Gisela Håkansson

Transfer and typological proximity in the context of second language processing

In this article, the issue of cross-linguistic influence in second language acquisition is examined from a processing perspective. Applying Processability Theory as the theoretical framework we claim that second language (L2) learners can only produce forms they are able to process. We thus argue that the first language (L1) influence on the L2 is developmentally moderated. Data were collected from German L2 learners with Swedish as their L1. Twenty informants participated in the study, 10 in their first year of German (13 years of age) and 10 in their second year of German (14 years of age). Both languages involved are typologically very close but not mutually intelligible. The results show that Swedish learners of German do not transfer the verb-second structure from their L1 to the L2 even though this structure is identical in both languages.Instead they start out with canonical word order and subsequently produce an intermediate structure (adv NPsubj V X), which is ungrammatical in the L1 and the L2. These observations support the idea of a developmentally moderated transfer. The results clearly contradict the predictions from the ‘full transfer/full access’ hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994; 1996).

Comprehension and production of relative clauses: a comparison between Swedish impaired and unimpaired children

The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between language comprehension and language production in Swedish children. This was done longitudinally with 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI), aged 4;0 to 6;3 at Time I, and 10 children with unimpaired language development, aged 3;1 to 3;7 at Time I. The target structure was subordination, more precisely relative clauses. The childrens comprehension was tested with picture pointing, act-out and oral response tests. Their production was tested with elicited imitation and sentence completion tests. Data were collected twice, with an interval of six months. The results from the unimpaired children at Time I showed a difference between comprehension and production. At Time II these children scored higher on production than on comprehension. The children with SLI scored significantly higher on comprehension than on production at Time I. In half of the SLI group there was a clear development between the two data collection sessions, diminishing the dissociation. On neither testing did the children with SLI differ significantly from the unimpaired children in comprehension. At both testings, however, the children with SLI had significantly more responses where they did not insert the complementizer in relative clauses. The results indicate that the relationship between comprehension and production is different at different stages in development. They also show that structures involving dependency relations are particularly difficult to produce for children with SLI.

A unified approach towards the development of Swedish as L2: a processability account

This paper has two main objectives: (a) to put the vast body of research on Swedish as a second language (SSL) into one coherent framework; and (b) to test the predictions deriving from processability theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 1998b) for Swedish against this empirical database. We will survey the 14 most prominent research projects on SSL covering wide areas of syntax and morphology in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. This survey is the first to be carried out for Swedish, and it will bring the body of two decades of research into one unified framework. We proceed in the following steps: First, a brief summary of processability theory is given. Then the theory is used to generate a unifying framework for the development of the specific L2 grammatical system (Swedish). Finally, the new framework is tested in the above-mentioned empirical studies. (Less)

Developmental perspectives on bilingual Swedish-Arabic children with and without language impairment: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND There is a need for studies on bilingual language acquisition in combination with language impairment (LI). The speech and language clinician must have tools to differentiate between problems depending on inadequate exposure to a language and problems depending on a LI. Another important issue is the pace of bilingual language acquisition relative to the severity of LI. AIMS To investigate grammatical development over 12 months in both languages in 10 Swedish-Arabic pre-school children with severe LI and 10 Swedish-Arabic pre-school children without LI. METHODS & PROCEDURES The children were matched for age, gender, exposure to Swedish dialect, and exposure to Arabic dialect. The developmental hierarchy predicted by Processability Theory was used in tests in both Swedish and Arabic. Processability Theory was used as a yardstick to measure grammatical development in both languages. OUTCOME & RESULTS Bilingual children, both with and without LI, developed grammatical structures in Swedish and Arabic in the same implicational way. Children with severe LI could develop two languages, although the pace of development was much slower in both languages. Bilingual children with severe LI were also more vulnerable to limited exposure of both their languages. CONCLUSIONS A developmental perspective is important to understand the nature of LI in bilingual children. The results also have implications for the assessment of language development in bilingual children with severe LI, since a hardly perceptible development over time is observed.

Tense morphology and verb-second in Swedish L1 children, L2 children and children with SLI

This paper compares the development of tense morphology and verb-second in different learner populations. Three groups of Swedish pre-school children are investigated longitudinally; ten L1 children, ten L2 children and ten children diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Data was collected twice, with an interval of six months. The results at Time I reveal a significant difference between normally developing L1 children on the one hand and L2 children and children with SLI on the other. The L1 children use verb-second correctly in topicalized declaratives, whereas both L2 children and children with SLI use structures with the verb in third position (XSV structures) as an intermediate step towards verb-second. There is a clear development between the two data collection sessions for the L2 children and the children with SLI, diminishing the difference between them and the unimpaired L1 children. The similarity that is found between L2 children and children with SLI in this study bears important implications for the discussion of the role of transfer in L2 research and for the question of a defective linguistic representation in SLI research. (Less)

Language impairment in Swedish bilingual children: a comparison between bilingual and monolingual children in Malmö.

