The testability of prominent hypotheses on access to Universal Grammar in adult SLA

Abstract

There is a growing awareness among linguists that second language acquisition (SLA) is a promising area of inquiry, due to the fact that an understanding of how SLA occurs may provide a useful perspective on the mental processes involved in language learning and language use in general, as well as on the nature of the language faculty (Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono 1996:677-678; Flynn 1988:76). A central question in SLA research today concerns the extent to which adult second language (L2) learners have access to the innate linguistic principles that guide first language (L1) acquisition, i.e. to Universal Grammar (UG). As we shall see, there is no shortage of proposed answers to this question.

Keywords

• second language acquisition
• adult second language acquisition
• universal grammar