This chapter discusses usage-based approach perspectives on a number of topics related to learning and development in multilinguals. The chapter is organized around a basic construction: “The perspective of the usage-based approach on X ,” where X is a relevant issue in the acquisition of non-native languages. The chapter starts with an introduction to the approach that outlines its cognitive and social underpinnings, with an emphasis on the role of categorizations, exemplars, constructions, adaptive systems, analogy, and entrenchment. This section is followed by a review of how these concepts contribute to our understanding of language, learning, development, multilingualism, and crosslinguistic influence.

This chapter explores the dynamic relationship between working memory (WM) and grammar development across adult L2 learning. For over twenty years, WM has received considerable attention in research on adult second language (L2) development. One reason for this is that L2 learning requires both processing and storage to comprehend input and to extract intake for acquisition, so differences in WM capacity may explain differences in developmental rates. Most studies on WM and morphosyntactic development in adults support the “more is better” hypothesis (Miyake & Friedman, 1998); yet others did not yield evidence in its support (e.g., Foote, 2011; Grey, Cox et al., 2015). While linguistic targets and methods may explain many discrepancies, recent research (e.g., Serafini & Sanz, 2016) may also help us understand these differences as a reflection of changes in what constitutes a cognitively demanding task (i.e., what tasks recruit WM resources) across L2 learning

Aptitude and language experience (i.e., multilingualism) are two individual differences that have attracted increasing interest in the field of second language acquisition. This chapter looks at the role that aptitude and multilingualism play on language learning under different pedagogical conditions, and specifically with different forms of feedback. Questions that we try to answer are: Do learners with high cognitive aptitudes and language experience benefit more from corrective feedback than those with low cognitive aptitudes and language experience? What cognitive aptitudes benefit learning when receiving implicit vs. explicit feedback? What type of feedback is effective regardless of learners’ cognitive aptitudes and language experience? Results from laboratory and classroom research with adult learners suggest that the effects of feedback on language development are constrained by a number of cognitive aptitudes such as linguistic analytic ability and rote memory. Multilingualism seems to provide young adults with an advantage under conditions that do not include metalinguistic information during provision of feedback. For learners over 65, however, learning appears to be negatively affected by what they perceive as an excess of information during practice, i.e., when feedback includes information about how the language works, but not when that information is presented prior to practice.

El primer paso en nuestro estudio de la semántica y pragmática es profundizar nuestra comprensión del concepto de significado. Distinguimos entre significado referencial y sentido, y para entender el sentido, tomamos en cuenta la conceptualización.

Estudiar sintaxis es estudiar cómo se forman las oraciones mediante la combinación de formas léxicas (palabras) en cada lengua particular y en el lenguaje en general. Por oración podemos entender una expresión que contiene un sujeto, del que decimos algo y un predicado (lo que decimos del sujeto). Volveremos sobre la definición de oración en la sección 2 de este capítulo.

Una característica importante de las lenguas humanas es que, mientras que nos permiten expresar un número ilimitado de enunciados con significados diferentes, todas las palabras, todos los enunciados posibles en la lengua, se pueden descomponer en un número relativamente pequeño de unidades de sonido contrastivas que, de por sí, carecen de significado. Así en la palabra pan por ejemplo podemos distinguir tres sonidos /p/, /a/ y /n/ y en la palabra guerra, cuatro /ɡ/, /e/, /r̄/ y /a/ (usamos el símbolo /r̄/ para representar el sonido de la “r fuerte”, escrita -rr- en guerra y r- en roca, para mayor claridad, añadiendo una barra al símbolo usado para este sonido en el Alfabeto Fonético Internacional. Notemos también que el grupo ortográfico gu- representa un solo sonido /g/ en la palabra guerra). Como hemos dicho, aunque el léxico de una lengua y el número de enunciados expresables con este léxico son en principio ilimitados, cada lengua tiene solo un número reducido de sonidos contrastivos. En español, solo tenemos cinco sonidos vocálicos contrastivos y menos de veinte sonidos consonánticos (su número exacto depende del dialecto).