Early child L2 acquisition: Age or input effects? Neither, or both?

Sharon Unsworth

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Language Development and Disorders EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Acquisition and Learning

Abstract

This paper explores whether there is evidence for age and/or input effects in child L2 acquisition across three different linguistic domains, namely morphosyntax, vocabulary, and syntax-semantics. More specifically, it compares data from English-speaking children whose age of onset to L2 Dutch was between one and three years with data from children whose age of onset was between four and seven years in their acquisition of verb morphology, verb placement, vocabulary, and direct object scrambling. The main findings were that there were no significant differences between the two groups in any of these areas and, with the exception of scrambling, current amount of exposure was the only factor significantly related to children's scores. The paper discusses the theoretical significance of these findings with respect to the role of input in the language acquisition process and the claim that there is a critical period ending within (early) childhood.

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References

1977The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data 2010Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test 1989Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language 2011Dual language exposure and early bilingual development 2002Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments 1997The relation of input factors to lexical learning by bilingual infants 2003Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language 2004Learning argument structure generalizations

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2017Amount trumps timing in bilingual vocabulary acquisition: Effects of input in simultaneous and sequential school-age bilinguals 2017Children's Second Language Acquisition of English Complex Syntax: The Role of Age, Input, and Cognitive Factors 2018Narrative abilities of bilingual children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (SLI): Differentiation and the role of age and input factors 2019The Age Factor Revisited: Timing in Acquisition Interacts With Age of Onset in Bilingual Acquisition 2016

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