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Appreciating the poverty of the stimulus in second language acquisition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Rex A. Sprouse
Affiliation:
Department of Germanic Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. rsprouse@indiana.edu

Abstract

The most compelling evidence for Epstein et al.'s central thesis that adult second language acquisition is constrained by the innate cognitive structures that constrain native language acquisition would be evidence of poverty of the stimulus. Although there are studies that point to such evidence, Epstein et al.'s primary form of argumentation, targetlike performance by second-language acquiring adults, is much less convincing.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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