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Universal Grammar and second language acquisition: The null hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Samuel David Epstein
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. epstein@fas.harvard.edu
Suzanne Flynn
Affiliation:
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139. sflynn@mit.edu
Gita Martohardjono
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367. qmaqcaqcuni@.acc.qc.edu

Abstract

The target article advanced the null, unified and widely misinterpreted generative hypothesis regarding second language (L2) acquisition. Postulating that UG (Universal Grammar) constrains L2 knowledge growth does not entail identical developmental trajectories for L2 and first language (LI) acquisition; nor does it preclude a role for the L1. In embracing this hypothesis, we maintain a distinction between competence and performance. Those who conflate the two repeat fundamental and by no means unprecedented misconstruals of the generative enterprise, and more specifically, of the empirical content of the null hypothesis regarding L2 linguistic knowledge growth. We hope to have identified certain common goals, the adoption of which might constitute a firm foundation for continued productive interdisciplinary development of contemporary theoretical and experimental L2 acquisition research.

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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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