Beyond The Aspect Hypothesis

The Aspect Hypothesis (AH) claims that the association of any verb category (lexical aspect) with any grammatical aspect (perfective or imperfective) constitutes the endpoint of acquisition. The present book evaluates the explanatory power of the Aspect Hypothesis for the acquisition of French past tenses, which constitutes a serious stumbling block for foreign learners, even at the highest levels of proficiency. The present research applies the Aspect Hypothesis to the production of 61 Anglophone 'advanced learners' in a tutored environment. In so doing, it tests concurrent explanations, including the influence of the input, the influence of chunking, and the hypothesis of cyclic development. It discusses the cotextual and contextual factors that still provoke «non-native glitches» at the final stage of the Aspect Hypothesis. The book shows that the AH fails to account for the complex phenomenon of past tense development, as it adopts a local and linear approach.

This volume examines the multifaceted nature of (grammatical) aspect. The chapters explore less typical contexts in which aspectual constructions are used, and draw on data from a range of languages, many of them understudied, including several African languages and the sign language Kata Kolok.

This volume originates from a workshop entitled 'Revisiting advanced varieties in L2 learning' organized by the editors at Aston University (Birmingham, UK) in June 2006. It consists of a peer-reviewed selection of the best contributions. Many different approaches have been used in the study of advanced learners and their characteristics. Specific areas of language have repeatedly been found to remain problematic even at advanced levels, and much empirical research has been carried out. In particular, areas of grammar such as the tense or agreement systems often pose difficulties, as well as lexical idiosyncrasies such as formulaic sequences, and the discourse/pragmatic constraints operating in French. This volume brings together recent research exploring the advanced learner capabilities in each of those domains, as well as possible explanations for the difficulties they raise for the L2 learner of French. Additionally, one of the areas which has received considerable attention in the French L2 literature on advanced learners, tense and aspect, is also explored from the point of view of French learners of English, to explore any parallels. In presenting this research, the book clarifies the concept of the advanced learner: how does s/he differ from native speakers and why?

Research Design and Methodology in Studies on Second Language Tense and Aspect provides an up-to-date review of past and current methodologies for the study of the L2 acquisition of tense and aspect. More specifically, the book addresses the following issues related to the design of studies for research in tense and aspect: Theoretical frameworks (e.g., Are research questions investigated within one theoretical approach incompatible with other approaches?) Elicitation procedures (Do different types of tasks elicit different types of tense-aspect data?) Coding of data (e.g. How are lexical categories defined and coded?) Data analysis (e.g., What statistical tests are more appropriate to analyze language data?) The volume provides new insights into the study of L2 tense-aspect by bringing together well renowned scholars with experience in the research design of research this area of the field.

Now in a fifth edition, this bestselling introductory textbook remains the cornerstone volume for the study of second language acquisition (SLA). Its chapters have been fully updated, and reorganized where appropriate, to provide a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the field and its related disciplines. In order to reflect current developments, new sections and expanded discussions have been added. The fifth edition of Second Language Acquisition retains the features that students found useful in previous editions. This edition provides pedagogical tools that encourage students to reflect upon the experiences of second language learners. As with previous editions, discussion questions and problems at the end of each chapter help students apply their knowledge, and a glossary defines and reinforces must-know terminology. This clearly written, comprehensive, and current textbook, by Susan Gass, Jennifer Behney, and Luke Plonsky, is the ideal textbook for an introductory SLA course in second language studies, applied linguistics, linguistics, TESOL, and/or language education programs. This textbook is supported with a Companion Website containing instructor and student resources including PowerPoint slides, exercises, stroop tests, flashcards, audio and video links: https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138743427/

The study of the linguistic reflexes of aspect has been an active field of research in various sub-disciplines of linguistics, such as syntax, semantics (including discourse theory) and acquisition studies. However, communication and dissemination of results across these various subfields has often been indirect. This volume solves that problem. The different angles brought together here give us a comprehensive picture of the representation of aspect in the mind/brain of the speaker. The papers in this volume represent the results of a workshop on the syntax, semantics and acquisition of aspect held in 2002 whose purpose was to foment active cross-disciplinary communication. A number of the papers examine the syntactic representation of lexical or situation aspect, while others focus on the syntactic interaction of lexical aspect with grammatical aspect, and of grammatical aspect and tense. Other papers examine the role of aspect in discourse representations, while a third group of papers reports on results of empirical studies on the acquisition of aspect in both first and second language acquisition, and patterns of loss of morphosyntactic reflexes of aspect in language attrition. This volume is of interest to researchers and advanced graduate students in syntax, semantics, discourse representation and language acquisition, particularly those working on tense and aspect.

The expression of temporal relations, notably through tense and aspect, is central in all processes of communication, but commonly perceived and described as a major hurdle for non-native speakers. While this topic has already received considerable attention in the SLA literature, it features less prominently in recent corpus-based studies of learner language. This volume intends to close this gap. It shows which additional insights into the area of tense and aspect in learner language can be gained using corpus data, addressing the following questions: In which ways do corpus-based studies complement work based on other methods?; How can a corpus-based approach inform theories on the acquisition of tense and aspect specifically, and of language acquisition in general?; Are results language-specific or can universal principles be established?; How pervasive are effects of mode/register within learner corpus data?; What role does native and non-native input play?; Which methodological challenges come to the fore when using corpus data instead of elicited data?; How can the notion of “target(-like)” performance be operationalized for corpus material?; Which implications do the findings from the learner corpora have for the teaching and learning of the target language? Originally published as special issue of International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 4:2 (2018)

Spanish in the United States: Attitudes and Variation is a collection of new, cutting-edge research with the purpose of providing scholars interested in Spanish as it is spoken by bilinguals living in the United States a current view of the state of the discipline. This volume is broad and inclusive of the populations studied, methodologies used, and approaches to the linguistic study of Spanish in order to provide scholars with an up-to-date understanding of the complexities of the Spanish(es) spoken in the United States. In addition to this snapshot, this volume stimulates new areas of inquiry and motivates new ways of analyzing the social, linguistic, and educational aspects of what it means to speak Spanish in the United States.