La comparaison des enfants qui acquièrent une langue seconde (L2) à des enfants avec trouble spécifique du langage (TSL) a montré des similarités entre les performances morphosyntaxiques des deux groupes. Cette étude vise à mieux comprendre l’acquisition L2 enfantine typique afin de permettre l’identification d’un TSL chez les enfants L2. Une étude longitudinale de taux de propositions enchâssées et d’erreurs ont été a été faite à partir d’échantillons de langage spontané en français de 22 enfants anglophones âgés de 6;9-12;7 et de 19 enfants monolingues francophones avec TSL âgés de 6;5 à 12;11. Les résultats révèlent que les L2 font plus d’enchâssées que les enfants avec SLI, mais les deux groupes ont eu des taux d’erreurs comparables. La discussion porte sur l’implication de ces résultats sur l’identification des TSL chez les enfants L2. / Research on children acquiring a second language (L2 children) and children with SLI has revealed similarities in their morphosyntactic performance. This study seeks to better understand how children acquire an L2 in order to distinguish typical from atypical L2 acquisition. A longitudinal study of clausal embedding and error rates was made based on spontaneous language samples of 22 English-speaking children (aged 6;9-12;7) acquiring French as an L2 and 19 monolingual French-speaking children with SLI (aged 6;5-12;11). The results revealed that L2 children used clausal embedding more often than the children with SLI, but the SLI and L2 had similar error rates. Analyses of the frequency of embedding and errors revealed correlations that were positive in the L2 group and negative in the SLI. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the identification of SLI in L2 children.

This dissertation consists of two studies, which respectively investigate L2 Chinese learners' acquisition of simple wh-questions of different grammatical functions longitudinally over their first-year learning and their acquisition of indirect questions and wh-questions in complements at the end of their first year. The participants consisted of 21 first-year English-speaking learners of Chinese. Both grammaticality judgment (GJ) and oral production (OP) tests were used. Study 1 reports that only attributive wh-questions posed more difficulty to the participants than object wh-questions in OP test at the beginning stage, and adverbial wh-questions and object wh-questions were not found to be significantly different to the participants as reported in some L1 and L2 studies. This author attributed this to the different syntactic mechanism that L2 learners of movement language and learners of in-situ language go through. The initial stage of participants' grammar did not display a clear presence of [+wh] feature strength, and the development of the [-wh] feature strength in learners' L2 grammar was not linear, but U-shaped. Study 2 reveals that learners' performance on indirect questions and wh-questions in object complements was not as good as their performance on simple wh-questions at the end of first year learning. For indirect questions, the initial stage of participants' L2 grammar showed an obvious L1 influence, the embedded [+wh]. For wh-questions in complements, it did not show an L1 influence, the matrix [+wh], but an embedded [+wh], which is non-target like but resembles wide-scope wh-questions with an embedded [+wh] in Malay and Madurese. Learners' performance on simple wh-questions patterned together with that in matrix clauses of wh-questions in complements, which was better than their performance on embedded clauses of the two types of complex wh-questions. Evidence for connection between their performance on simple wh-questions and matrix clauses of wh-questions in complements regarding the grammatical feature that wh-words are not allowed in clause initial position was revealed, but there was no strong evidence for connection between their performance on embedded clauses of the two types of complex wh-questions. It suggests that learners might be using different strategies for acquisition of structures of different natures.

