David Birdsong

University of Texas at Austin | UT · French and Italian

Bilingualism and the study of speech sounds are two of the largest areas of inquiry in linguistics. This Handbook sits at the intersection of these fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the most recent, cutting-edge work on the sound systems of adult and child bilinguals. Bringing together contributions from an international team of world-l...

Binomial expressions (e.g., hocus-pocus; dribs and drabs) are irreversible sequences of two types: reduplicative binomials (e.g., pitter-patter) and conjoined binomials (e.g., wheeling and dealing). Both types exhibit similar phonological features such as rhyme, alliteration and ablaut alternation. The present study investigates English and French...

Comparisons between the communication systems of humans and animals are instrumental in contextualizing speech and language into an evolutionary and biological framework and for illuminating mechanisms of human communication. As a complement to previous work that compares developmental vocal learning and use among humans and songbirds, in this arti...

Ultimate attainment is typically more heterogeneous among second-language (L2) learners than among native speakers (e.g. Bley-Vroman, 1990 ). The present study offers a suite of simple analytical procedures aimed at exploring types and loci of variability in L2 attainment vis-à-vis those in the corresponding first language (L1), with special attent...

Much of what is known about the outcome of second language acquisition and bilingualism can be summarized in terms of inter-individual variability, plasticity and age. The present review looks at variability and plasticity with respect to their underlying sources, and at age as a modulating factor in variability and plasticity. In this context we c...

This commentary on Mayberry and Kluender (2017) considers the geometry of the function relating Age of Acquisition (AoA) to L2 attainment, the effects of multilingual exposure on one's native language(s) and, briefly, the role of education in language learning.

A critical period is a bounded maturational span during which experiential factors interact with biological mechanisms to determine neurocognitive and behavioral outcomes. In humans, the construct of critical period (CP) is commonly applied to first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) development. Some language researchers hold that during a CP,...

With contributions from leading scholars of bilingualism, Language Dominance in Bilinguals is the first publication to survey different approaches to language dominance, along with suggested avenues for further research. It illustrates how a critical approach to the notion of language dominance, as well as its operationalisation and measurement, ca...

The present contribution represents an extension of David Singleton’s (2005) IRAL chapter, “The Critical Period Hypothesis: A coat of many colours”. I suggest that the CPH in its application to L2 acquisition could benefit from methodological and theoretical tailoring with respect to: the shape of the function that relates age of acquisition to pro...

The present article examines the relationship between age and dominance in bilingual populations. Age in bilingualism is understood as the point in development at which second language (L2) acquisition begins and as the chronological age of users of two languages. Age of acquisition (AoA) is a factor in determining which of a bilingual’s two langua...

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This study critically examines the widespread practice of comparing the linguistic processes and representations of non-native speakers with those of natives. We argue that, in some respects, the method yields benefits, while in others it does not serve the interests of research into the nature of second language acquisition and bilingualism. We go...

This study examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by focus processing among first language (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners of French. Participants read wh-questions containing explicit focus marking, followed by responses instantiating contrastive and informational focus. We hypothesized that L2 proficiency would modu...

This commentary addresses the relevance of detectability to a theory of learning uninterpretable features in the second language (L2). Detectability of features is illustrated in an application of Signal Detection Theory. By analogy with development of phonemic categories in the first language (L1), the notion of paring down the repertoire of unint...

Until recently, cognitive science virtually ignored the fact that most people of the world are bilingual. During the past ten years this situation has changed markedly. There is now an appreciation that learning and using more than one language is the more natural circumstance of cognition. As a result, there is a wealth of new research on second-l...

The online segmentation of the continuous speech stream requires that the listener employ strategies to identify word and syllable boundaries. In French, the phonological processes of liaison and enchaînement often render these boundaries ambiguous (consider un air ‘a melody’ and un nerf ‘a nerve’; both are syllabified as [œ̃.nɛʁ]). Some research o...

The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics. DaviesAlan. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. Pp. x + 181. $29.00. - Volume 15 Issue 1 - David Birdsong

Nativelike Ultimate AttainmentFactors in Ultimate AttainmentThe Age Function and Ultimate AttainmentCognitive Aging and Biological AgingPsycho-Social Variables and NativelikenessFuture Directions

IntroductionWhy Study Ultimate Attainment?Non-Native-Like Outcomes in L2ACloser Look at the ConceptA Note on FossilizationUltimate Attainment and the Critical Period Hypothesis: The Age FunctionThe Incidence of Native-Like AttainmentInitial State, End State, and Universal GrammarDissociations and AsymmetriesUltimate Attainment and Cortical Function...

This article provides a selective overview of theoretical issues and empirical findings relating to the question of age and second language acquisition (L2A). Both behavioral and brain-based data are discussed in the contexts of neurocognitive aging and cognitive neurofunction in the mature individual. Moving beyond the classical notion of “deficie...

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to evaluate the influence of age (adult vs. child) and length of residence (LOR) in an L2-speaking country (3 vs. 5 years) on degree of foreign accent in a second language (L2). Korean adults and children living in North America, and age-matched groups of native English (NE) adults and children, recorded E...

Clahsen and Felser (CF) deserve praise for their superlative synthesis of literature relating to grammatical processing, as well as for their original contributions to this area of research. CF “explore the idea that there might be fundamental differences between child L1 and adult L2 processing.” The researchers present evidence that adult second...

