Grammatical Development in Language Learning: The Best of Language Learning Series

Why is learning the grammar of a second language difficult? The present volume brings together recent insights from leading researchers in the U.S. and Europe to identify the multiple factors that challenge learners in attaining full proficiency in a second language. DeKeyser s introductory review synthesizes recent research and theories, illuminating the concept of difficulty in second language acquisition, emphasizing the relations between meaning and forms of a first and second language and their interactions with learners personal characteristics. A meta–analysis of past research by Goldschneider and DeKeyser highlights the importance of transparency in form–meaning relations as well as learners aptitudes and previous language learning experiences. Kempe and Brooks show how diminutives facilitate gender acquisition in Russian. Carroll demonstrates how learners make semantic distinctions in acquiring gender distinctions in French. Williams and Lovatt evaluate the role of phonological short–term memory in the acquisition of gender in a semi–artificial linguistic system.

What makes learning second–language grammar difficult?: a review of issues 1

Explaining the "natural order of L2 morpheme acquisition" in English: a meta–analysis of multiple determinants 27

Input and SLA: adults′ sensitivity to different sorts of cues to French gender 79

The role of diminutives in the acquisition of Russian gender: can elements of child–directed speech aid in learning morphology? 139

Phonological memory and rule learning 177

Robert DeKeyser is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh. He has a Ph.D. in Education with a minor in Linguistics from Stanford University. His research is on second language acquisition, particularly cognitive–psychological aspects. Some of his favorite topics are interlanguage variability, monitoring processes, automatization of second language grammar, the effect of age of learning and other individual differences, and the relationship between implicit and explicit learning and knowledge. He has published in a variety of journals, including Language Learning, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Testing, The Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and AILA Review.