La presente tesis tiene por objetivo identificar para la enseñanza del español una serie de características prosódicas que son comunicativamente importantes. El trabajo también se propone poner de relieve el papel central de la prosodia en la comunicación, así como la necesidad de incorporar esta destreza en las competencias comunicativas de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. La tesis integra una colección de cinco estudios, tres de los cuales realizados con un enfoque empírico experimental y dedicados a los temas siguientes: (a) las diferencias en la realización de prominencia prosódica por parte de hablantes de español L2 y español L1 (Estudio I), (b) la transferencia de estrategias pragmáticas del sueco L1 al español L2, manifestada en la realización de los tonos de frontera ascendentes (Estudio II), y (c) la contribución de rasgos prosódicos al acento extranjero percibido en hablantes suecos de español L2 con especial atención al rol desempeñado por los tonos de frontera ascendentes y sus correspondientes valores pragmáticos (Estudio III). El objetivo de estos tres estudios es, por un lado, identificar cuáles son las características prosódicas más importantes para conseguir una interacción exitosa en la L2 y, por el otro, investigar en qué medida estas características han sido adquiridas por los aprendientes investigados. Estudio IV resalta que, a pesar del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza LE, se abordan los aspectos suprasegmentales en el currículo sueco así como en los cinco libros de enseñanza E/LE analizados como una competencia aislada que no está integrada en la competencia comunicativa. El Estudio V, al combinar los resultados de los Estudios I-III con los de otros estudios temáticamente relevantes, busca identificar unas características principales, unos Core Prosodic Features, para la enseñanza de la prosodia española a los aprendientes suecos. El estudio recomienda un enfoque basado en la atención a la forma para la enseñanza de estas características en contextos interaccionales. / This thesis sets out to identify a series of communicatively important prosodic features for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish context. The present work also aims to highlight both the central role played by prosody in communication and the need for this skill to be integrated in the communicative competences of second language teaching and learning. The thesis comprises a collection of five studies, three of which use an experimental approach to investigate the following: (a) differences in the realization of prosodic prominence by L2 and L1 speakers of Spanish (Study I); (b) the transfer of pragmatic strategies from L1 Swedish to L2 Spanish, manifested in the realization of rising boundary tones (Study II); and (c) the contribution of the type of L2 prosody displayed by Swedish learners to a percieved foreign accent, focusing, focusing especially on the role played by rising boundary tones and their pragmatic values  (Study III). These initial studies describe some of the main prosodic characteristics of the L2 product as compared to Spanish L1, and identify prosodic features of Spanish L1 that are of importance to acquire for interactional success in the L2. Study IV highlights the fact that, despite the emphasis on a communicative approach in L2 teaching, the approach to the teaching of prosody in the Swedish curriculum and the L2 Spanish text books studied tends to be addressed as a separate skill, that is not integrated in the descriptions of the communicative competences. Study V, by combining the results of Studies I-III with those of other thematically relevant studies, proposes some main features, so-called Core Prosodic Features (CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedish learners. The identification of the CPFs also enables a future evaluation of the form-focused teaching approach suggested.

Bilinguals have been posited to have, compared to monolinguals, enhanced cognitive control, consequently exhibiting greater cognitive reserve, which is thought to subsequently delay the onset of clinical expression of dementia. Based on recent evidence suggesting that the more languages one manages the greater cognitive reserve, and that trilinguals undergo greater exercise in language control than bilinguals, this thesis investigated the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control, in young adults to older adults. As the thesis investigated the novel field of trilingualism and cognitive control, task complexity, the age of second and third language acquisition, language use, and physical and cognitive activity were also, importantly, assessed, as these are possible influencing factors in test performance. The participants completed several cognitive tasks; namely the Simon task, the Inhibition of return task, the Stroop task (inhibition) and the N-back task (working memory). The novel discovery of a trilingual (and bilingual) disadvantage was observed, which could explain some previous inconsistent findings in the bilingualism literature, where trilingualism may influence bilinguals’ test performance, as trilinguals and multilinguals are often mixed in with the bilingual group. Furthermore, the results suggest that second language acquisition and language use does not consistently predict performance in trilinguals (and bilinguals), nor does cognitive activity, although physical activity may modulate language group differences. Importantly, the results from this novel investigation of the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control suggest that trilingualism (and bilingualism) can, in some cases, be detrimental to cognitive control.

