Individual differences in the acquisition of number markers

Nicolaci-da-Costa, Ana Maria; Harris, Margaret

doi:10.1177/014272378400501502

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…Thanks to Brown’s (1973) pioneering study, much research has been conducted on the L1 acquisition of English number agreement from various perspectives (e.g. Kouider, Halberda, Wood, & Carey, 2006; Mervis & Johnson, 1991; Nicolaci-Da-Costa & Harris, 1984; Zapf, 2007, to name just a few). However, not very much (and not very recent) research has focused on the L2A of English number agreement by adult L1 Chinese speakers (as pointed out by Jia (2003) and Law (2012)).…”

Section: Number Agreement and L2amentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of English number agreement: L1 Cantonese–L2 English–L3 French speakers versus L1 Cantonese–L2 English speakers

Tsang

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Purpose: Drawing on the notions of ‘interface’ and ‘cross-linguistic influence’ in second language acquisition (L2A), the present study addresses the possible role of French as a third language (L3) in the L2A of English number agreement with two major concerns: (1) the degree to which third language acquisition (L3A) will bring about any positive or negative influence on L2A, and (2) the way in which an L3 interacts with L2 and/or even L1 on narrow syntax or an internal interface as identified in L2A. Design: To address the research concerns, a comparison was made between 48 L1 Cantonese–L2 English–L3 French (CEF) participants and 46 L1 Cantonese–L2 English (CE) participants. Twenty English native controls were also recruited. All participants completed two timed tasks: a grammaticality judgement-correction task and a free writing task. After the experiment proper, the grammatical component of the Oxford placement test, consisting of 60 items, was administered to the two groups of L1 Cantonese speakers. Data and analysis: The following tests were run: the Wilcoxon signed ranks test, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance, the non-parametric x2-test and the two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. Findings/conclusions: While the placement test indicated comparable English levels between the two L1 Cantonese groups, the free writing task revealed certain distinctive patterns, suggesting possible influence from L3 French to L2 English among the CEF participants. In particular, the advanced L3 French participants were different from their L3 French peers and the CE participants in their free production of grammatical nominal plurals. Originality: The study highlights the potential of reverse cross-linguistic influence from L3 to L2 among L1 Cantonese speakers. Significance/implications: Possible traces of L3 French–L2 English effect were noted in affecting the CEF learners’ use of English plural morphology by ‘neutralising’ their production of missing or redundant plural ‘-s’. Typological similarities between French and English and L3 proficiency were found to play a role in such transfers.

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Section: Number Agreement and L2amentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of English number agreement: L1 Cantonese–L2 English–L3 French speakers versus L1 Cantonese–L2 English speakers

Tsang

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Young children's use of phrase structure and inflectional information in form-class assignments of novel nouns and verbs

Dockrell

McShane

1990

First Language

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The ability of 3.5-to 5-year-old children to use phrase structure and inflectional information in form-class assignments of novel nouns and verbs was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1 performance was assessed on singular and plural nouns and on verbs with -s and -ing inflections. Accurate form-class assignments were made for all but the -ing inflection. This is attributed to a conflict between phrase structure and inflectional cues. In Experiment 2 a new sentence frame was used with verb -ing, which did not present conflicting cues. Performance was significantly better than in Experiment 1. The results are interpreted in terms of a model that proposes that phrase structure and inflectional cues to form-class are learnt independently but serve as interacting sources of information. The cues may interact in a complementary or competitive fashion. For English, the competition is resolved, in developmental terms, in favour of phrase structure cues as the more reliable source of information about form-class. This is adaptive for the grammar of English. When children hear novel or unfamiliar words they must be able to determine the referents of these words for language learning to occur successfully. One source of information which the child can use is the situation that an utterance describes. If the situation contains a novel referent and the utterance a novel word, then a reasonable assumption for the child to make would be that the novel word refers to the novel referent (Merriman 1986).

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Individual differences in the acquisition of number markers

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

Acquisition of English number agreement: L1 Cantonese–L2 English–L3 French speakers versus L1 Cantonese–L2 English speakers

Acquisition of English number agreement: L1 Cantonese–L2 English–L3 French speakers versus L1 Cantonese–L2 English speakers

Young children's use of phrase structure and inflectional information in form-class assignments of novel nouns and verbs

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