William C. Ritchie

Handbook of Second Language Acquisition

W.C. Ritchie and T.K. Bhatia, Second Language Acquisition: Introduction, Foundations, and Overview. Research and Theoretical Issues in Second Language Acquisition: K.R. Gregg, The Logical and Developmental Problems of Second Language Acquisition. Issues of Maturation and Modularity in Second Language Acquisition: L. White, Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition: Current Trends and New Directions. S. Flynn, A Parameter-Setting Approach to Second Language Acquisition. J. Schachter, Maturation and the Issue of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition. F.R. Eckman, A Functional-Typological Approach to Second Language Acquisition Theory. B. McLaughlin and R. Heredia, Information-Processing Approaches to Research on Second Language Acquisition and Use. D. Preston, Variationist Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Second Language Speech and the Influence of the First Language: J. Leather and A. James, Second Language Speech. S. Gass, Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory: The Role of Language Transfer. Research Methodology and Applications: D. Nunan, Issues in Second Language Acquisition Research: Examining Substance and Procedure. A. Sorace, The Use of Acceptability Judgments in Second Language Acquisition Research. Modality and the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition: M.H. Long, The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition. G.P. Berent, The Acquisition of English Syntax by Deaf Learners. The Neuropsychology of Second Language Acquisition and Use: L.K. Obler and S. Hannigan, Neurolinguistics of Second Language Acquisition and Use. Language Contact and its Consequences: R.W. Anderson and Y. Shirai, The Primacy of Aspect in First and Second Language Acquisition: The Pidgin-Creole Connection. S. Romaine, Bilingualism. H.W. Seliger, Primary Language Attrition in the Context of Bilingualism. T.K. Bhatia and W.C. Ritchie, Bilingual Language Mixing, Universal Grammar, and Second Language Acquisition. Glossary. Author Index. Subject Index.

The Bilingual Mind and Linguistic Creativity

The aim of this article is to focus on the two salient aspects of the capacity of the bilingual mind/brain, namely, its ability to maintain both language separation on one hand and language integration on the other. These two types of bilingual capacity result in language mixing, termed Code Mixing (CM) and Code Switching (CS) in socio-linguistic research. The article reveals various facets of bilingual creativity through language mixing as it manifests itself in the day-to-day verbal behaviour of a bilingual and in global advertising. The article argues that language mixing is essentially an ‘optimizing’ strategy which renders a wide variety of new meaning which the separate linguistic systems are incapable of rendering by themselves.

Emerging trilingual literacies in rural India: linguistic, marketing, and developmental aspects

This paper examines emerging forms of multilingualism and multiliteracy in rural India (where the term ‘literacy’ is used broadly here to include digital media literacy and marketing literacy as well as literacy in the traditional sense of the knowledge of a writing system). Here forces of globalization and digital communication have created unique communication circumstances that have a serious bearing on our understanding of multilingualism and on theoretical and practical issues concerning literacy in developing and rural societies. The newly emerging form of bimodal communication (man-machine and verbal-visual) is a product of a new village institution called an e-Choupal, a meeting place housing a computer with Internet access, where local farmers meet to learn about developments in farming, crop prices, etc., on the basis of contact with the world beyond the village through the use of computers. Traditionally, communication between members of the rural population and members of the mainstream population has been limited to the use of a mainstream variety – in this case, either Indian English or Standard Hindi – rather than the nonmainstream varieties of the rural population. In many cases in this as well as in other societies, this circumstance has lead to an instance of subtractive bilingualism in which the rural varieties have become less used and, eventually, extinct. In an e-Choupal, the local rural dialect plays a central role in communication between the manager of the e-Choupal and the e-Choupals rural clientele, thus providing a case of additive multilingualism for the rural population through which the rural varieties will play a major role and will therefore have a chance to avoid extinction. Not only does the use of the local variety improve accuracy of communication, it also creates a high level of trust between the manager and the clientele based on shared sociolinguistic identity. This shared identity leads to a high level of success in the functioning of the e-Choupal as a center for the diffusion of innovations as predicted by Rogers’ general framework for the study of such centers; the paper proposes an analysis in terms of this framework. In addition, we analyze this case in terms of three contemporary theoretical research traditions – Social Identity Theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, and Markedness Theory.

Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition

Traditionally, the central problem in the study of second language acquisition and use has been the determination of those factors that differentiate cases in which a relatively high degree of proficiency in a second language is attained from those cases in which it is not. Implicit in the pursuit of solutions to this problem is the assumption - fully justified on the basis of systematic as well as anecdotal observation - that the acquisition of a second or third or fourth language is, in the normal case, by no means inevitable as is the acquisition of a first language. The non-inevitability of second language acquisition gives rise to a variety of questions in the study of second language phenomena that do not ordinarily arise in the study of first; questions concerning the personality, motivations, general cognitive style, and (most importantly for the present discussion) the age of the learner, as well as features of the environmental conditions under which acquisition occurs.

Second Language Acquisition: Introduction

Though practical interest in the problems of second language acquisition and use has a lengthy history (see Kelly, 1969, for a survey), the emergence of an independent and identifiable body of “pure” theory and research in the area occurred only in the late 1960’s and early 70’s. Since that time research in the field has grown tremendously in both breadth and depth. A wide variety of cognitive and affective factors have been identified as conducive to or inhibitive of second language acquisition, the course of acquisition has been described (if not explained) in certain limited cases and compared with that of first language acquisition and to the pidginization of standard languages, and a variety of theories and insights - some of the latter quite genuine - have arisen.