2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Examination of the Dual Mechanism Model for First and Second Language Acquisition.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20720156
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Foreign language education
Research Institution	Fukuoka University
Principal Investigator	SHOMURA Yoko (ISSE Yoko) 福岡大学, 人文学部, 准教授 (30368881)
Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha)	UMEDA Mari 福岡大学, 人文学部, 非常勤講師 (80620434)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2011
Keywords	第二言語習得 / 項構造 / 形態素 / 言語処理 / 統語構造 / 素性
Research Abstract	This study addresses the issue of morphology in second language(L2) acquisition, and examines the validity of two hypotheses which have been proposed to explain the cause of such difficulties, namely the Representational Deficit Hypothesis(RDH)(Hawkins, 2001 ; Hawkins & Liszka, 2003) and the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis(PTH)(Goad, Steel & White, 2003 ; Goad & White, 2004 ; 2006). Testing the Chinese-speaking learners, it was found that although some Chinese speakers had difficulties with past tense inflection, others were able to use the Japanese past tense inflection. ta reliably, both in written form and spontaneous production. Therefore, our results support the PTH.