Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-wxvwp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T07:15:25.434Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attainment of Syntactic and Morphological Accuracy by Advanced Language Learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig and
Theodora Bofman
Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Theodora Bofman
Affiliation:
Northeastern Illinois University
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The present study examines the relationship between syntactic development, or complexity, and overall accuracy evidenced in the written English of advanced adult foreign language learners. Similar acquisition profiles were found to exist for 30 learners across five language groups: Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Malay, and Spanish. Syntactic complexity, measured in number of clauses per T-unit, is found to be similar in all five groups. These advanced foreign language learners, who show similar patterns of error distribution, all show relative strength in syntax, what Newport, Gleitman, and Gleitman (1977) call a universal design feature of language, but relative weakness in morphology, which is always a language-specific system.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 1989, pp. 17 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, N., Madden, C., & Krashen, S. (1974). Is there a “natural sequence” in adult second language learning? Language Learning, 24, 235–243.Google Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1987). Markedness and salience in second language acquisition. Language Learning, 37, 385–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Bofman, T. (1988). A second look at T-unit analysis. Paper presented to the Twenty-Second Annual TESOL Conference,Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Beebe, L. M. (1983). Risk-taking and the language learner. In Seliger, H. & Long, M. (Eds.), Classroom oriented research (pp. 39–66). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Bofman, T., & Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1987, 02). Morphological accuracy and syntactic complexity in advanced composition. Paper presented to the Fifteenth Convention of Illinois TESOL and Bilingual Education,Urbana, IL.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, M. K. (1975). Error analysis in the adult EFL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 9, 53–63.Google Scholar
Burt, M., & Kiparsky, C. (1972). The gooficon: A repair manual for English. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1983). The grammar book. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Chomsky, C. (1969). The acquisition of syntax in children from 5 to 10. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H., & Clark, E. V. (1977). Psychology and language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Corder, S. P. (1983). A role for the mother tongue. In Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 85–97). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Curtiss, S. (1977). Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modem-day “wild child.” New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
d'Anglejan, A., & Tucker, G. R. (1975). The acquisition of complex English structures by adult learners. Language Learning, 25, 281–296.Google Scholar
Dulay, H., & Burt, M. K. (1973). Should we teach children syntax? Language Learning, 23, 245–258.Google Scholar
Dulay, H., & Burt, M. K. (1974a). Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 37–53.Google Scholar
Dulay, H., & Burt, M. K. (1974b). A new perspective on the creative construction process in child second language acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 253–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Educational Testing Service [ETS]. (1985). TOEFL test and score manual. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Feigenbaum, I. (1985). The grammar handbook. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foss, D. J., & Hakes, D. T. (1978). Psycholinguistics: An introduction to the psychology of language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Gaies, S. J. (1976). Sentence-combining: A technique for assessing proficiency in a second language. Paper presented at the Conference on Perspectives on Language,University of Kentucky, Louisville. (ERIC Documentation Reproduction Service No. ED 130 512)Google Scholar
Gaies, S. J. (1980). T-unit analysis in second language research: Applications, problems, and limitations. TESOL Quarterly, 14, 53–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaies, S. J., Gradman, H. L., & Spolsky, B. (1977). Toward the measurement of functional proficiency: Contextualization of the Noise Test. TESOL Quarterly, 11, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gass, S. (1980). An investigation of language transfer in adult second language learners. In Scarcella, R. & Krashen, S. (Eds.), Research in second language acquisition (pp. 132–141). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. (1982). The resilience of recursion: A study of a communication system developed without a conventional language model. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. R. (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of the art (pp. 51–77). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hunt, K. W. (1965). Grammatical structures written at three grade levels (Research Report No. 3). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Hunt, K. W. (1970). Recent measures in syntactic development. In Lester, M. (Ed.), Readings in applied transformational grammar (pp. 179–192). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Kayfetz, J. L. (1982). Natural sequences in speech and writing in adult second language acquisition. System, 10, 145–157.Google Scholar
Kellerman, E. (1983). Now you see it, now you don't. In Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 112–134). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D., Butler, J., Birnbaum, R., & Robertson, J. (1978). Two studies in language acquisition and language learning. ITL: Review of Applied Linguistics, 39–40, 73–92.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D., Houck, N., Giunchi, P., Bode, S., Birnbaum, R., & Strei, G. (1977). Difficulty orders for grammatical morphemes for adult second language performers using free speech. TESOL Quarterly, 11, 338–341.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1978). An index of ESL development. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 439–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1983). Assessing global second language proficiency. In Seliger, H. W. & Long, M. H. (Eds.), Classroom oriented research (pp. 287–304). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Strom, V. (1977). The construction of a second language acquisition index of development. Language Learning, 27, 123–134.Google Scholar
Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1976). Subject and topic: A new typology of language. In Li, C. (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 457–491). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Loban, W. (1976). Language development: Kindergarten through grade twelve (NCTE Research Report No. 18). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Long, M. (1987, February). Maturational constraints on language development. Paper presented at the Seventh Los Angeles Second Language Research Forum, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Mazurkewich, I. (1984). Dative questions and markedness. In Eckman, F., Bell, L., & Nelson, D. (Eds.), Universals of second language acquisition (pp. 119–131). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Monroe, J. H. (1975). Measuring and enhancing syntactic fluency in French. The French Review, 48, 1023–1031.Google Scholar
Newport, E. L., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. R. (1977). Mother, I'd rather do it myself: Some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (Eds.), Talking to children: Language input and acquisition (pp. 109–150). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Phinney, M. (1987). The pro-drop parameter in second language acquisition. In Roeper, T. & Williams, E. (Eds.), Parameter setting (pp. 221–238). Dordrecht: D. Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pica, T., Young, R., & Doughty, C. (1987). The impact of interaction on comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 21, 737–758.Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Rochester, S. R., & Gill, J. (1973). Production of complex sentences in monologues and dialogues. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 203–210.Google Scholar
Rutherford, W. E. (1983). Language typology and language transfer. In Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 358–370). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Schachter, J. (1974). An error in error analysis. Language Learning, 24, 205–214.Google Scholar
Scott, M., & Tucker, G. R. (1974). Error analysis and English-language strategies of Arab students. Language Learning, 24, 69–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seliger, H. (1983). Learner mteraction m the classroom and its effects on language acquisition. In Seliger, H. & Long, M. (Eds.), Classroom oriented research (pp. 246–266). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1982). Universal and particular in the acquisition of language. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L.R. (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of the art (pp. 128–170). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
VanPatten, B. (1984). Processing strategies and morpheme acquisition. In Eckman, F. R., Bell, L. H., & Nelson, D. (Eds.), Universals of language acquisition (pp. 88–98). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
VanPatten, B. (1985). Communicative values and information processing in L2 acquisition. In Larson, P., Judd, E. L., & Messerschmitt, D. S. (Eds.), On TESOL 84 (pp. 89–99). Washington, DC: TESOL.Google Scholar
White, L. (1985). The pro-drop parameter in adult second language acquisition. Language Learning, 35, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar