L1 acquisition of past progressive!

[Shoba Bandi Rao]

Dear Info-CHILDES,

Wolfram (1985) and Bailey (1987) have noted an interesting pattern
in adult L2 acquisition of the English Past Progressive Tense: the
past progressive makes an early appearance in the learners'
interlanguage, but after an initial steady increase, a decline is
observed.

Does anyone know whether a similar learning paradigm is observed for
L1 acquisition? I would appreciate any references on the L1 acquisition
of the English present and past progressive tenses.

Thank you in advance!

Best,
Shoba

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Shoba Bandi Rao
Doctoral student/Applied Linguistics
New York University
Tel. Work (212) 998-5670
http://pages.nyu.edu/~sqb4972/
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