Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:05:59.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Universals, Methodology, and Instructional Intervention on Relative Clauses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2007

Shinichi Izumi
Shinichi Izumi
Affiliation:
Sophia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This special issue has attempted to ascertain the universal applicability of the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH; Keenan & Comrie, 1977) by extending previous research in this area, which has focused on English and a few other European languages, to East Asian languages. To this end, five empirical studies have been reported; these studies yielded mixed results with regard to their support for the NPAH. Overall, what is striking to me in these results is the fact that despite the expectation of some researchers to find robust counterevidence to the NPAH, many of these studies ended up finding at least partial support for the NPAH, even in East Asian languages.

Type
COMMENTARY
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2007 , pp. 351 - 359
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Comrie, B. (2002). Typology and language acquisition: The case of relative clauses. In A. Giacalone Ramat (Ed.), Typology and second language acquisition (pp. 19–37). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Doughty, C. (1988). The effect of instruction on the acquisition of relativization in English as a second language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Doughty, C. (1991). Second language instruction does make a difference. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13, 431–469.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (1997). SLA research and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hamilton, R. (1994). Is implicational generalization unidirectional and maximal? Evidence from relativization instruction in a second language. Language Learning, 44, 123–157.Google Scholar
Izumi, S. (2000). Promoting noticing and SLA: An empirical study of the effects of output and input enhancement on ESL relativization. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
Izumi, S. (2002). Output, input enhancement, and the noticing hypothesis: An experimental study on ESL relativization. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 541–577.Google Scholar
Izumi, S. (2003). Processing difficulty in comprehension and production of relative clauses by learners of English as a second language. Language Learning, 53, 285–323.Google Scholar
Keenan, E. & Comrie, B. (1977). Noun phrase accessibility and Universal Grammar. Linguistic Inquiry, 8, 63–99.Google Scholar
Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (1999). How languages are learned (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prideaux, G. & Baker, W. (1986). Strategies and structures: The processing of relative clauses. Amsterdam: Benjamins.