This paper investigates the nature and time course of phonetic drift in L1 by examining the very first weeks of 20 L1 English speakers’ acquisition of Korean as L2. Acoustic analyses of these learners’ L1 and L2 production over time indicate that learning L2 stops affects the production of L1 stops (in terms of VOT and/or f0 onset) in as little as one week, with the L1 sounds approximating the ...

This study reports on a comparison of the use and knowledge of tense-marking morphemes in English by first language (L1), second language (L2) and specifically language-impaired (SLI) children. The objective of our research was to ascertain whether the L2 children's tense acquisition patterns were similar or dissimilar to those of the L1 and SLI groups, and whether they would fit an (Extended) ...

This study investigates constraints on ultimate attainment in second language (L2) pronunciation in a direct comparison of perceived foreign accent of 40 late L2 learners and 40 late first language (L1) attriters of German. Both groups were compared with 20 predominantly monolingual controls. Contrasting participants who acquired the target language from birth (monolinguals, L1 attriters) with ...

As is well known, the study of L2 acquisition provides essential insights about the language learning process in general. Approaching language learning through the study of L1 acquisition alone yields an incomplete and potentially erroneous view of the language faculty. For example, L2 study critically informs such debates as the "maturation of linguistic principles" proposed for L1 learning. P...

If first language is rational in the sense that acquisition produces an end-state model of language that is a proper reflection of input and that optimally prepares speakers for comprehension and production, second language is usually not. This paper considers the apparent irrationalities of L2 acquisition, that is the shortcomings where input fails to become intake. It describes how ‘learned a...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the presence of syntactic impairments in native language in Parkinson's disease. METHODS Twelve bilingual patients, with Friulian as their first language (L1) and Italian as their second (L2), with Parkinson's disease and 12 normal controls matched for age, sex, and years of schooling, were studied on three syntactic tasks. RESULTS Patients with Parkinson's disease ...

Title of dissertation: AUTOMATIC ACTIVATION OF SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION DURING SECOND LANGUAGE PROCESSING Written by: Sun Young Ahn, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed by: Professor Nan Jiang Department of Second Language Acquisition The present study is motivated by two questions. First, can late learners of a second language (L2), who begin learning after puberty and are unbalanced bilinguals...

A basic issue in the neurosciences of language is whether an L2 can be processed through the same neural mechanism underlying L1 acquisition and processing. In the present paper I review data from functional neuroimaging studies focusing on grammatical and lexico-semantic processing in bilinguals. The available evidence indicates that the L2 seems to be acquired through the same neural structur...

The objective of this study was to determine how bilinguals' age at the time of language acquisition influenced the organization of their phonetic system(s). The productions of six English and five Korean vowels by English and Korean monolinguals were compared to the productions of the same vowels by early and late Korean-English bilinguals varying in amount of exposure to their second language...