In the history of psycholinguistics, there are traditional accounts that have been told about language learning and processing. These accounts revolve around the constraints imposed by the age of language learning and by universal principles that are assumed to be natively given. The contribution of Brian MacWhinney and his collaborators has been…

An exploration of a popular model of bilingualism and bilingual behavior, based on Ervin and Osgood's (1954) survey of psycholinguistic theory and research, discusses misinterpretations, limits, and risks; natural and simulated bilingualism and complementary distribution of domains; and subordination and interference, compounding and fusion, and…

Analysis of several types of faulty language selection in polyglots revealed that production errors were not a result of limited vocabulary or language deficiency but rather to interlingual code-switching based on the polyglot's differentiations between dominant language, foreign language, and weak language. (20 references) (Author/CB)

Three aspects of language behavior--linguistic independence, linguistic interference, and code-switching, are an integral part of the language processing experiences of the bilingual person. Complex cerebral mechanisms function in a coordinated effort to analyze and synthesize the various components of linguistic codes, store them in semantic…

A review of the literature and teacher observations are used to examine the processes and strategies by which second language learners attain and organize verbal knowledge. Classroom data are derived from experience in teaching German to Dutch-speaking university students. The analysis looks at the relationship of morphology and word recognition…