Manfred Pienemann

Paderborn University | UPB · Department of English and American Studies

In this article we address two key questions in the application of dynamical systems theory (DST) to second language acquisition (SLA) that have not been resolved in recent debates about this issue. The first question relates to reductionism. Is an antireductionist position a necessary element of DST? We show that the radical antireductionist stanc...

We demonstrate the possibility of a principled integration of the predictable char-acteristics of learner language and the unpredictability of socially embedded language use. In contrast with the claim that dynamical systems’ behaviour is uni-versally unpredictable, we demonstrate that dynamical systems theory embraces predictability as a fundament...

Professor Michael H. Long (1945-2021) was one of the most influential scholars in the field of second language acquisition. This volume presents a set of chapters that honour some of his key contributions in language teaching and learning. Following a bibliometric analysis of the impact of his research to the field, the volume spans topics such as...

This edited volume brings together the work of a number of researchers working in the framework of Processability Theory (PT), a psycholinguistic theory of second language acquisition (SLA) (Pienemann 1998; 2005). The aim of the volume is two-fold: It engages with current issues in both theory development and theory application and focuses on theor...

In this article I make the point that there has been a continuous focus on second language development in second language acquisition research for over 40 years and that there is clear empirical evidence for generalizable developmental patterns. I will both summarize some of the core assumptions of Processability Theory (PT) as an approach to expla...

The role of L1 transfer in second language acquisition has been the focus of extensive research for decades (Gass 1988; Eubank 1993/1994; Schwartz and Sprouse 1994, 1996; Pienemann 1998, Pienemann et al. 2005a, Pienemann 2011) with transfer at the initial state being of particular interest. Competing approaches have been proposed to address this is...

The basic idea underlying processability theory (PT) is the following: at any stage of development the learner can produce and comprehend only those second language (L2) linguistic forms which the current state of the language processor can handle.

In this article we utilize a developmental perspective as a metric for the comparison of bilingual language ability. In particular, we utilize Processabilty Theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 2005) which provides a psycholinguistic metric for developmental schedules of any given language. We demonstrate this approach to the cross-linguistic measurement of l...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

Processability Theory (PT) as developed by Manfred Pienemann is a prominent theory of second language acquisition. PT serves as a framework for a wide range of research covering issues, including L2 processing, interlanguage variation, typological effects on SLA, L1 transfer, pidgins and creoles, linguistic profiling, stabilisation/fossilisation an...

This paper will look at vital aspects of second language acquisition research. The main line of argument pursued is the following: the task of acquiring a second language is based on the acquisition of the procedural skills needed for the processing of the language. In this paper, I will present results from online experiments in L2 processing to s...

The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of one cognitive view of language acquisition, Processability Theory (PT), which focuses on the development of grammar in L2 learners. The key assumption is that the development of L2 grammar is constrained by the language processor and that L2 grammatical development can be explained by the archit...

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...

Ute Bohnacker's (2006) article on the acquisition of the verb second (V2) property in German by native speakers of Swedish (also a V2 language) is an attempted rebuttal of Håkansson et al.'s (2002) work on first language (L1) transfer and aspects of the underlying theory on which the work is based: Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998). The artic...

In their paper De Bot, Lowie and Verspoor (henceforth DBL&V) attempt to recast SLA research from a non-modular and psychometric position that is based on the assumption that "all variables are interrelated and therefore changes in one variable will have an impact on all other variables that are part of the system" (p. 8). In such grand endeavour th...

Seven years ago Manfred Pienemann proposed a novel psycholinguistic theory of language development, Processability Theory (PT). This volume examines the typological plausibility of PT. Focusing on the acquisition of Arabic, Chinese and Japanese the authors demonstrate the capacity of PT to make detailed and verifiable predictions about the developm...

Seven years ago Manfred Pienemann proposed a novel psycholinguistic theory of language development, Processability Theory (PT). This volume examines the typological plausibility of PT. Focusing on the acquisition of Arabic, Chinese and Japanese the authors demonstrate the capacity of PT to make detailed and verifiable predictions about the developm...

