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PeterSipes MultipleLanguageAcquisition

ArticleCritique1
Goad,H.,&White,L.(2006).Ultimateattainmentininterlanguagegrammars:Aprosodicapproach. SecondLanguageResearch,22(3),243268. Fulltextonlineat:http://bit.ly/1eSl4Bq

Introduction
OneoftheproblemsthatneedstobeexplainedinSLAistheabilityoflearnerstoacquire featuresthatdonotoccurintheirL1.InthispaperGoadandWhitefocusontheabilityofMandarin learnerstolearntheproperuseofEnglishpasttensemorphologydespitelackingapasttensein Mandarin.WhiletheyshowthattheseMandarinspeakerscanovercometheL1barriersbyadapting theirL1prosodicfeatures,theygoontoarguethatthisbarrierhoppingwillbeimpossibleinsome circumstances.

TwoTerms
RepresentationalDeficitHypothesis(RDH)andProsodicTransferHypothesis(PTH)arethe twotermsoftheday.RDHmakestheclaimthatUniversalGrammar(UG)ispartiallyaccessibletoL2 learners,solongasthefeaturesbeingaccessedarethosethatexistinL1.Ifanysyntacticalfeatureisin L2andnotL1,learnerswillstrugglewiththatfeaturesomuchastofindthatonlyfeatures(and categories)instantiatedintheL1areavailabletotheL2learner(Trenkic,2007). PTHalsoclaimsthatL1limitsL2butthepointoforiginisdifferent.WhereRDHplacesafull block,PTHclaimsthatL2featurescanbeadaptedfromL1viacombininglicensingrelationsand movingpositionofwherethosestructurescanbelicensed(GoadandWhite,2006).Thesetwo hypothesesaretheworkingmodelsforthearticle.

ArticleSummary

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TheresearcherslookedatMandarinspeakerslearningEnglish.Theirinterestisinseeinghow theseL2learnersdealwithinflectingEnglishverbsforthepasttense.First,becauseMandarindoesnot havea[past]feature.Second,becauseEnglishorganizesitspasttenseinflectionbothwithinthe prosodicwordlikeMandarinandasadjunctiontotheprosodicwordunlikeMandarin1. TheresearchersworkedwithtenMandarinspeakersandninenativeEnglishspeakersasa controlgroup.Thesubjectswerepresentedwithatwopartsentence.Thefirstpartofthesentencewas giventothesubject,andtheyhadtochoosethecorrectsecondpartfromtwooptions.Theoptions, whichwerefullyrandomized,contrastedpresentvs.pastandpresentvs.perfective.Thesubjectswere thengiventwelvesecondstomemorizetheirresponse,whichtheyspokeintoarecordingdeviceafter pressingabuttonindicatingwhatresponsetheywouldbereading. Thecontrolgroup,notsurprisingly,scoredverywell(98%correct)onbothcontrasts. Mandarinspeakersscored83%correctonthepresentvs.pastcontrastand77%correctonthe presentvs.perfectivecontrast.ToseewhethertheMandarinspeakershaveacquiredtheadjunction featuredinEnglish,therecordingswereanalyzed. Inessence,theresearcherslookedathowtheMandarinspeakersreleasedtheconsonantson theverbs.Iftherewasasinglefortisreleaseindicatedasaspirationonthefinalconsonant,they consideredthatadjunctionhadbeenacquired.Iftherewasadoublefortisreleaseoneoneachofthe twofinalconsonantstheyconsideredthatadjunctionhadnotbeenacquired.Interestingly,despitethe factthatMandarindoesnothaveadjunctionorapasttense,mostL2speakerswereabletoproperly applytheEnglishphonology. AccordingtoRDH,MandarinspeakersshouldnotbeabletodothisinEnglish.UGdoesnot
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RegularlyinflectedEnglishwords,e.g.Iinflectedverbsthismorning,haveinflectastheprosodicwordandedas theadjunction.IrregularlyinflectedEnglishwords,e.g.Ikeptinflectingthemallday,hasboththerootandinflection builtintotheprosodicword.

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allowspeakerstoapplynewfeaturesthisway.GoadandWhitearguethatwhileMandarinlacks adjunctioninverbs,itdoeshaveadjunctioninotherplaces.

