Comparing levels of processability across languages

In this article we utilize a developmental perspective as a metric for the comparison of bilingual language ability. In particular, we utilize Processabilty Theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 2005) which provides a psycholinguistic metric for developmental schedules of any given language. We demonstrate this approach to the cross-linguistic measurement of language development on the basis of Itani-Adams' (2007) study of bilingual (Japanese-English) first language acquisition

Teachability and Learnability Across Languages

Teachability and Learnability across Languages addresses key issues in second, foreign and heritage language acquisition, as well as in language teaching.Intro -- Teachability and Learnability across Languages -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Introduction -- References -- Part I. Teachability and learnability -- 1. Research timeline. The role of instruction -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 2. How much English do children know before they are exposed to instruction? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Grammatical development: PT -- 2.1 PT and transfer -- 3. Vocabulary acquisition -- 4. The present study -- 4.1 Aim and research questions -- 4.2 Method and materials -- 4.2.1 The ELIAS grammar test -- 4.2.2 The BPVS vocabulary test -- 4.3 Data collection procedure and analyses -- 5. Results -- 5.1 Mean scores -- 5.1.1 Scores on the grammar test - compared with the preschool children's ELIAS scores -- 5.1.2 Scores on the BPVS II vocabulary test -- 5.2 Grammar - did the children follow the PT stages? -- 6. How do Swedish children react when asked to perform a test on English? Are they "fearless"? -- 6.1 Metalinguistic comments -- 6.2 Chunk use -- 6.3 "Listening in Swedish" -- 7. Discussion -- Conclusions -- References -- 3. Morpho-syntactic development in the input -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Theoretical background -- 3. PT -- 5. Representation in the input -- 6. Previous research on textbooks -- 7. A study of learning objectives in textbooks for "Education in Swedish for Immigrants" -- 7.1 Aim of the study -- 8. Data and method for analysis -- 8.1 "Education in Swedish for Immigrants" -- 8.2 Method of analysis -- 9. Results -- 9.1 Progression between courses -- 9.2 Morpho-syntactic difficulties within single texts -- 10. Discussion -- References -- Textbooks in the study -- 4. Are speech and writing teachable? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Theoretical background -- 2.1 PT -- 2.2 PT's ESL question stages -- 2.3 The TH -- 3. The study -- 3.1 Participants3.2 Tasks and elicitation -- 3.3 Procedure -- 3.5 Analysis -- 4. Results -- 4.1 Pre-test results -- 4.2 Post-test results -- 4.3 Other analyses -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part II. Methods and assessment -- 5. The elicitation of oral language production data -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The EIT: Procedure -- 3. Methodological challenge: Topicalization and functional case use in L2 German -- 4. The study -- Participants -- Data elicitation task -- Results -- 5. Pros and cons of the EIT -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 6. Elicited imitation as a diagnostic tool of morpho-syntactic processing -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Methodology -- 2.1 Input and participants -- 2.2 Structured tests -- 2.3 Spontaneous production -- 3. Research questions, rationale and hypotheses -- 4. Results -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 7. Grammatical accuracy and complexity in a speaking proficiency test -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Background -- 2.1 The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) -- 2.2 Complexity, accuracy and language proficiency -- 2.3 Level of processability and language proficiency -- 3. Method -- 3.1 The test -- 3.2 Transcribing and coding -- 3.3 Statistical analysis -- 4. Results -- 4.1 Descriptive statistics -- 4.2 Correlations between assessments -- 4.3 Correlations between measures -- 4.4 Correlations between assessments and measures -- 5. Explaining unexpected cases -- 5.1 Selecting typical and non-typical cases -- 5.2 Comparing typical and non-typical cases -- 6. Summary and discussion -- 7. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part III. Cross-linguistic aspects of SLA -- 8. Acquisition of nominal morphology in Norwegian L2 -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 A note on terminology -- 1.2 Articles and suffixes in Norwegian nominal phrases2. Earlier research on articles and suffixes -- 3. The present study -- 3.1 The speakers -- 3.2 The data material -- 3.3 Data analysis -- 4. Findings -- 4.1 A closer look at the patterns displayed -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- 9. Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Previous studies -- 2.1 Varieties of motion event descriptions -- 2.1.1 The typology of motion event -- 2.1.2 Motion event descriptions in English, Hungarian and Japanese -- 2.2 Motion event descriptions in L2 -- 2.3 Research questions -- 3. Research methodology -- 3.1 Participants and materials -- 3.2 Data analysis -- 4. Results and analysis -- 4.1 Reference to each semantic component -- 4.2 Syntactic structure of motion event descriptions by L1 speakers -- 4.3 Syntactic properties of learner languages -- 4.3.1 Sentence patterns -- 4.3.2 Difficulties for L2 learners -- 4.3.3 Common properties of L2 groups -- 5. Conclusion -- Acknowledgement -- References -- 10. The acquisition of Turkish (genitive)-possessive structures by adult Norwegian learners -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Turkish at the University of Oslo -- 3. Methodology-participants-data -- 4. Linguistic structures -- 4.1 Phrasal structures: N_GEN+N_POSS and N+N_POSS structures -- 4.2 Clausal structures: Noun clauses with -DIK and -mA -- 5. PT -- 6. Data coding and analysis -- 6.1 Phrasal structures -- 6.1.1 N+N_POSS structures -- 6.1.1 N_GEN+N_POSS structures -- 6.2 Clausal structures: Noun clauses with -mA and -DIK -- 7. Discussion and conclusions -- 7.1 Discussion of the results on phrasal structures -- 7.2 Discussion of the results on clausal structures -- 7.3 Comparison of the results for phrasal and clausal structures -- 8. General discussion and further research -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Closing chapter. Opening new perspectives11. Heritage language development and the promise of Processability Theory -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Similarities between second language acquisition and heritage language acquisition -- 2.1 Grammatical development -- 2.2 Input and experience -- 2.3 Instruction -- 3. PT for heritage language acquisition -- 4. Conclusion -- References -- Subject indexTeachability and Learnability across Languages addresses key issues in second, foreign and heritage language acquisition, as well as in language teaching.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. 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