Previous research done in sociophonetic variation of second language speakers has often looked at constraints of formality affecting degree of foreign accent and how this degree of formality can have effects on what speaking styles speakers choose to employ. Furthermore, other social constraints of convergence and divergence of speech affect speaker speaking style. However, no known previous research has examined interdental fricative /θ ð/ substitution based on each speaker's interlocutor. This study explores second language speakers' English interdental fricative substitution sounds in terms of sociophonetic variation of formality and speaker interlocutor(s). Five native language pairs of Arabic, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese origin were part of the study, comprising ten participants in total. The study finds age of English onset, as verified by the literature, to be the most determining factor for accurate articulation of these marked fricatives. However, other constraints for substitution choice are at hand including phonological limitations and estimated linguistic experience based on demographic information given by survey participants. The primary aim of the study is to associate some of the interdental fricative substitutions with a social variable. Data for the study include recordings of each participant reading a poem by him/herself, a dialogue with the other same native language participant, and a dialogue with a native speaker of American English. The data analysis examined the replacement sounds in terms of native language background, linguistic experience variables, and phonological constraints. In addition, quantities and ratios of specific replacement sounds for each participant per recording and per native language pair were compared and contrasted to find if speech accommodation theory (SAT), as proposed by Giles et al. (1991), played a role in any of the participants' choices for substitution. The study finds both convergence and divergence of interdental fricative substitutions to be characteristic of speakers with less linguistic experience in English. An additional stronger finding is that most participants' most common sound substitutions for the voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives were independent in place and manner, the voiced most commonly replaced by dental and alveolar plosives [ḏ d] and the voiceless most commonly replaced by labiodental fricative [f], which could be an indication of each fricative's acoustic and phonemic representation in each non-native speaker's phonological component, supported by findings of Brannen (2002). Some literature suggests that varying values of [continuant] in speakers' native languages are the means by which speakers choose the replacement sounds they do. However, such an explanation cannot be the only valid one when inherent variability comes into play and different places and manners of articulation are chosen for both interdental fricatives.

Esta Tese situa-se na área de Semiótica e Lingüística Geral do Departamento de Lingüística da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo. Tem por tema os processos semióticos da construção do sentido no ensino-aprendizagem da Língua Inglesa (L2) com vistas à interação educador-educando. Está fundamentada nos pressupostos teóricos da Semiótica Discursiva Greimasiana (1979), complementados por alguns aspectos da Psicanálise Lacaniana (1966), incluindo a teoria da comunicação de Jakobson (1969). A hipótese que orienta o estudo realizado considera que o discurso pedagógico viabiliza um modo de aplicação metodológico adequado às necessidades do educando adulto, bem como um olhar sensível às dificuldades encontradas, por ele, em seu processo de aquisição de uma língua estrangeira. Assim, tanto um quanto outro constroem percursos possíveis para chegarmos ao objeto de valor (Ov) dos sujeitos envolvidos nesse processo, em especial, o educando. O corpus desta pesquisa é constituído pela parte teórica, que sustenta a argumentação desta Tese, e pela parte observacional, que se refere à análise dos problemas do educando no processo de aquisição da L2. O procedimento metodológico adotado foi teórico-analítico e descritivo durante o processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Os passos seguidos, para esse procedimento, basearamse no modelo lingüístico-pedagógico, proposto pela pesquisadora: 1ª etapa - entrevista (needs analysis), testes oral e escrito; 2ª etapa - revisão dos conteúdos lingüísticos e exercícios escritos e orais; e 3ª etapa - desenvolvimento e aprofundamento dos conteúdos lingüísticos. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é contribuir para uma postura diferenciada na relação que se estabelece entre educador e educando, e os objetivos específicos são: 1) identificar sistemas de significação verbais, não verbais e sincréticos e verificar como se dá, nesses sistemas e no processo de enunciação, a conversão dos modelos mentais, em estruturas semióticas e sua manifestação em discurso; 2) buscar as possibilidades de aplicação desses processos ao ensino de língua inglesa para falantes do português como língua materna; e 3) examinar em que medida os modelos mentais e os processos de semiotização desses modelos podem ser transpostos para outra semiótica-objeto, em fase de aquisição de competência pelo mesmo sujeito. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que a hipótese foi adequada e os objetivos atingidos, satisfatoriamente. Além disso, os resultados provaram que o mal-estar do educando, advindo de um processo falho na interação entre educador e educando, na transmissão de um saber lingüístico, pode ser superado não só por um olhar sensível, mas também pela instauração de um processo de ensino-aprendizagem eficaz e adequado às necessidades do educando adulto. / This Thesis is set in the field of Semiotics and General Linguistics of the Department of Linguistics of Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo [School of Philosophy, Arts and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo]. Its theme is the semiotical processes of the construction of meaning in the \"teaching-learning\" of English Language (L2) aiming at the \"teacher-learner\" interaction. It is based on the theoretical premises of Greimasian Discursive Semiotics (1979), supplemented by some aspects of the Lacanian Psychoanalysis (1966), including the communication theory of Jakobson (1969). The hypothesis that guides the accomplished studies considers that the pedagogical discourse enables a methodological way of application appropriated to the needs of the adult learner, as well as a sensitive look at the difficulties found by him/her in his/her acquisition process of a foreign language. Therefore, both teacher and learner create possible paths for us to get to the object of value (Ov) of the individuals involved in this process, especially the learner. The corpus of this research is constituted by the theoretical part, that supports the argumentation of this Thesis, and by the observational part, that refers to the analysis of the learner\'s problems, in the L2 acquisition process. The adopted methodological procedure was a theoretical analytical and descriptive one, during the process of \"teaching-learning\". The steps followed for this procedure were based on the linguistic pedagogical model proposed by the researcher: 1st stage - interview (needs analysis), oral and written tests; 2nd stage - review of the linguistic contents and oral and written exercises; and 3rd stage - development and profound study of the linguistic contents. The main purpose of this project is to contribute to a different attitude in the relationship established between the teacher and the learner, and the specific purposes are: 1) to identify verbal, non-verbal and syncretic meaning systems and to verify how, in these systems and in the enunciation process, the conversion of mind models into semiotic structures and its manifestation into discourse happen; 2) to seek the possibilities of applying these processes to the teaching of English language for the speakers of Portuguese as the mother tongue; and 3) to study to what extent the mind models and the semiotization processes of such models can be transposed to another semiotic object, in the competence acquisition phase by the same individual. The results obtained showed that the hypothesis was appropriate and the purposes were satisfactorily reached. In addition, the results proved that the learner uneasiness, arising from an ineffective process of the interaction between the teacher and the learner in the transmission of the linguistic knowledge, can be overcome not only by a sensitive look, but also by the establishment of a \"teaching-learning\" process that is effective and appropriate to the needs of an adult learner.

