Second language acquisition of English questions: An elicited production study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the role of the syntactic properties of the first and the target language on second language (L2) learners’ production of English main and embedded clause questions. The role of the first language (L1) was investigated by comparing the production of L2 learners whose L1s (Chinese and Spanish) differ from English and each other in terms of word order in main and embedded clause questions. The role of the target language was investigated by comparing L2 learners’ production of yes/no and adjunct and argumentwh-questions. The results indicate that the L1 is not a predictor of L2 learners’ production patterns for either main or embedded clause questions. The linguistic properties of the target language, on the contrary, predict learners’ accuracy and inversion profiles. In line with data from the English L1 acquisition literature, L2 learners produced higher inversion rates in main clause yes/no than inwh-questions, and particularly low inversion rates withwhy-questions. In line with data from nonstandard varieties of English and preliminary evidence from L1 acquisition, L2 learners produced higher nonstandard inversion rates in embedded clausewh-questions than in yes/no questions. Taken together, these results highlight that L2 production is affected and constrained by the same factors at play in L1 acquisition and dialectal variation.

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