hypotheses about the accessibility of universal grammar insecond language acquisition

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1、HypothesesAbouttheAccessibilityofUniversalGrammarinSecondLanguageAcquisition　　【Abstract】ThequestionofwhethersecondlanguagelearnershaveaccesstoUniversalGrammarhasbeenanimportanttopicamongthosewhoareinterestedinSecondLanguageAcquisition（SLA）.Asfortheaccessibi

2、lityofUniversalGrammarinSLA，opinionsdiverge.ThispaperlistsfourhypothesesabouttheroleUniversalGrammarplaysinSLAandmakesacomparisonoftheseviews.　　【Keywords】UniversalGrammar；SecondLanguageAcquisition；accessibility　　1.Introduction　　AccordingtoNoamChomsky，theabi

3、lityofacquiringone’smothertongueisattributedtotheinherentpropertiesofthemind：UniversalGrammar（UG）.ButhowwouldUGperformwhenoneisacquiringasecondlanguage？　　2.UniversalGrammar　　Chomskydefines“UniversalGrammar”as“thesystemofprinciples，conditions，andrulesthatare

4、elementsorpropertiesofallhumanlanguage...theessenceofhumanlanguage”（qtd.inCook，2000：2）.　　AccordingtoChomsky，whateverlanguageisbeingspoken，UGisthecommonpossessionofhumanbeings.Chomskyinfersthathumanbeingsareinnatelyendowedwithuniversallanguage.Thisexplainswh

5、yallchildrenlearnlanguageatatimewhentheyhavedifficultygraspingotherkindsofknowledge，andwhyitispossibleforintellectuallyimpairedchildrentoacquirethelanguagearoundthem.　　3.TheRoleofUniversalGrammarinSecondLanguageAcquisition　　Chomsky’stheoryofUGwasofferedasan

6、explanationforfirstlanguage（L1）acquisition，butwhetherUGcanalsoexplainSLAisstillunderdebate.　　SLAresearchfocuseson“thedevelopingknowledgeanduseofalanguagebychildrenandadultswhoalreadyknowatleastoneotherlanguage”（Norbert，2009：115）.　　Atpresent，controversyabout

7、theroleofUGinSLAisfarfromsettled.LinguistsargueforandagainsttheaccessibilityofUGinSLA.VivianCook（2000：291-297）groupsthesevariousopinionsintothreemajorhypotheses.　　3.1DirectAccessHypothesis　　Secondlanguage（L2）learnersmay“employtheprinciplesofUGandsettheparam

8、eterswithoutanyreferencetotheirL1values”and“L2speakershaveparallelcompetencesinL1andL2”（Cook，2000：292）.ThishypothesisacceptsthatUGisaccessibleentirelytoL2learners；L1andL2acquisitionareguidedbythesamela