Generative Approaches to Second Language (L2) Acquisition and Advanced L2 Proficiency

Abstract

Child first language acquisition (L1A) and adult second language acquisition (SLA) have observably different outcomes. Considering how distinct the two acquisition contexts often are, divergence is perhaps not surprising. Only adults acquiring a second language (L2) (i) are typically not surrounded by high quantities of native input, (ii) receive and must filter through significant amounts of non-native input (e.g. from classmates), (iii) deal with cross-linguistic influence/transfer from their L1, and (iv) lack the same inherent need/intrinsic motivation to acquire an additional language as children do their first. A combination of these and/or other secondary factors might explain observable differences across groups. It is, however, also possible that differences reflect a biologically determined cessation or weaker access to linguistic and/or cognitive learning mechanisms as a function of increased age. This chapter focuses on generative approaches to advanced proficiency and ultimate attainment potential in adult L2 acquisition where a preponderance of evidence, we will argue, does not support a biologically determined critical period specifically for universal linguistic mechanisms. The chapter also introduces the reader to newer theories within generative approaches to SLA that seek to explain discrete aspects of differences between monolingual and adult L2 at high levels of proficiency as well as individual L2 speaker variation.