Martha Young-Scholten
Biographic Data
| ID | 743458 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martha Young-Scholten |
| GIVEN NAMES | Martha |
| FAMILY NAME | Young-Scholten |
| SIGNATURE | YOUNG-SCHOLTEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newcastle University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Investigating L2 Phonological Acquisition from Different Perspectives
Building on the existing literature including recent Special Issues, edited volumes, and feature articles on the study of second language (L2) phonetics and phonology (e
(Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language
Research addressing second language (L2) speech is expanding. Studies increasingly demonstrate that a learner’s first language (L1) filters the L2 input, resulting in learners misperceiving what they have heard. This L1 filter can result in learners perceiving sounds not actually present in the input. We report on a study which explored English consonant clusters and short, unstressed vowel perception of 70 Arabic-, Mandarin-, Spanish-speaking fo…
Syntax and Acquisition
Poverty of the Stimulus and Language Acquisition
Mind Matters in SLA
Universal Minimal Structure
This paper addresses the fundamental question of whether (or how) functional projections are acquired during the development of syntax. However, rather than concentrating on the actual acquisition of functional projections, we consider the starting point of syntactic development: if functional projections develop during acquisition, there must be an early stage that can at least occasionally be attested that does not reveal evidence of functional…
Reaching out to the other side
Generative linguistics has long been concerned with the linguistic competence of the “ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly” (Chomsky 1965: 3). Research in formal-linguistics-based second language acquisition takes as its starting point the second language (L2) speaker's underlying mental representation. Here the factors of interest are influence of the learner's native language and…
Low-educated immigrants and the social relevance of second language acquisition research
Since the 1980s’ decoupling of the formal study of second language acquisition from pedagogical concerns, the social relevance of such research has been of little concern. Early studies, in the 1970s, of uninstructed adult learners’ acquisition of morphosyntax pointed to social implications: these working class immigrants had varying levels of schooling, and it turned out that those with the least education made the slowest progress. With a shift…
The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition
What is language and how can we investigate its acquisition by children or adults? What perspectives exist from which to view acquisition? What internal constraints and external factors shape acquisition? What are the properties of interlanguage systems? This comprehensive 31-chapter handbook is an authoritative survey of second language acquisition (SLA). Its multi-perspective synopsis on recent developments in SLA research provides significant …
The straight and narrow path
Preview this article: The straight and narrow path, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.2.3.15vai-1.gif
The Acquisition of German
The Acquisition of German: Introducing Organic Grammar brings together work on the acquisition of German from over four decades of child L1 and immigrant L2 learner studies. The book's major feature is new longitudinal data from three secondary school students who began an exchange year in Germany with no German knowledge and attained fluency. Their naturalistic acquisition process — with a succession of stages described for the first time in L2 …
The roots of syntax and how they grow
Paths of development in L1 and L2 acquisition
Prosodic constraints on allophonic distribution in adult L2 acquisition
Data from three American teenagers acquiring German during an exchange year show uneven acquisition patterns with respect to allophonic variation. Acquisition of [ ç ] / [ x ], as in [ dıç ] dich 'you' and [bax] Bach 'stream', is early, but acquisition of final obstruent devoicing is not acquired at all during the data collection period. In pairs of words exhibiting alternations, such as [ kınt ] ~ [ kındɐ ] Kind / Kinder 'child / children' the f…
The second language segment revisited
Second Language Syntax
Focus on Phonological Acquisition
Gradual development of L2 phrase structure
We begin by reviewing data from Korean, Turkish, Italian and Spanish-speaking adults acquiring German without formal instruction. Our findings have shown that these learners transfer their L1 VPs: the Korean and Turkish speakers transfer a head-final VP and the Italian and Spanish speakers first transfer a head-initial VP and then switch its headedness to the correct, head-final value for German. Although functional projections in Korean and Turk…
The early stages in adult L2 syntax
Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994) propose an analysis of the acquisition of German by adult Korean and Turkish speakers based on the Weak Continuity account of L1 acquisition. They claim that L2 acquisition initially involves a bare VP whose (final) headedness is transferred from the learner's L1, with functional projections evolving entirely on the basis of the interaction of X'- Theory with the input. In this article, we extend this account to…
Direct Access to X’-Theory
On positive evidence and ultimate attainment in L2 phonology
Since the early 1970s, L2 syntax researchers have seriously challenged the applicability of a critical period to the acquisition of L2 syntax, reformulating this challenge in the 1990s in terms of whether postpuberty learners retain access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG). While it seems much more likely that a critical period applies to the postpuberty acquisition of a second phonology, research in the last several deca…
Alltagstexte I
The early stages in adult L2 syntax
Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994) propose an analysis of the acquisition of German by adult Korean and Turkish speakers based on the Weak Continuity account of L1 acquisition. They claim that L2 acquisition initially involves a bare VP whose (final) headedness is transferred from the learner's L1, with functional projections evolving entirely on the basis of the interaction of X'- Theory with the input. In this article, we extend this account to…
Gradual development of L2 phrase structure
We begin by reviewing data from Korean, Turkish, Italian and Spanish-speaking adults acquiring German without formal instruction. Our findings have shown that these learners transfer their L1 VPs: the Korean and Turkish speakers transfer a head-final VP and the Italian and Spanish speakers first transfer a head-initial VP and then switch its headedness to the correct, head-final value for German. Although functional projections in Korean and Turk…