This commentary addresses the use of nativelikeness and non-nativelikeness in research relating to the age factor in L2A. I suggest that, in the context of the Critical Period Hypothesis as it applies to L2A, the criteria of nativelikeness and non-nativelikeness may be subject to abuse. I also argue that the use of the monolingual native standard f...

This study examined the production and perception of English vowels by native Korean (NK) learners of English on two occasions separated by about 1 year. A preliminary experiment revealed that NK adults classified some pairs of contrastive English vowels using two different Korean vowels whereas other pairs showed classification overlap, implying t...

Link to full text of Interpreting age effects in second language acquisition (Birdsong 2005) can be found at Birdsong's Google Scholar page, or at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/J_Vaid/publication/270582623_Clearing_the_cobwebs_from_the_study_of_the_bilingual_brain_Converging_evidence_from_laterality_and_electrophysiological_research/l...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acquisition of statistical properties of a second language (L2). Stop consonants are permitted in word-final position in both English and Korean, but they are variably released in English and invariably unreleased in Korean. Native Korean (K) adults and children living in North America and age-matched nativ...

This study assessed the production and categorial discrimination of English // and // by native Korean (NK) adults and children. A total of 108 participants (72 NK and 36 age-matched native English speakers) were tested twice. The NK participants were further subdivided according to length of residence (LOR) in North America. In Experiment 1, both...

This experimental study looks at the L2 French pronunciation of a group of adult anglophone learners. The elicited data are compared both on a segmental and a global level with those of native controls, with the result that the performance in experimental conditions of some learners prove to be within the range of native performance. These results...

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Stops at the end of Korean words are always unreleased. The question addressed here was whether Korean adults and children living in the U.S. can learn to release stops at the end of English words. Four groups of 18 native Koreans (NK) who differed according to age (adult versus child) and length of residence in the U.S. (3 vs 5 years at T1) partic...

This study examined English sentences produced by four groups of native Korean subjects (18 each) who differed according to mean age (children=12 years, adults=32 years) and length of residence in North America (means=3 vs 5 years). A delayed repetition technique was used to elicit English sentences at Time 1 and one year later at Time 2. Native En...

Second-language (L2) acquisition is generally thought to be constrained by maturational factors that circumscribe a critical period for nativelike attainment. Consistent with the maturational view are age effects among learners who begin L2 acquisition prior to, but not after, closure of the putative critical period. Also favoring the maturational...

The Epstein, Flynn, and Martohardjorno full access hypothesis could be enhanced by inclusion of criteria for falsification.

The present paper addresses the argument that access to UG in SLA implies an asymmetrical knowledge of ungrammaticality, which is evidenced in superior accuracy and uniformity in learners' judgments of ungrammatical structures versus grammatical structures (Felix, 1988; Zobl, 1992). I attempt to show that the asymmetry position is conceptually defe...

The present paper isolates certain domain-general cognitive processes involved in decision making and examines their instantiations in adult second language acquisition (SLA). After reviewing important differences between mature and immature cognition, I discuss the epistemological categories and concepts that underlie decision making. I then addre...

On the prevailing view of ultimate attainment in second language acquisition, native competence cannot be achieved by postpubertal learners. The present study offers convergent experimental evidence which suggests there are exceptions to this generalization. At the same time, early arrival in the host country-even if past puberty-correlates with at...

GRAMMAR AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING: A BOOK OF READINGS. RutherfordWilliam and SmithMichael Sharwood (Eds.). New York: Newbury House, 1988. Pp. vii + 260. - Volume 12 Issue 1 - David Birdsong

Metalinguistic performance in its broadest sense can be understood as any objectification of language. Cazden (1976) observes that “as human beings... we can... not only learn and use language, but treat it as an object of analysis and observation in its own right” (p. 603). Under this interpretation, such everyday activities as proofreading a text...

It is often assumed that metalinguistic performance (e.g., detection of ambiguity, judgments of grammaticality) straightforwardly reflects linguistic knowledge. The inadequacies of such an assumption are explored in this volume, which documents the subtleties of the relationship between metalinguistic performance and knowledge of a second language...

Evidence of semantically based orderings of phrasal coordinations in child speech is explored. Speech samples from two children are analyzed to show that such sequences occur frequently, are internally consistent, and are part of children's active repertoire of referential and expressive acts at an early age. The samples were obtained from one chil...

Certain idioms called “freezes,” e.g., first and foremost, mish-mash, display a characteristic fixed word order determined by phonological and semantic rules. Native speakers of English and learners of English were asked to indicate their preferences for one of two possible orderings of minimally contrasting nonsense pairs, e.g., FIM—FUM versus FUM...

The relationship between metalinguistic performance (e.g., detection of ambiguity, judgments of grammaticality) and knowledge of a second language (interlinguistic competence) is explored from the perspectives of language acquisition theory and cognitive and developmental psychology. Topics include the development of metalinguistic abilities, the u...

In contrast to child first language acquisition (L1A), the typical outcome of postadolescent second language acquisition (L2A) is nonnativelike attainment. However, some adult learners at the L2A end state perform like natives in psycholinguistic experiments. A number of age-related factors are thought to influence learners' potential for nativelik...

What are the upper limits of attainment among post-adolescent second language (L2) learners? New perspectives on this question depart from the traditional emphasis on deficiency in favor of a more neutral approach to late L2 learners' potential, an approach that considers what learners are capable of attaining alongside their shortcomings. In this...