Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants: Continuity Hypotheses Revisited: English L2 Acquisition of Bulgarian Nominal Domain

在国家科学基金会的支持下，在斯坦利·杜宾斯基和海森·帕克的指导下。Mila Tasseva-Kurktchieva女士将调查以英语为母语的成年人对保加利亚语名词短语的第二语言习得。本研究的目的是：(1)测试一种新的动态习得保加利亚名词性结构的方法，包括习得性别和数字一致、所有格和限定限定词的时间和顺序。这项研究将使用一组独特的受试者--美国和平队志愿者，通过沉浸和课堂教学接触到目标语言。这项研究将是为数不多的关注二语习得早期阶段的研究之一--在受试者第一次接触目标语言三到四周后。受试者将在课堂上接受(某种程度上)正式语法教学之前和之后进行测试。本研究承诺了几个重要的结果：(I)它增加了我们对二语习得语法结构的认知过程的了解；(Ii)它将有助于我们理解斯拉夫语的习得和句法结构；(Iii)当大多数二语习得研究关注性别和数量、确定性或所有格孤立的语法属性时，本研究将考虑这些属性的习得相互之间的关系；以及(Iv)它将为外语教学实践提供信息，并帮助回答有关输入类型(指令输入与自然输入)在二语习得中的作用的长期问题。

With NSF support and under the direction of Stanley Dubinsky and Hyeson Park. Ms. Mila Tasseva-Kurktchieva will investigate the second language (L2) acquisition of the Bulgarian noun phrase by adult native speakers of English. The goals of this research are: (i) to test a new variant of the dynamic approach to the L2 acquisition of Bulgarian nominal structure, including the timing and order of acquisition of gender and number agreement, possessives, and definite determiners. The study will use a unique pool of subjects-US Peace Corps volunteers exposed to the target language through both immersion and classroom instruction. This research will be among a few studies to focus on the very early stages of L2 acquisition-three to four weeks after subjects' first exposure to the target language. Subjects will be tested before and after exposure to (somewhat) formal grammar instruction in the classroom. Thus, the study will utilize both naturally occurring data and data from a controlled classroom environmentThis study promises several important results: (i) it adds to our knowledge of the cognitive processes involved in the L2 acquisition of the grammatical structure; (ii) it will contribute to our understanding of the acquisition and syntactic structure of Slavic languages; (iii) where most L2 acquisition studies are concerned with the grammatical properties gender and number, definiteness, or possessives in isolation, this research will consider the acquisition of these properties in relations to one another; and (iv) it will inform foreign language teaching practices and help to answer long-standing questions regarding the role of input type (instructed versus natural) in L2 acquisition.