Dative alternation between prepositional and double object datives has been a popular topic in second language (L2) acquisition, but only few studies deal with discourse constraints such as the "given-before-new" principle, or given-new (GN) ordering, which describes the tendency to place given information before new information. The…

The present study aimed to catalogue and compare usage patterns of verb-particle constructions (VPCs) in Modern Standard Arabic and English by native and learner writers. Building upon an analysis of a multi-genre monolingual Arabic corpus, use of both Arabic and English VPCs was explored in a bilingual L1 (first language) Arabic L2 (second…

This study demonstrates how native and learner corpora can enhance modal verb treatment in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) textbooks used in mainland China. Data analysis compares modal verbs in the textbook and native corpus by referring to distributional features, semantic functions and co-occurring constructions; and the analysis of the…

Complement constructions vary significantly in English and Persian. There are more complementation structures in English than in Persian and a complement structure in Persian might have more than one equivalent in English. Producing complement structures (CSs) in English is very difficult for native speakers of Persian, especially in an EFL…

Recent years have seen the decline in popularity of contrastive analysis (CA) and the rise of error analysis (EA) as a method for explaining and predicting errors in second language learning. In CA, it is felt that by comparing the structure of a first language (L1) to that of one being learned (L2), errors can be predicted. These errors are…

Examines error gravity research design and its theoretical assumptions. Results indicate that investigators have only skimmed the surface of the process of error evaluation, which is shaped by extralinguistic factors. The article concludes that researchers should reconceptualize error gravity research and reassess earlier studies to confirm or…

To what extent does Universal Grammar (UG) constrain second language (L2) acquisition? This is not only an empirical question, but one which is currently investigable. In this context, L2 acquisition is emerging as an important new domain of psycholinguistic research. Three logical possibilities have been articulated regarding the role of UG in L2…

This study investigated the languages that interfered with Nigerian secondary school students' learning of French, focusing on the Esan-West and Esan Central local government areas of Edo State. It also examined error types identified in students' scripts, error types caused by the most interfering language, error types occurring most frequently,…

Discusses the results of an error analysis of 100 English compositions written by university students in Iran. It is suggested that mistakes are not primarily due to interference from the native language, but to developmental errors, similar to errors made in first language acquisition. (Author/AMH)

A study is described which (1) focuses on the syllable structure of the interlanguage in an attempt to determine how it differs from the syllable structure of the target language, and which (2) begins to identify some of the processes which may shape that interlanguage syllable structure. (Author)

Presents a framework for dealing with errors in natural language sentences within the context of automated second-language teaching. Using a feature grammar, it is possible to describe various types of errors in a uniform framework, clearly define an error, and analyze the error source. (24 references) (Author/CK)

In an attempt to answer some of the questions concerning the roles of syntactic vs. semantic cues and the similarities and/or differences between the first (L1) and second (L2) language reading strategies, a pilot study was conducted with 47 English-speaking students enrolled in French as a second language classes at a bilingual, English-French…

Adult native English speakers (N=20) and foreign students (N=44; most of them Japanese) enrolled in English as a second language (ESL) courses and completed a reading task and a cloze test to determine reading proficiency and prediction ability. While advanced ESL students made fewer total errors than beginning students, error patterns of all ESL…

Argues that children's OV utterances cannot be related transformationally to VO utterances because children initially acquire OV and VO with different sets of verbs, and also argues that L2 acquisition data can be accounted for within a model of L1 structural transfer, without requiring adult learner access to Universal Grammar. (Author/LMO)

Data on Dutch-Turkish language-mixing behavior of Turkish children growing up in The Netherlands are presented and analyzed. While functional characteristics of the children's language-mixing were compatible with models from earlier research, structural analysis suggests no universality of surface structure constraint rules for sentence-internal…