More on L-2 acquisition of gender

[Annette Karmiloff-Smith]

>Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 14:00:23 -0500
>From: "Patsy M. Lightbown" <lightbn at vax2.concordia.ca>
>Subject: Re: More on L-2 acquisition of gender
>To: Annette Karmiloff-Smith <a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk>
>MIME-version: 1.0
>
>An former student of mine (who recently completed a PhD with Lydia White at
>McGill) did an M.A. thesis whose title may partially answer Linda Cote's
>question.  Native speaker of French DID experience difficulty (that is,
>they made numerous errors) in Spanish gender.  These were high school
>students.
>
>Joyce Garavito-Bruhn  El Muchacha Tiene Tres Balon:  Number and
>	Gender in the Spanish of a Group of
>	Francophone Learners
>
>With Joyce's permission, I can provide a copy of the thesis (which is quite
>old) if you like.
>
>
>
>Roy Lyster also reminded me of the following references:
>
>Surridge, M. (1993). Gender assignment in French: the hierarchy of rules
>and the chronology of acquisition. IRAL, 32, 77-95.
>
>Surridge, M., & Lessard, A. (1984). Pour une prise de conscience du genre
>grammatical. Canadian Modern Language Review, 41 (1), 43-52.
>
>Concerning children
>
>Harley, B. (1998) The role of form-focused tasks in promoting child L2
>acquisition. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom
>second language acquisition (p. 156-174). Cambridge: Cambridge University
>Press.
>
>and Florence Stevens' book which drew on your work.
>
>There is certainly plenty of anecdotal evidence available in Quebec where
>so many anglophones have learned French at various ages.  It remains a
>problem for French immersion children after years and years of exposure.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Py
>
>Patsy M. Lightbown
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>>From: "Cote, Linda (NICHD)" <cotel at cfr.nichd.nih.gov>
>>>To: "'Annette Karmiloff-Smith'" <a.karmiloff-smith at ich.ucl.ac.uk>
>>>Subject: clarification;  RE: L-2 acquisition of gender
>>>Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 10:20:05 -0400
>>>MIME-Version: 1.0
>>>
>>>Dear Dr. Karmiloff-Smith:
>>>
>>>I do not know of any references in response to your question:
>>>
>>	>It is frequently reported that L-2 adult learners have serious
>>
>>          difficulties with grammatical gender agreement.  Is this just an
>>	anecdote or are there data in the literature to which I can refer?
>>>
>>>However, I presume that your question is appropriate only for L-2 learners
>>>whose native language did not include gender agreement?  (e.g.,
>>>English-French).
>>>Certainly a native speaker of French learning Spanish would NOT be
>>>expected to
>>>have this problem?  You may need to delve into more Education-based research
>>>directed toward classroom language teachers to find supporting literature.
>>>
>>>Best wishes,
>>>
>>>Linda
>>>Linda R. Cote, Ph.D.
>>>Child & Family Research
>>>National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, NIH
>>>Suite 8030
>>>6705 Rockledge Drive
>>>Bethesda, MD  20892-7971
>>>e-mail:  LC140v at nih.gov
>>>phone:  301-496-5798
>>>fax:      301-496-2766
>>>
>

_______________________________________
Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith,
Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit,
Institute of Child Health,
30 Guilford Street,
London WC1N 1EH, U.K.
tel: 0207 905 2754
fax: 0207 242 7717
_______________________________________