Pienemann, M. , Di Biase, B & Kawaguchi, S. (2005) Extending Processability Theory In M. Pienemann (Ed.), Cross-Linguistic Aspects of Processability Theory (pp. 199-251). Amsterdam: Benjamins (Abstract, requested by Research Gate, compiled by Bruno Di Biase) Processaility Theory (Pienemann 1998; 2005 Chapter 1) is based on the notion of transfer...

This chapter focuses on the interplay between first language (L1) transfer and psycholinguistic constraints on second language (L2) processability. The theoretical assumptions underlying this paper are those made in Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998) which include, in particular, the following two hypotheses: (1) that L1 transfer is const...

Seven years ago Manfred Pienemann proposed a novel psycholinguistic theory of language development, Processability Theory (PT). This volume examines the typological plausibility of PT. Focusing on the acquisition of Arabic, Chinese and Japanese the authors demonstrate the capacity of PT to make detailed and verifiable predictions about the developm...

Truscott and Sharwood-Smith's (henceforth T&SS's) paper offers an interesting set of hypotheses about one possible processing perspective in research on language acquisition. What is striking about this exposition of their model is that it ignores almost entirely the context of previous research on this issue. Embedding their exposition in its hist...

In this article, the issue of cross-linguistic influence in second language acquisition is examined from a processing perspective. Applying Processability Theory as the theoretical framework we claim that second language (L2) learners can only produce forms they are able to process. We thus argue that the first language (L1) influence on the L2 is...

This paper has two main objectives: (a) to put the vast body of research on Swedish as a second language (SSL) into one coherent framework; and (b) to test the predictions deriving from processability theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 1998b) for Swedish against this empirical database. We will survey the 14 most prominent research projects on SSL covering...

This paper has two major objectives: (1) to summarise Processability Theory, a processing-oriented approach to explaining language development and (2) to utilise this theory in the comparison of development in LI and L2 acquisition. Proponents of the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (between L1 and L2) assume that L1 development can be explained w...

Given that my paper touched upon many aspects of L1 an L2 acquisition, it is not surprising that the commentaries have raised a diverse range of issues. Nevertheless, one should not lose sight of the fact that the paper has a tightly defined focus, namely to delineate the influence of language processing factors and developmental dynamics on develo...

In his article Mellow claims that the 'predictive model' is based on a transformational analysis of word formation. We will show that this is incorrect and that instead, the model is based on the psychological concept of exchange of linguistic information. Therefore, Mellow's evaluation of various types of transformational analyses is quite irrelev...

a2 University of Hamburg(Received April 30 1993)

This article describes a computational system for the linguistic analysis of language acquisition data (COALA). The system is a combined AI and database tool which allows the user to form highly complex queries about morphosyntactic and semantic structures contained in large sets of data. COALA identifies those sentences that meet the linguistic cr...

In this article I demonstrate that the teachability of language is constrained by what the learner is ready to acquire. I set out a series of psychological constraints on teachability and relate these to the 'multidimensional model of SLA', taking a speech processing approch towards the explanation of language acquisition. This article supplies the...

This article reports on a first attempt to develop and test run an observation procedure for assessing the syntactic and morphological development of adult learners of English as a second language (ESL) as evidenced in spontaneous speech production. The procedure is based on the profile analysis approach, which was first developed by Crystal, Fletc...

In this article it is claimed that there is a set of universal speech processing constraints which applies to all types of second language acquisition. These constraints define the range of possible hypotheses about the structure of the L2 which a learner can create at a given stage of development and cannot be overridden by formal instruction or b...

This paper reports on the influence of formal instruction on L2 acquisition in an instructional experiment with child learners. The main tendency of the findings is that a structure can only be learned under instruction if the learner's interlanguage has already reached a stage one step prior to the acquisition of the structure to be taught. My hyp...

Research on Second Language (L2) Acquisition, over the past ten years, has undergone substantial changes by shifting its focus of interest away from an analysis of linguistic structures alone, concentrating more on the learner himself or, rather, on the process of learning. It had become obvious that one of the major shortcomings in contrastive stu...