Dissertation: Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the Age Factor

[Harold Schiffman]

Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Montrul
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 Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism
  Re-examining the Age Factor
Series Title: Studies in Bilingualism 39
Published: 2008
Publisher: John Benjamins
                http://www.benjamins.com/

Book URL: http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=SiBil%2039

Author: Silvina A. Montrul

Abstract:

Age effects have played a particularly prominent role in some theoretical
perspectives on second language acquisition. This book takes an entirely
new perspective on this issue by re-examining these theories in light of
the existence of apparently similar non-native outcomes in adult heritage
speakers who, unlike adult second language learners, acquired two or more
languages in childhood. Despite having been exposed to their family
language early in life, many of these speakers never fully acquire, or
later lose, aspects of their first language sometime in childhood. The book
examines the structural characteristics of "incomplete" grammatical states
and highlights how age of acquisition is related to the type of linguistic
knowledge and behavior that emerges in L1 and L2 acquisition under
different environmental circumstances. By underscoring age of acquisition
as a unifying factor in the study of L2 acquisition and L1 attrition, it is
claimed that just as there are age effects in L2 acquisition, there are
also age effects, or even perhaps a critical period, in L1 attrition. The
book covers adult L2 acquisition, attrition in adults and in children, and
includes a comparison of adult heritage language speakers and second
language learners.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-3119.html

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