Verb Movement in Generative SLA and the Teaching of Word Order Patterns

Abstract

This chapter looks at basic word order, providing an overview of generative accounts of differences in word order between German, French, and English. It reviews GenSLA studies that investigate English word order in learners with German-type or French-type first languages and that show how the word order properties from one’s native language can lead to difficulties in acquisition in the second language. On this basis, it is argued that word order is an area which should be explicitly taught and advocates development of grammatical enquiry skills in learners, through a grammaring approach to teaching.KeywordsWord OrderTarget LanguageExplicit InstructionNegative EvidenceGrammaticality JudgmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.