Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-zkb6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-11T10:02:47.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acquiring Pronouns in a Second Language: Evidence for Hypothesis Testing*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Jeanette K. Gundel,
Nancy Stenson and
Elaine Tarone
Jeanette K. Gundel
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Nancy Stenson
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Elaine Tarone
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Gundel and Tarone (1981) studied the acquisition of pronouns by Chinese and Spanish speaking adults learning English. On the basis of this study it was proposed that when L1 and L2 differ in the relative order of object pronoun and verb, the acquisition of direct object pronouns proceeds in three stages: (1) direct transfer of the native language pattern; (2) zero anaphora, i.e. no overt form at all, in direct object position; (3) the correct L2 pattern. The present paper presents further evidence for this proposal, and hence for a hypothesis-testing view of second language acquisition, on the basis of longitudinal data from English speaking children learning French in the Toronto French Immersion Program.

Information

Type
Research Notes
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Spring 1984, pp. 215 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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

Dulay, Heidi, and Marina, Burt. 1974. Errors and strategies in child second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly 8.2, 129–136.Google Scholar
Gregoire, A. 1947. L'apprentissage du langage, vol. II. Paris: Libraire Droz.Google Scholar
Guillaume, P. 1927. ‘Le developpement des elements formels dans le langage de l'enfant.’ Journal de Psychologie 24, 203–229 (English translation: The development of formal elements in the child's speech. Printed in C.A. Ferguson and D.I. Slobin (Eds.) Child Language Development. Translated by Eve V. Clark.)Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette, and Tarone, Elaine. 1981. Language transfer and the acquisition of pronominal anaphora. Paper presented at the Conference on Language Transfer in Language Learning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 04 1981. Revised version to appear in Susan Gass and Larry Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Huebner, Thomas G. 1982. A longitudinal analysis of the acquisition of English by an adult Hmong speaker. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Hawaii at Manoa.Google Scholar
Lado, Robert. 1957. Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Schachter, Jacquelyn. 1981. A new account of language transfer. Paper presented at the Conference on Language Transfer in Language Learning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 04 1981. Revised version to appear in Susan Gass and Larry Selinker (Eds.) Language transfer in language learning.Google Scholar