A study of English speakers' acquisition of relative clauses in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, German, and Portugese is reported. Various structures were tested to separate interlanguage features attributable to first language interference from those universal to second language acquisition. Application of an accessibility hierarchy theory and…

Three activities used with first-year French students are described: (1) drawing pictures by following directions which demonstrates knowledge of subjects and prepositions, (2) reading a poem in French and rewriting it in French prose, and (3) learning numbers through role-plays involving money. (PMJ)

Describes an attempt at an English grammar program for the first year of secondary schooling in Queensland, Australia linked to the grammatical features introduced in the students' second language programs. Outlines the stages of development, including examination of the second language texts and of English course books and deciding on a…

A study investigated differences in sentence interpretation, with case marking and lexical-semantic cues systematically manipulated, of 20 native English-speaking learners of Japanese (JFLs) (10 beginners, 10 intermediate) and 10 native Japanese-speaking learners of English. Results show: greater animacy effect with the verb "see" than "eat";…

Quantitative analysis of 1,083 first language and second language academic texts establishes that advanced nonnative-English-speaking students in U.S. universities employ excessively simple syntactic and lexical constructions at median frequency rates significantly higher than those found in basic texts by native English speakers. (Author/VWL)

Indirect object doubling is the use of the pronoun "le" with a corresponding noun phrase within the same sentence ("Le regalo el anillo a Karen"). Redefining pronominalization as verb agreement leads to hypotheses that explain the construction's use within discourse. Data from an Argentine novel shows correlations between…

Transcripts were made of teacher-student conversations in four Hawaiian classrooms in which Korean is taught as a heritage language. The study examines the use of the sentence-ending particle "yo," the meaning of the particle, the way it is used in interaction, and its sociopragmatic implication. The following research questions are…

An overview of the research literature reviews studies on the effectiveness of sentence-combining (SC) exercises in helping English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students integrate their knowledge of grammar into their writing. In the 1960s, Kellog Hunt published a series of articles that explored the relationship between SC and writing skills.…

Several recent reports on the untutored second language acquisition of English have suggested that the same developmental sequence holds for the acquisition of the interrogative structures irrespective of whether English is acquired as a first language (L1) or a second language (L2). These studies have been conducted within the Klima & Bellugi…

This paper describes an experiment in which the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure, which has been used successfully for scoring sentence complexity in child language, was examined for its usefulness when applied to adult learners of English as a Second Language. The technique is based upon a developmental scale of syntax acquisition within…

An experiment on relative clause formation involving Cantonese students who were learning English was conducted. The study sought to determine whether sentence combining exercises would help Chinese students construct long relative clauses instead of the short relative clauses that exist in their first language. For the experimental group each…

Elliptical sentence structures, i.e., restrictive sentences, play a decisive role in both the conventional and programmed approaches to foreign language instruction. Basic to both these approaches are four distinct phases: presentation, drill, contextualization, and testing. However, it has been proven that the learning process can be maximized…

This paper discusses the details of existential sentences constructed with the Portuguese verbs "ter" and "haver" in the interpersonal form. The uses of these verbs are discussed and analyzed in detail. The history and evolution of linguistic changes in Brazilian Portuguese are discussed in an attempt to detect historical…

It is argued that the correct placement of sentential negation with respect to model auxiliaries in Swedish is an example of delayed acquisition resulting from a parametric preference in Universal Grammar. A syntactic analysis is proposed for four recognized stages in the acquisition of negative word order in Swedish. (Contains 41 references.)…

Analysis of the responses of Spanish, Chinese, and German learners of English-as-a-Second-Language to English sentences with empty pronominal categories found that, although empty pronouns were pragmatically more natural in finite clauses of Spanish and Chinese than in English or German, only the Spanish subjects had significantly higher mean…