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WHAT’S IN THE TEXTBOOK AND WHAT’S IN THE MIND

Polarity Item “Any” in Learner English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2017

Heather Marsden ,
Melinda Whong  and
Kook-Hee Gil
Heather Marsden*
Affiliation:
University of York
Melinda Whong
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Kook-Hee Gil
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Heather Marsden, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York. E-mail: heather.marsden@york.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the rarely explored question of how input through instruction interacts with L2 acquisition at the level of modular linguistic knowledge. The investigation focuses on L2 knowledge of the English polarity item any, whose properties are only partially covered by typical language-teaching materials. We investigate Najdi-Saudi Arabic-speaking learners’ knowledge of the distribution of any in contexts that are taught, contexts that are not taught but may be observable in the input, and contexts that are neither taught nor observable. We further test whether conscious awareness of instructed rules about any correlates with performance. Our findings suggest a role for instruction and for internal, UG-constrained acquisition, and that these two paths interact. We explore our findings in terms of Sharwood Smith and Truscott’s (2014a, 2014b) framework of modular online growth and use of language, in which cognitive development is driven by processing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 91 - 118
Open Practices
Open materials
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id=york:931376.

†

Melinda Whong is now at the Language Centre, University of Leeds.

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