The present study analyzes morphological productivity for complex verbs in second language acquisition by analyzing a corpus of German as a Foreign Language (GFL). It shows that advanced learners of GFL use prefix and particle verbs relatively frequently and productively but less so than native speakers do and discusses these findings in the light…

I will propose a tentative framework of how words in two languages could be organized in the cerebral cortex based on neural assembly theory, according to which neurons that fire synchronously are bound into large-scale distributed functional units (assemblies), which represent a mental event as a whole ("gestalt"). For language this…

In the past 15 years, a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that a powerful distributional learning mechanism is present in infants, children, adults and (at least to some degree) in nonhuman animals as well. The present article briefly reviews this literature and then examines some of the fundamental questions that must be addressed for…

The processing difficulty of nested grammatical structure has been explained by different psycholinguistic theories. Here I provide corpus and behavioral evidence in favor of usage-based models, focusing on the case of object relative clauses in Spanish as a first language. A corpus analysis of spoken Spanish reveals that, as in English, the…

Second language learners reach expert levels in relative cue weighting only gradually. On the basis of ensemble machine learning models fit to naturalistic written productions of German advanced learners of English and expert writers, we set out to reverse engineer differences in the weighting of multiple cues in a clause linearization problem. We…

Listening comprehension plays a key role in language acquisition, yet little is known about the variables that contribute to the development of second language (L2) listening ability. This study sought to obtain empirical evidence for the impact of some of the learner variables and the degree to which they might predict success in L2 listening.…

Most current approaches to linguistic structure suggest that language is recursive, that recursion is a fundamental property of grammar, and that independent performance constraints limit recursive abilities that would otherwise be infinite. This article presents a usage-based perspective on recursive sentence processing, in which recursion is…

Presents a restatement of the three basic constructs of "language ego,""language ego boundaries," and "permeability of language ego boundaries," discusses interdisciplinary "borrowing" of constructs, and examines the question of theory validation. (Author/AM)

Replies to McLaughlin's (l978) critique of the Krashen (1975, 1977) Monitor Model of language learning, presenting rebuttals to major attacks, followed by a discussion of minor issues. (AM)

Presents arguments for the view that pidginization can be a model of early second language acquisition, decreolization can be a model for later second language acquisition, and creolization is inappropriate for any aspect of this process. (Author/AM)

Offers a model for research in second language acquisition. The model is based on implicational analysis and attempts to account for individuals and groups, systematicity and variability. An analysis of the use of grammatical morphemes by Spanish-speaking students of English illustrates the model. (Author/AM)

Examines the Monitor Model of adult second language acquisition, and presents an alternate model that avoids difficulties inherent in the Monitor Model and that corresponds to contemporary language development theory. (Author/AM)

Elucidates the psycholinguistic mechanics of the "output hypothesis" and argues that output serves an important role in second language acquisition because it generates specific input the cognitive system needs to build up a coherent set of knowledge. The article hypothesizes that the locus of the effect of output is in the transition of…

Responds to a previous article on emergentism, connectionism, and language learning. Suggests that connectionist models of emergent language knowledge will continue to be important in the years to come. (Author/JL)

Proposes a model of second language learning that accounts for discrepancies both in individual achievement and achievement in different aspects of language learning. (Author/AM)