Department of French and Italian

In this course, we inquire into the structure of the knowledge acquired in second language (L2) acquisition of French. We consider issues in clause structure, verbal paradigm, sentence interpretation, gender acquisition, noun phrase structure and phonology. Topics include the initial state of L2 acquisition, inherent constraints on L2 acquisition and learnability. We consider the role of (types of) input as well as inductive and deductive mechanisms in acquisition. We also consider issues in the empirical investigation of L2 acquisition. This course is designed as a guided round table discussion of articles with supportive short lectures.