained by universal principles are contrasted with claims that Universal Grammar is not implicated; relevant empirical research is presented from both sides of the debate. This textbook is essential reading for those studying second language acquisition from a linguistic perspective.

A number of studies have reported that there is a negative correlation between age of L2 acquisition and performance on a variety of measures of L2 ability, and that individuals who begin learning an L2 after approximately 15 years of age fail to attain native-like levels of competence. These results have been interpreted as support both for the hypothesis that there is a critical period for L2 acquisition and for the hypothesis that there is a maturational decline in access to Universal Grammar (UG). We argue that extant results are not an adequate test of the critical periods hypothesis because they are based on the performance of learners who have not necessarily achieved native-like proficiency in the L2. In this study, we develop criteria to establish whether an L2 speaker has achieved native-like proficiency. We compare the performance of three groups (near-native speakers of English, non-native speakers and controls) on two tasks designed to tap aspects of UG which have been claimed to be subject to critical period effects. We found no significant differences between our near-native group and native speakers on either of the tasks. We conclude that native-like competence in an L2 is achievable, even by older L2 learners.

In this paper, it is proposed that adults learning second languages have particular problems when their mother tongue has activated a parameter of Universal Grammar which is not operative in the second language. It is suggested that the learner will carry the parameter over from L1 to L2, causing transfer errors. This proposal was tested on adult native speakers of Spanish learning English as a second language. Spanish, unlike English, is a “pro‐drop” language, having the following properties, all thought to be related by the “pro‐drop” parameter: (1) missing subjects, (2) free subject‐verb inversion, (3) that trace effects. Subjects were asked to make grammaticality judgments on a number of English sentences, including some with “pro‐drop” characteristics, which would have been grammatical in Spanish but were ungrammatical in English. It was found that Spanish speakers did accept many such sentences as grammatical, as compared to French‐speaking controls, who did not, and that Spanish speakers showed improvement with increasing levels of proficiency.

In this article, the motivation for Universal Grammar (UG), as assumed in the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar (Chomsky, 1981a(Chomsky, , 1981b, is discussed, particular attention being paid to the logical problem of first language acquisition. The potential role of UG in second language (L2) acquisition is then considered. Three different positions are reviewed: (a) the claim that UG is not available to L2 learners; (b) the claim that UG is fully available; and (c) the claim that the L2 learner's access to UG is mediated by the mother tongue. This raises the issue of what kind of evidence can be used to decide between these three positions. Recent experimental research which argues for one or another of these positions by investigating the L2 status of the Subjacency Principle is reviewed, and the implications of this research are discussed.

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