Under the Universal Grammar (UG) framework, this book discusses the latest research on the role of L1 bidialectism in L2 acquisition, with a particular focus on early Chinese(L1)-English(L2) learners. Responding to the long-standing concern of whether L2 learners have access to UG in the target language, it provides evidence of the positive role of L1 multidialectism in L2 learning and confirms the role of UG in L2 acquisition. This book is essential reading for postgraduates and researchers in language education, linguistics, applied linguistics, speech-language pathology and psychology. The clarification of Chinese as L1 is also of interest to language educators in multilingual contexts.

Explores L1 bidialectism at the initial stage of L2 acquisition Confirms the role of UG in second language acquisition Provides a better understanding of Chinese as the L1

Autorentext

Dr Weifeng Han currently lectures on linguistics and phonetics in speech pathology at Flinders University in South Australia. His teaching and research interests encompass what and how linguistics may contribute to what SLPs need for practice in multilingual and multicultural contexts. He is currently working on a series of projects investigating how the ability to use multiple dialects in the first language may affect the learning of English as a second language among Chinese child learners, and how this will have implications for speech and language diagnosis and assessment. He is an expert on the application of mixed methods in data analysis and discussion.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition.- 3 Cross-Linguistic Transfer and Second Language Learnability.- 4 Syntax-Semantics Interface and the Form-Meaning Mismatch Between L1 and L2.- 5 Chinese as the L1 in L2 Learning.- 6 Chinese Multidialectal Child Learners' Acquisition of English at the Syntax-Semantics Interface.- 7 Conclusion.