Critique Goals
ThegoalofthisstudywastoseewhetherL2learnerscouldnotacquirefeaturesthatdidnot existinexactparallelbetweenL1andL2orifitweremerelysufficientfortheL2learnerstohavea similarfeatureintheirL1toacquirethatfeatureinL1.Thestudyindicatedthatitwassufficientfor learnerstotransferfeaturesthatexistedinL1overtoL2,eveniftheywerenotperfectmatches.

Assumptions
ThispapertacklesL2acquisitionfromaUGperspective,whichinterlanguagegrammarisapart of.Thisassumptionissobasicthatitisnotmentioned,andinterlanguagegrammaritselfisbarely mentionedoutsideofthetitle. Anotherlargeassumptionisthatmorphologyisaprocesswithinlanguage(e.g.thereisaroot shoutthatcantakethemorphemes,s,ing,oreddependingonsyntax)ratherthanapure functionoflexicon(e.g.shout,shouts,shoutingandshoutedareseparatelexicalentries).This assumptionisprobablygoodforregularEnglishverbsoratleastgoodenoughtobeaworking hypothesis.Usingthisassumptionwecangettonontargetformsinbothachildsovergeneralizations (e.g.*thinked)orpotentialL2learnersinflectionalerrorswiththepasttense. Infact,thisspecifictypeoferrorormoreaccurately,lackthereofisthefocusofthisstudy. Goad,WhiteandSteelefiguredoutintheir2003paperthatregularlyinflectedEnglishverbsaddtheir inflectionstoaroot,whichisitselfaprosodicword.Chineseontheotherhandmergesthe nonprosodicrootwordwithitsinflectiontoformaprosodicword.(Englishfunctionsthiswaywith semiregularlyinflectedverbslikekeep/keptorbring/brought,butnotwithverbslikesing/sang).The

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ChinesenativeEnglishspeakerswereabletoacquirethesyntaxandproperlyexpressitinspokenform.

Otherpoints
IhavedifficultybelievingthattheauthorstooktheRDHseriouslyyettheydevotednearlya pagetoit.TheproblemwithRDHisthattherearemillionsofpeoplewhohavelearnedstructurally dissimilarlanguagestohighdegreesofproficiencyasL2ratherthanseriallyacquiredL1.I.e.thatthey learnedtheL2asanadultandnotachild.Itisabsurd. ThePTHisbetterinthatitallowsforabroaderroutetoL2acquisition.Infact,byallowingfor PTH,theauthorsclaimthatthereisnoevidenceoffossilizationinthesyntacticdomain(G&W, 2006).WhetherbecauseIdonotwanttoadmitthatIcannotimprovemyL2skillsorbecauseIhave heardL2Englishspeakerswithnearnativedegreesofcompetence,thenotionoflinguisticfossilization offendsme.IamdelightedtoseethatGoadandWhitedismissit. ThereallycoolbitaboutthePTHisthatitdoesnotseemtocarewherethetransferredfeature comesfrom.SoinChinese,themergingofprosodicwordstoformnewprosodicwordsisfoundin NNcompounding,butitsEnglishuseistransferredtotheformationofthepasttenseseemingly unrelated.Thispossibilityisexcitingbecausetherearemanyfeaturesinalanguagewhichcanbeputto newuseinanL2.Byusingthisabilitytotransferfeatures,alearnershouldbeabletoacquireamuch widerrangeofsyntaxthanwouldseempossibletodoiftheRDHisatworkinL2learning.

Conclusion
UsingtheProsodicTransferHypothesisisabetterexplanationofhowL2learnersacquirethe syntaxoftheirL2.Itwouldseemthatlearnersfindwhetherdeliberatelyornotwasnotsaidfeatures ofL1thattheycanuseasstartingpointsininterlanguagegrammarwhenlearningL2.Thisfactcouldbe ofuseintheL2classroom.Teachers,assumingsufficientknowledgeofstudentsL1,couldpointout

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difficultiesintheL2(e.g.caseforEnglishspeakers)thathaveparallelsintheL1(e.g.I/mecontrastin theEnglishpronomialsystem).

Sources
Goad,H.,White.,L.andSteele,J.2003:MissinginflectioninL2acquisition:defectivesyntaxor L1constrainedprosodicrepresentations?CanadianJournalofLinguistics48,243263. Trenkic,D.(2007).Variabilityinsecondlanguagearticleproduction:beyondtherepresentationaldeficit vs.processingconstraintsdebate.SecondLanguageResearch,23(3),289327.