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Cited by 158Second Language Acquisition and LearningEFL/ESL Teaching and LearningLanguage Development and Disorders

Some input on the easy/difficult grammar question: An empirical study

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COLLINS, LAURA, TROFIMOVICH, PAVEL, WHITE, JOANNA, CARDOSO, WALCIR, HORST, MARLISE·2009·The Modern Language Journal
DOI 10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00894.x
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether it is possible to distinguish between “difficult” and “easy” constructions for second language (L2) learners by examining characteristics of the structures as they occur in aural input. In a multidimensional analysis of 3 English structures with different acquisition profiles—the simple past, possessive determiners his/her , and the progressive aspect—we examined the phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexicosemantic characteristics of the forms as they occurred in a 110,000‐word corpus of instructional talk to L2 learners. We analyzed the type/token distributions of the forms, their lexical properties, and their perceptual salience. Our findings revealed key input factors that distinguished between the early‐acquired progressive, on the one hand, and the later‐acquired past and his/her determiners, on the other hand. These results lend support to theoretical accounts of the input–acquisition relationship and also generate hypotheses for manipulating instructional input to increase the salience of opaque constructions.

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  • Collins et al.'s (2009) corpus study found that more difficult-to-acquire structures were not necessarily salient in the classroom input, implying that infrequent input may partially explain why learners struggle with those features.

    “The researchers compared different grammatical structures (the simple past tense, the progressive, and the possessive determiners) and discovered that more difficult-to-acquire structures were not necessarily salient in the classroom input, implying that infrequent input may partially explain why learners struggle with those features.”

    From Interaction and instructed second language acquisition (2018) · cites this paper as Collins et al. 2009

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Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. [26]26. de Lacy, P. (2006). Markedness: Reduction and preservation in phonology. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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  3. [57]57. Klein, W., & Perdue C. (1993). Utterance structure. In C. Perdue (Ed.), Adult language acquisition: Cross- linguistic perspectives: Vol. II. The results (pp. 3-40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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  8. [88]88. Slobin, D. (Ed.). (1985). The cross-linguistic study of lan- guage acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  9. [89]89. Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (in press). Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. Language Learning.
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  12. [98]98. White, J., Collins, L., Trofimovich, P., Cardoso, W., & Horst, M. (2007). When positive evidence isn't ev- ident: A multidimensional analysis of possessive de- terminers in classroom input. Paper presented at the Sixth international symposium on bilingual- ism, Hamburg, Germany.
  13. [103]103. Winters, S. (2000). Turning phonology inside out, or testing the relative salience of audio and vi- sual cues for place of articulation. In A. Miller- Ockhuizen, R. Levine, & A. J. Gonsalves (Eds.), Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, 53, 168-199.

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Authors
COLLINS, L., TROFIMOVICH, P., WHITE, J., CARDOSO, W., & HORST, M.
Affiliations
Concordia University (CA)
Corresponding author
  • COLLINS, LAURA
  • TROFIMOVICH, PAVEL
  • WHITE, JOANNA
  • CARDOSO, WALCIR
  • HORST, MARLISE
ORCID
Venue
The Modern Language Journal
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2009-08-03
Volume
93
Issue
3
Pages
336-353
ISSN
  • 0026-7902 (ISSN-L)
  • 1540-4781
DOI
10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00894.x
OpenAlex
W2049167996
Semantic Scholar
c4c4e8816f7d772caca055756c5d57fd9f453dab
Cited by
158
References
109
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 48 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 7
FWCI
12.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
Modern Language Journal (publishedVersion)
Funders
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
Keywords
second language acquisition, morphosyntactic complexity, simple past tense, progressive aspect, lexical features, English as a second language

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