The general aim of this study is to investigate the similarities and differences in knowledge and processing of Japanese passive constructions by heritage speakers and second language (L2) learners of Japanese. These groups acquire language differently in terms of age and context/manner of acquisition, and comparing their linguistic behaviour allows us to examine whether heritage speakers have an advantage over L2 learners due to their early exposure and natural context of input. In order to examine this issue, the linguistic knowledge of Japanese passives and the way in which they are processed were compared between the two populations. I tested the two different types of passives that are available in Japanese: the type that involves the syntax-semantics-discourse interface (indirect passive and ni-direct passive), and the one that does not involve that interface (niyotte passive). It has been found that advanced heritage speakers and L2 learners have difficulties with structures involving different structural levels, especially structures at the interface with discourse (Laleko & Polinsky, 2013; Montrul & Polinsky, 2011, among many others), as the interfaces involving an external cognitive domain (e.g., syntax-discourse) require more processing resources than linguistic internal interfaces (e.g., syntax-semantics) (Sorace, 2011). While such representational and processing difficulties have been reported for several languages, previous studies on the acquisition of Japanese passives by both L1 and L2 learners have found the opposite: namylt, that the niyotte passive, which does not involve an external interface, being acquired later than the other two passives, which are discourse dependent (Harada & Fukuda 1998 for L1; Hara 2002 for L2). These results may be attributed to syntax derivation or frequency of use. The niyotte passive is considered to be derived by movement, while the other two are said to be base-generated. Thus, both the complexity of the syntactic derivation and the fact that usage of niyotte passive is usually limited to formal speech or written texts may delay acquisition. Examining the acquisition and processing of Japanese passives allows us to analyse the factors that play a crucial role in determining the difficulty of acquisition. In order to investigate these factors, I used two experimental tasks, an acceptability judgment task (AJT) and a self-paced listening task (SPL). The former investigated heritage speakers’ and Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners’ knowledge of each type of Japanese passives. The latter allowed us to test whether there are any differences in the processing of the two types of passives; specifically, whether the passives with an external interface are more difficult for L2 learners and heritage speakers to process. A control group of native speakers and a group of first generation immigrants to Canada were also tested to compare their results to those of the two experimental groups, allowing us to investigate whether heritage speakers have knowledge and processing patterns similar to those of the control group due to their early language exposure to the language and contextualized input. The results of the AJT showed that each experimental group displayed a stronger knowledge of different aspects of Japanese passives. While the heritage speakers recognised the pragmatic features of the ni-direct passive, the JFL learners did not. In contrast, the JFL learners showed syntactic and semantic knowledge of the indirect passive, unlike the heritage speakers. These contrastive results indicate that different manners of input lead to different acquisition outcomes. Furthermore, neither group demonstrated knowledge of the low frequency niyotte passive, and thus input frequency, rather than the discourse-related interface, appear to be more critical for the acquisition of Japanese passives. With respect to the SPL, the speakers’ performance was native-like in the case of the heritage speakers but non-native with the JFL learners, indicating that early age of exposure has an effect on language processing. Taken together, the results from the both tasks showcase the importance of both implicit and explicit manner of input, especially in the case of low frequency structures, as well as the early age of acquisition of a language.

