Doctoral Dissertation Research: Inconsistent input and amount of exposure: child second language acquisition of Fering, a dialect of North Frisian

语言习得的研究从根本上关注的是儿童如何在给定的输入条件下习得语言。然而，这些研究往往侧重于输入的数量而不是输入的类型。最近的研究使用人工语言来研究儿童如何获得不一致的输入。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的博士生，Alison Eisel Hendricks，由博士指导。卡丽·n·杰克逊和卡伦·米勒对德国北部一种濒危语言弗林语的语言习得理论进行了研究。本文比较了福林语儿童和青年学习者对连贯输入和不连贯输入的习得情况。语法性别是一种将名词分类为性别的系统，通常会导致定冠词“the”的不同版本。说话者产生的语法性别不一致，说话者互换使用两种性别。另一方面，说话者对语法数的看法基本一致。一半说汉语的儿童是作为母语习得汉语的，一半是在学校学习汉语的。因此，本项目测试输入类型和暴露量对语言习得的影响。本论文测试了中小学生对语法性别、数字和一般流畅性的理解和产生。家长将完成一份语言使用问卷，说英语的家长将和他们的孩子完成同样的实验。成年社区成员将参加自由言论访谈，以进一步衡量社区语言输入。这个项目对语言学理论和少数民族语言研究同样有贡献。通过测试一种自然语言，并跟踪一段时间内不一致输入的习得情况，该项目进一步加深了儿童语言习得的一般知识。使用定性和实验任务可以更好地理解儿童学习少数民族语言所面临的任务。本论文调查了北弗里斯兰语，但结果为其他少数民族语言振兴的案例提供了信息，并将引起教师和语言规划者的兴趣。该项目还有助于培养研究生。

Investigations of language acquisition are fundamentally concerned with how children acquire language given the input they receive. However, these studies often focus on the amount of input rather than the type of input. Recent studies have used artificial languages to study how children acquire inconsistent input. Pennsylvania State University doctoral student, Alison Eisel Hendricks, supervised by Drs. Carrie N. Jackson and Karen Miller, investigates current theories of language acquisition of Fering, an endangered language spoken in northern Germany. The dissertation compares the acquisition of consistent versus inconsistent input by children and young adult-learners of Fering. Grammatical gender is a system that categorizes nouns into genders, often resulting in different versions of the definite article "the". Fering speakers produce grammatical gender inconsistently, with speakers using both genders interchangeably. On the other hand, speakers largely agree on grammatical number. Half of Fering-speaking children acquire it as a native language, while half learn Fering in school. Thus, this project tests the influence of input type and amount of exposure on language acquisition.This dissertation tests elementary and high school students' comprehension and production of grammatical gender, number, and general fluency. Parents will complete a language use questionnaire and Fering-speaking parents will complete the same experiments as their children. Adult community members will participate in free speech interviews to further measure community language input. This project contributes equally to linguistic theory and minority language studies. By testing a natural language and tracking acquisition of inconsistent input over time, the project furthers general knowledge of child language acquisition. Using qualitative and experimental tasks betters our understanding of the task facing children learning minority languages. This dissertation investigates North Frisian, but the results inform other cases of minority language revitalization, and will interest teachers and language planners. The project also contributes to the training of a graduate student.