The accessibility of Universal Grammar in adult language learning

Robert Bley‐Vroman · Sascha W. Felix · Georgette L. loup

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EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Language Development and Disorders

Abstract

This paper investigates whether Universal Grammar (UG) is accessible to adult language learners. If adult acquirers have consistent access to intuitions of grammaticality in cases where the relevant constraints are underdetermined by the native language, this suggests that Universal Grammar continues to function in adult acquisition. Advanced Korean adult acquirers of English were given a test of grammaticality judgements on English wh-movement sentences, where the relevant constraints are thought to derive from principles of UG. Since Korean does not have syntactic wh-movement, correct intuitions cannot derive from native language transfer. Analysis of the results and comparison with native speaker results suggests a complex picture of the function of UG in adult language acquisition; however, clear UG effects were found.

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1992Learnability and grammar reorganization in L2A: against negative evidence causing the unlearning of verb movement 1994Assessment of L2 Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition Research 1990Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar 2013THE CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENT TESTS AS MEASURES OF IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE 2016The empirical base of linguistics 1998The second language instinct

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