Description and contextualization of the subject

This course aims to bring students closer to the study of First, (early and late) Second and additional language acquisition through their familiarization with current research oriented to the study of early and late bilingualism.



This interdisciplinary course allows students to connect the knowledge acquired in the master’s theoretical subjects such as phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics with the practice of language acquisition and learning and provides students with insights into issues about teaching and learning a second language. It also allows students to assess different theoretical proposals and methodologies in the field of language acquisition providing them with a wider perspective to develop their research papers within the master.

Learning outcomes of the subject

After successfully completing the course, students will be able



- to compare different theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of L1 and L2 language

acquisition



- to provide answers to theoretical, methodological and empirical questions concerning the acquisition of A' movement structures such as Wh-questions, Relative clauses as well as other kinds of embedded clauses.



- to describe the variability of bi- or multilingual acquisition processes and to identify the effect of crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of each of the languages involved.

Ordinary call: orientations and renunciation

In order to complete the course students will have to participate actively in class (20% of the final mark) and orally present a paper (%30 of the final mark) and hand in a written paper (5-10 pages long) (50% of the final mark).



Students must make sure that all written assignments must be written by the author. Students must identify and include all facts, ideas, opinions and points of view of others correctly through the use of in-text citations and must also be properly identified in the reference list provided at the end of the assignment. All direct quotations taken from books, journals, the internet or any other source must be adequately acknowledged and identified in the reference list.

Extraordinary call: orientations and renunciation

Students will have to hand in a written paper (12-15 pages long) (50% of the final mark) which includes the discussion of some theoretical and/or methodological aspect related to the topics covered in class

Temary

1. Child language

2.Relative clauses in early child language research

3.Early bilingualism: L1 vs.2L1; L1 vs. L2. RCs in early bilingual language acquistion

4.RCs in typical and atypical language development

5.L2/Ln acquisition: issues past and present

Movement in L2/Ln language acquisition : Wh-questions, islands, Relative Clauses

6.Cross linguistic influence and transfer effects in L2/Ln acquisition

7.Theories of L2/Ln acquisition

Bibliography

Compulsory materials

Basic bibliography

Chan, A., Chen, S., Matthews, S., & Yip, V. 2017. Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in a trilingual acquisition context. Frontiers in Psychology 8, 1641.

Friedman, Naama; Belleti, Adriana & Rizzi, Luigi. 2009. Relativized relatives: Types of intervention in the acquisition of A'-dependencies. Lingua 119 (2009) 67–88.

Guasti, M.T; Brancini, Ch.; Arosio, F.; Vernice, M. (2012), A developmental study of Subject and Object relative clauses in Italian. Revue Romaine de Linguistique, LVII, 2, 105–116.

Hu, Shenai and Costa, Francesca and Guasti, Maria Teresa. 2020. Mandarin–Italian Dual-Language Children’s Comprehension of Head-Final and Head-Initial Relative Clauses. Frontiers in Psychology 11, https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01379

Ortega-Santos, I., Reglero A. & Franco, J. 2018. Wh-islands in L2 Spanish and L2 English: Between Poverty of the Stimulus and Data Assessment. Fontes Linguae Vasconun 126, 435-471.

Schwartz, B. D. & Sprouse, R. A. 2020. The Full Transfer/Full Access model and L3 cognitive states. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 11(1), 1-29.

Journals

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=BIL



Child Language: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hlac20/current



First Language: http://fla.sagepub.com/



Journal of Child Language: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JCL



Language Learning: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9922



Lingua: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/lingua/



Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism: https://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/lab/main



Second Language Research: http://slr.sagepub.com/



Studies in Second Language Acquisition: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=SLA