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Accounting for interlanguage subject pronouns

Michigan State University

Usha Lakshmanan

Southern Illinois University

In this paper we reopen the controversy surrounding subject pronoun usage in the English of non-native speakers. Much recent research has attempted to account for non-native pronoun usage through Universal Grammar-based explanations. In this paper, we argue that in considering the issue of subject pronouns, one must take into account the input to the learner. Specifically, we examine transcripts of the English of two native speakers of Spanish (one adult and one child) and show that the pattern of learner-language subject pronoun use closely parallels native speaker use. We closely examine the input provided to these learners and show how learners can be led to believe that their incorrect learner-language forms are correct. Our data suggest that considering princi ples of Universal Grammar devoid of context is insufficient and often mis leading in accounting for how L2 grammars develop.

Second Language Research, Vol. 7, No. 3, 181-203 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/026765839100700301


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