FIRST LANGUAGE/AGE/INTERVENTION 2nd LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

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DESCRIPTION (provided by candidate): This project addresses three fundamental questions: 1) in learning a second language, to what extent does grammatical knowledge from the native language influence performance in English? 2) are there inherent differences in the way children and adults learn a language? 3) to what extent can a structured intervention improve performance in second language learning? Armenian and Turkish second language (L2) learners of English will be tested on Wh-questions. English, Turkish and Armenian have unusual commonalities and differences in their morphological and syntactic properties in wh-question formation. Wh-question formation will be approached in grammaticality judgment tasks and elicited imitation. The role of L1 in L2 learning will be studied in two language groups seldom studied in acquisition research. Further, much evidence suggests that child L2 learners are more successful than adult L2 learners, implying that children can easily access domain-specific concepts. Comparing the performance of beginning child and adult L2 learners will help determine whether and how they are similar in acquiring English. A novel focus of this project is the use of a newly developed short-term intervention method to try to improve the performance of learners' wh-questions. The efficacy of the technique for the two language groups and for the two age groups will be compared. If effective, the intervention measure will be an important pedagogical tool in classroom teaching of L2 learners and may also have benefits for language-delayed individuals.