Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:52:01.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Between the input and the acquisition lies the shadow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2004

MICHAEL HARRINGTON
Affiliation:
Linguistics, School of English, The University of Queensland, Michie Bldg Level 4, Brisbane 4072, Queensland, Australia E-mail: mwharr@uq.edu.au

Extract

Acquisition by Processing Theory (APT) is a unified account of language processing and learning that encompasses both L1 and L2 acquisition. Bold in aim and broad in scope, the proposal offers parsimony and comprehensiveness, both highly desirable in a theory of language acquisition. However, the sweep of the proposal is accompanied by an economy of description that makes it difficult to evaluate the validity of key learning claims, or even how literally they are to be interpreted. Two in particular deserve comment; the first concerns the learning mechanisms responsible for adding new L2 grammatical information, and the second the theoretical and empirical status of the activation concept used in the model.

Type
Peer Commentaries
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)