Generative approaches to Spanish second language acquisition

Rothman, Jason and Cabo, Diego Pascual Y. (2013) Generative approaches to Spanish second language acquisition. In: The Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisition :. Wiley, pp. 46-63. ISBN 9780470674437

Abstract

This chapter introduces the reader to the generative study of Spanish as a second language (L2) in adulthood, or Spanish GSLA. It begins with an explanation of the basic tenets of Universal Grammar (UG), both as a construct - the hypothesized biological domain-specific language faculty - and as a theory of mental linguistic representation, computation, and acquisition. From there, the focus is to present how a UG approach has been applied to the acquisition of Spanish as a L2 in adulthood for the past three decades. The chapter reviews current state of Spanish GSLA research, highlighting the contributions it has made and tries to make in the future toward answering these and other questions. The chapter also introduces the basic tenets of the Minimalist Program, since a rudimentary understanding of its proposals for linguistic mental representation is needed to fully understand the most contemporary Spanish GSLA research.