The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Environmental Influence on Language Acquisition: Comparing Second and Foreign Language Acquisition of Swedish

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

This article explores the influence of the learning environment on the second language acquisition of Swedish. Data were collected longitudinally over 1 year from 35 university students studying Swedish in Malmo, Sweden, and in Melbourne, Australia. Three areas were investigated: grammar, pragmatics, and lexicon. The development of grammar was analyzed within the framework of Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998, 2005). For the pragmatic analysis, the learners' production in a gap-filling task was measured against answers from 100 native speakers. A scoring system was devised to enable comparisons between learners and native speakers. The lexical analysis was based on a word association test. The results show that the grammar developed similarly in the two groups, whereas differences between the groups were found in pragmatics and lexicon. This variation is explained by differences in target language exposure.

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

628-650

Publication/Series

Language Learning

Volume

60

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • General Language Studies and Linguistics

Keywords

  • L2 Swedish
  • pragmatics
  • word association
  • exposure
  • L2
  • Processability Theory
  • language acquisition
  • second versus foreign

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0023-8333