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Processability Theory applied to written and spoken L2 Swedish

Håkansson, Gisela LU and Norrby, Catrin (2006) p.81-94
Abstract
This study investigates grammatical development in foreign and second language learners of Swedish. The hypothesis is that the hierarchy of processability predicted by Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998) guides both written and spoken learner production. The data was collected from 9 foreign language learners studying Swedish at Melbourne University and 11 second language learners studying Swedish at Malmö University, Sweden. The written data was collected twice over an eight months period, and the oral data was collected once at the end of the language course. Specific syntactic and morphological structures were elicited in both data sets. The results showed that both learner groups developed the target structures as predicted by... (More)
This study investigates grammatical development in foreign and second language learners of Swedish. The hypothesis is that the hierarchy of processability predicted by Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998) guides both written and spoken learner production. The data was collected from 9 foreign language learners studying Swedish at Melbourne University and 11 second language learners studying Swedish at Malmö University, Sweden. The written data was collected twice over an eight months period, and the oral data was collected once at the end of the language course. Specific syntactic and morphological structures were elicited in both data sets. The results showed that both learner groups developed the target structures as predicted by Processability Theory (PT). Most learners performed at the same PT level in writing and speech, but some structures occurred more frequently in writing. The results show that the planning time that is used in writing does not influence grammatical processability (e.g. Swedish subordinate clause word order). However, the lack of contexts for certain structures suggests that monitoring has an influence on language complexity (e.g. subordination). (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Second language acquisition research: theory-construction and testing
editor
Mansouri, Fethi
pages
81 - 94
publisher
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN
1-84718-051-5
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
4d048398-8790-403a-87d4-6d7e667d80ef (old id 536642)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:13:15
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:09:43
@inbook{4d048398-8790-403a-87d4-6d7e667d80ef,
  abstract     = {{This study investigates grammatical development in foreign and second language learners of Swedish. The hypothesis is that the hierarchy of processability predicted by Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998) guides both written and spoken learner production. The data was collected from 9 foreign language learners studying Swedish at Melbourne University and 11 second language learners studying Swedish at Malmö University, Sweden. The written data was collected twice over an eight months period, and the oral data was collected once at the end of the language course. Specific syntactic and morphological structures were elicited in both data sets. The results showed that both learner groups developed the target structures as predicted by Processability Theory (PT). Most learners performed at the same PT level in writing and speech, but some structures occurred more frequently in writing. The results show that the planning time that is used in writing does not influence grammatical processability (e.g. Swedish subordinate clause word order). However, the lack of contexts for certain structures suggests that monitoring has an influence on language complexity (e.g. subordination).}},
  author       = {{Håkansson, Gisela and Norrby, Catrin}},
  booktitle    = {{Second language acquisition research: theory-construction and testing}},
  editor       = {{Mansouri, Fethi}},
  isbn         = {{1-84718-051-5}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{81--94}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge Scholars Publishing}},
  title        = {{Processability Theory applied to written and spoken L2 Swedish}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}