In this study two groups of children were compared, 192 bilingual and 246 monolingual, referred over a 12‐mo period to University Hospital in Malmo for suspected language impairment. Compared with monolingual children, bilingual children ran a significantly lower risk (RR = 0.76, p < 0.0001) of being referred by a child health centre, and a significantly higher risk (RR = 1.54, p < 0.0103) of being referred after 5 y of age. In the bilingual group there was also a significantly higher risk of parental refusal of assessment (RR = 2.35, p<0.0016) and of the children being diagnosed with a severe language impairment (RR=1.87, p<0.0009). The risk for bilingual children with severe language impairment being discharged owing to non‐attendance was high (RR = 6.20, p < 0.0002) compared to monolingual children. The risk increased with severity of language impairment.

The Preference for Modal + Neg: An L2 Perspective Applied to Swedish L1 Children.

Universal Grammar (UG), as it is conceived in the current principles and parameters approach to grammatical theory, may be said to contain certain default parameter values which are already in place at birth. If this is the case, then any languages which eventually show marked parameter values will necessarily involve a change in parameter settings during the L1 acquisition sequence. An indication of such a change can be signalled by a pattern of late acquisition of some feature. We will here argue that the correct placement of sentential negation with respect to modal auxiliaries in Swedish is such an example of delayed acquisition due to a parametric preference in UG. A syntactic analysis will be proposed for the four recognized stages in the acquisition of negative word order in Swedish which supports the view that a change must occur in the learners analysis of modal auxiliaries before the last stage has been reached.

The interaction of complexity and grammatical processability : The case of Swedish as a foreign language

Abstract The aim of this study is to discuss the interaction of linguistic complexity and morpho-syntactic development in foreign language learners. The analysis of morpho-syntactic structures was carried out within the framework of Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998). To capture the level of complexity we investigate the following: sentence length, subordination and nominal vs. verbal style. Oral and written data from four adult learners were collected over a period of one year. The analysis of complexity and morpho-syntax suggests that learners can be divided into different types, such as: The Risk-taker, The Recycler and The Careful and Thorough.

Mycobacteria bypass mucosal NF-kB signalling to induce an epithelial anti-inflammatory IL-22 and IL-10 response.

The mechanisms by which mycobacteria subvert the inflammatory defence to establish chronic infection remain an unresolved question in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Using primary epithelial cells, we have analysed mycobacteria induced epithelial signalling pathways from activation of TLRs to cytokine secretion. Mycobacterium bovis bacilli Calmette-Guerin induced phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)3 by PI3K–Akt in the signalling pathway downstream of TLR2 and TLR4. Mycobacteria did not supress NF-κB by activating the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ. Instead the pro-inflammatory NF-κB was bypassed by mycobacteria induced GSK3 inhibition that promoted the anti-inflammatory transcription factor CREB. Mycobacterial infection did not thus induce mucosal pro-inflammatory response as measured by TNFα and IFNγ secretion, but led to an anti-inflammatory IL-10 and IL-22 production. Apart from CREB, MAP3Ks p38 and ERK1/2 activated the transcription factor AP-1 leading to IL-6 production. Interestingly, blocking of TLR4 before infection decreased epithelial IL-6 secretion, but increased the CREB-activated IL-10 production. Our data indicate that mycobacteria supress epithelial pro-inflammatory production by supressing NF-κB activation thereby shifting the infection towards an anti-inflammatory state. This balance between the host immune response and the pathogen could determine the outcome of infection.

Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages: Is there a cross-linguistic order of words?

We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare the ratings obtained in our study to those of previous studies; and (4) to assess the validity of our study by comparison with quasi-objective AoA norms derived from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). All 299 words were judged as being acquired early (mostly before the age of 6 years). AoA ratings were associated with the raters’ social or language status, but not with the raters’ age or education. Parents reported words as being learned earlier, and bilinguals reported learning them later. Estimations of the age at which children learn the words revealed significantly lower ratings of AoA. Finally, comparisons with previous AoA and MB-CDI norms support the validity of the present estimations. Our AoA ratings are available for research or other purposes.