Studies relating to Electronic Games (EG) and the development of language acquisition for ESL learners have shown remarkable results. A Swedish study researching vocabulary proficiency reported that “frequent gamers had a higher total mean score than the moderate gamers, and in turn the moderate gamers had a higher score than the non-gamers” (Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2012, p. 313). Regarding oral proficiency, willingness to communicate and language strategies Horowitz (2019) illustrates that verbal linguistic competence increases concurrently with extended periods of exposure to EG. Games and grades in English similarly seem to have some overlap (Sundqvist & Sylvèn, 2012; Uuskoski, 2011). “Massively multiplayer online games, role-playing games, strategy games and shooter games also had noticeable statistically significant correlations with good grades” (Uuskoski, 2011, p. 43). The adage of the more you use it, the better you become seems to have further implications when the use of EG seems to not only increase the average grades, vocabulary, and oral skills in addition to possibly increasing the motivation of EFL students. However, a vital aspect that has often been overlooked in other studies is how students and users of EG perceive their own language learning and what implications this entails for learners of English. This study consists of the attitudinal values of 50 adolescent students in an International School in Stockholm towards L2 language skills and language motivation through EG. In order to measure the study a quantitative analysis was conducted based on answers from a questionnaire. The results showed that a majority of the students had positive attitudes towards the use of Electronic Games (EG) and increasing their English proficiency. It was additionally discovered that both receptive and productive skills when playing were considered useful with significant differences between girl and boy gamers. In regards to EG and student motivation to learn more in school by playing EG a majority however found EG to not give any major contributions. Furthermore, students believed they learned the most English at school although EG and other sources had some importance.

This study aims to explore the potential benefits and disadvantages of utilizing video game narratives in Swedish EFL teaching. The subject is approached through a qualitative literature review of previous research on the use of video games in the process of L2 acquisition. The results are then discussed from a sociocultural perspective, in relation to the frameworks introduced in the background and to the Swedish steering documents. The results indicate that video games are likely to be part of many students’ out-of-school experiences of the English language and that playing video games can be seen as an example of extramural language learning. The results also highlight how engaging in multiplayer video game narratives can aid L2 acquisition by for example increasing motivation, expanding learner vocabulary and by providing learners with strategies for discourse management such as politeness, humor and small talk. The collaborative and interactive nature of the video game narrative and of video game communities is also shown to align well with the Swedish steering documents that promote social interaction and the development of communicative competence. However, direct classroom implementation of video games is problematized by the fact that not all students have previous experience or tools for interacting with the video game format of storytelling and that gender discrepancies in video game consumption could lead to boys benefiting more than girls from language learning through video game narratives.

Bilinguals have been posited to have, compared to monolinguals, enhanced cognitive control, consequently exhibiting greater cognitive reserve, which is thought to subsequently delay the onset of clinical expression of dementia. Based on recent evidence suggesting that the more languages one manages the greater cognitive reserve, and that trilinguals undergo greater exercise in language control than bilinguals, this thesis investigated the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control, in young adults to older adults. As the thesis investigated the novel field of trilingualism and cognitive control, task complexity, the age of second and third language acquisition, language use, and physical and cognitive activity were also, importantly, assessed, as these are possible influencing factors in test performance. The participants completed several cognitive tasks; namely the Simon task, the Inhibition of return task, the Stroop task (inhibition) and the N-back task (working memory). The novel discovery of a trilingual (and bilingual) disadvantage was observed, which could explain some previous inconsistent findings in the bilingualism literature, where trilingualism may influence bilinguals’ test performance, as trilinguals and multilinguals are often mixed in with the bilingual group. Furthermore, the results suggest that second language acquisition and language use does not consistently predict performance in trilinguals (and bilinguals), nor does cognitive activity, although physical activity may modulate language group differences. Importantly, the results from this novel investigation of the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control suggest that trilingualism (and bilingualism) can, in some cases, be detrimental to cognitive control.