The Availability of Universal Grammar to Second Language Learners: A Case of Wh-movement

Tayyebi, Ghasem

doi:10.5539/ijel.v2n3p34

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This present study studied the role of awareness in learning English wh-movement. Up to date, studies about the wh-movement acquisition by learners of English have been carried out since the end of last century such as Li (1998), White and Juffs (1998), Hawkins and Hattori (2006), Slavkov (2009) and Tayyebi (2012). These researches concentrated on the influences of the native languages on the acquisition of the wh-movement whereas did not take the L2 learners language awareness into consideration.…”

Section: Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Grammar Awareness in Learning English Wh-Movement by Chinese L2 Learners

Hou¹,

Na-Thalang²

2013

ELLS

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This experimental study aimed at examining the role of grammar awareness in learning English wh-movement by Chinese EFL learners. Eighty adult native speakers of Chinese took grammaticality judgment tests (GJT) in order to find out whether they were constrained by Chinese wh-in-situ parameters. The mean scores of the GJT in the pretest and posttest were compared to observe the effect of the grammar awareness-raising model (GARM) guided instruction on wh-movement. Both within-group and between-group comparisons showed that when L2 learners were aware of the target linguistic phenomenon, their performance in judging the grammaticality of the wh-movement was improved. It is concluded that the role of grammar awareness in learning English wh-movement is positively related to the subjects’ performance in GJT.

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Section: Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Grammar Awareness in Learning English Wh-Movement by Chinese L2 Learners

Hou¹,

Na-Thalang²

2013

ELLS

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“…Usha Lakshmanan et al, (2009) have found that knowledge of wh-movement constraints on the part of L2 learners who do not have overt wh-movement in their L1. Tayyebi (2012) studies the UG availability among Persian learners via their sensitivity towards Subjacency, which prove that UG is accessible to L2 learners and their interlanguage grammars are not impaired.…”

Section: Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjacency Violations in Second Language Acquisition: Some Evidence from Chinese Mandarin Speakers of L2 English

Dai¹

2017

WJEL

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The literature review shows that many previous studies have used Subjacency to test the availability of Universal Grammar (UG) in second language acquisition. Schachter (1989) claimed that L2 learners do not have access to UG principles, while Hawkins and Chan (1997) suggested that L2 learners had partial availability of UG, for they found there was a strong difference between the elementary L2 learners and the advanced L2 learners in judging the ungrammaticality of Subjacency violations; that is, the elementary L2 learners owned the highest accuracy. Under the hypothesis of partially availability of UG in second language acquisition, L2 learners are only able to acquire the properties instantiated in their L1s. Although they may accept violations of universal constraints, it is only at face value; rather the L2 learners develop different syntactic representations from the native speakers. This study has been undertaken as a follow-up study of Hawkins and Chan (1997), and tested on L1 Mandarin speakers of L2 English in judging the grammaticality of their Subjacency violations. The results of the Grammaticality Judgement Test show that the accuracy of Chinese speakers in judgement increased with English proficiency and that they rejected resumptives inside islands as a repair. Contrary to the previous findings, this study provides evidence that UG is available in adult second language acquisition.

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“…Since the current study aimed at examining whether L1 & Gürel, 2011;Li, 1998;Martohardjono, 1993;Tayyebi, 2011;White, 1986) supported the claim that UG in its entirety is fully available to post-puberty second language learners, the opponents (Hawkins, 2005;Hawkins & Chan, 1997;Johnson & Newport, 1991;Prentza, 2012) argued that adult L2 learners only have partial access to UG. That is, certain principles and parameter settings or functional features which are not instantiated in their L1 may not be available to them.…”

Section: Previous Studies On the Second Language Acquisition Of Engli...mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…According to Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (2007), 'variability', alternatively known as 'optionality', refers to "the (in)consistent behavior of the language learner in the target second language (L2), which is contrasted with the In SLA, the main concern is whether L2 learners can acquire related target structures such as relative clauses or open interrogatives by means of the wh-operator movement which is absent in their L1. While some studies such as Çele and Gürel (2011); Li (1998); Martohardjono (1993); Tayyebi (2011), and White and Juffs (1998) claim that UG in its entirety is fully accessible to proficient L2 learners, others such as Hawkins (2005), Hawkins and Chan (1997), Johnson and Newport (1991) and Prentza…”

Section: Background Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To determine learners' grammatical knowledge, virtually all studies in the literature review, which investigated L2 acquisition of the wh-operator movement, employed grammaticality judgement tests (GJT) exclusively (Amornwongpeeti & Pongpairoj, 2013;Çele & Gürel, 2011;Hawkins & Chan, 1997;Kong, 2011;Li, 1998;Prentza, 2012;Rezaeian, Abedini & Sadighi, 2015;Schachter, 1989Schachter, , 1990Tayyebi, 2011;Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). Only White and Juffs (1998) used both a GJT and a production task, namely a question formation task.…”

Section: The Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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L2 Acquisition of Wh-Operator Movement in English Open Interrogatives by L1 Thai Learners: A Case of the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis

Kunanupatham

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Based on the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis (FFFH) (Hawkins and Chan, 1997), the current study aims at investigating L1 Thai learners? acquisition of the wh-operator movement in English open interrogatives. Two primary objectives included (1) to explore whether the wh-operator movement in English can be acquired by L1 Thai learners and (2) to account for the data by the FFFH. Due to the non-existence of the strong uninterpretable [uwh] feature in Thai, it is hypothesized that L1 Thai learners of English fail to acquire English open interrogatives by means of the operator movement and that variability in English open interrogatives is evident in both production and perception. A Question Formation Task (QFT) and A Grammaticality Judgement Task (GJT) were administered to 20 intermediate and 20 advanced L1 Thai learners. The findings revealed that, despite their low suppliance rates of resumptive pronouns in the QFT, both L2 groups persistently failed to detect the presence of resumptive pronouns in the GJT, with the rejection rates remarkably lower than those of the native controls. Moreover, their use and judgement of resumptive pronouns were rather unsystematic; that is, they seemed to produce or accept open interrogatives irrespective of the presence of resumptive pronouns, which may be ascribed to the fact that the Thai language allows the resumptive strategy in some structures such as the relative construction. In addition, an asymmetry between subject extraction and object extraction was found in the learner data, possibly owing to processing difficulties posed by the former. The study, therefore, concludes that L1 Thai learners cannot acquire the wh-operator movement in English, driven by the strong uninterpretable [uwh] feature absent in Thai, lending vigorous support to the FFFH and, thus, the proposal that Universal Grammar (UG) is partially available to adult L2 learners.

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The Availability of Universal Grammar to Second Language Learners: A Case of Wh-movement

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

The Role of Grammar Awareness in Learning English Wh-Movement by Chinese L2 Learners

The Role of Grammar Awareness in Learning English Wh-Movement by Chinese L2 Learners

Subjacency Violations in Second Language Acquisition: Some Evidence from Chinese Mandarin Speakers of L2 English

L2 Acquisition of Wh-Operator Movement in English Open Interrogatives by L1 Thai Learners: A Case of the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis

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