The incidence of nativelikeness in adult second language acquisition is a controversial issue in SLA research. Although some researchers claim that any learner, regardless of age of acquisition, can attain nativelike levels of second language (L2) proficiency, others hold that attainment of nativelike proficiency is, in principle, impossible. The…

Studies on bilingualism from a neurocognitive perspective have begun to attract considerable interest recently. Contextual variables--such as age of acquisition, level of proficiency and frequency of use--have been identified as significantly impacting on the convergence or divergence of representations in first language (L1) and second (L2)…