Low-educated immigrants and the social relevance of second language acquisition research
Since the 1980s’ decoupling of the formal study of second language acquisition from pedagogical concerns, the social relevance of such research has been of little concern. Early studies, in the 1970s, of uninstructed adult learners’ acquisition of morphosyntax pointed to social implications: these working class immigrants had varying levels of schooling, and it turned out that those with the least education made the slowest progress. With a shift…
Second Language Syntax
The second language segment revisited
On positive evidence and ultimate attainment in L2 phonology
Since the early 1970s, L2 syntax researchers have seriously challenged the applicability of a critical period to the acquisition of L2 syntax, reformulating this challenge in the 1990s in terms of whether postpuberty learners retain access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG). While it seems much more likely that a critical period applies to the postpuberty acquisition of a second phonology, research in the last several deca…
Alltagstexte I
Direct Access to X’-Theory
On positive evidence and ultimate attainment in L2 phonology
Since the early 1970s, L2 syntax researchers have seriously challenged the applicability of a critical period to the acquisition of L2 syntax, reformulating this challenge in the 1990s in terms of whether postpuberty learners retain access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG). While it seems much more likely that a critical period applies to the postpuberty acquisition of a second phonology, research in the last several deca…
Gradual development of L2 phrase structure
We begin by reviewing data from Korean, Turkish, Italian and Spanish-speaking adults acquiring German without formal instruction. Our findings have shown that these learners transfer their L1 VPs: the Korean and Turkish speakers transfer a head-final VP and the Italian and Spanish speakers first transfer a head-initial VP and then switch its headedness to the correct, head-final value for German. Although functional projections in Korean and Turk…
The early stages in adult L2 syntax
Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994) propose an analysis of the acquisition of German by adult Korean and Turkish speakers based on the Weak Continuity account of L1 acquisition. They claim that L2 acquisition initially involves a bare VP whose (final) headedness is transferred from the learner's L1, with functional projections evolving entirely on the basis of the interaction of X'- Theory with the input. In this article, we extend this account to…
Focus on Phonological Acquisition
The second language segment revisited
Second Language Syntax
Prosodic constraints on allophonic distribution in adult L2 acquisition
Data from three American teenagers acquiring German during an exchange year show uneven acquisition patterns with respect to allophonic variation. Acquisition of [ ç ] / [ x ], as in [ dıç ] dich 'you' and [bax] Bach 'stream', is early, but acquisition of final obstruent devoicing is not acquired at all during the data collection period. In pairs of words exhibiting alternations, such as [ kınt ] ~ [ kındɐ ] Kind / Kinder 'child / children' the f…
Paths of development in L1 and L2 acquisition
The roots of syntax and how they grow
The Acquisition of German
The Acquisition of German: Introducing Organic Grammar brings together work on the acquisition of German from over four decades of child L1 and immigrant L2 learner studies. The book's major feature is new longitudinal data from three secondary school students who began an exchange year in Germany with no German knowledge and attained fluency. Their naturalistic acquisition process — with a succession of stages described for the first time in L2 …
The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition
What is language and how can we investigate its acquisition by children or adults? What perspectives exist from which to view acquisition? What internal constraints and external factors shape acquisition? What are the properties of interlanguage systems? This comprehensive 31-chapter handbook is an authoritative survey of second language acquisition (SLA). Its multi-perspective synopsis on recent developments in SLA research provides significant …
The straight and narrow path
Preview this article: The straight and narrow path, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.2.3.15vai-1.gif
Universal Minimal Structure
This paper addresses the fundamental question of whether (or how) functional projections are acquired during the development of syntax. However, rather than concentrating on the actual acquisition of functional projections, we consider the starting point of syntactic development: if functional projections develop during acquisition, there must be an early stage that can at least occasionally be attested that does not reveal evidence of functional…
Reaching out to the other side
Generative linguistics has long been concerned with the linguistic competence of the “ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly” (Chomsky 1965: 3). Research in formal-linguistics-based second language acquisition takes as its starting point the second language (L2) speaker's underlying mental representation. Here the factors of interest are influence of the learner's native language and…
Low-educated immigrants and the social relevance of second language acquisition research
Since the 1980s’ decoupling of the formal study of second language acquisition from pedagogical concerns, the social relevance of such research has been of little concern. Early studies, in the 1970s, of uninstructed adult learners’ acquisition of morphosyntax pointed to social implications: these working class immigrants had varying levels of schooling, and it turned out that those with the least education made the slowest progress. With a shift…
Syntax and Acquisition
Poverty of the Stimulus and Language Acquisition
Mind Matters in SLA
(Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language
Research addressing second language (L2) speech is expanding. Studies increasingly demonstrate that a learner’s first language (L1) filters the L2 input, resulting in learners misperceiving what they have heard. This L1 filter can result in learners perceiving sounds not actually present in the input. We report on a study which explored English consonant clusters and short, unstressed vowel perception of 70 Arabic-, Mandarin-, Spanish-speaking fo…
Investigating L2 Phonological Acquisition from Different Perspectives
Building on the existing literature including recent Special Issues, edited volumes, and feature articles on the study of second language (L2) phonetics and phonology (e
Computer Science (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (10 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (7 works) · Second-language acquisition (6 works) · Syntax (6 works) · Cognitive science (5 works) · Language Development and Disorders (5 works)