Language Processing and Second Language Development

This book marks a new development in the field of second language acquisition research. It explores the way in which language processing mechanisms shape the course of language development. <i>Language Processing and Second Language Development</i> thus adds one major psychological component to the search for a theory of second language acquisition. <br />The core of the book is Pienemann&#8217;s Processability Theory which spells out which second language forms are processable at which developmental stage. The theory is based on recent research into language processing and is formalised within Lexical-Functional Grammar. <br />The predictions of the theory are applied to the second language development of English, German, Japanese and Swedish. The theory is also tested in on-line experiments. In addition, Processability Theory has major implications for interlanguage variation (including task variation) and age-related differences in language acquisition. All of these issues are explored from a processing perspective with theoretical and empirical rigor.