The role of universal grammar in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2 (B), University of Marburg (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), course: Syntax, language: English, abstract: This piece of work intends to present the most cogitable positions concerning the functioning of universal principles in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as they are commonly considered to work within First Language Acquisition (FLA). It will transpire that various aspects of SLA compared to FLA do not allow for a lucid and irrevocable answer to be given for this question.

In order to give the reader an idea of what Universal Grammar (UG) deals with, the first part of the paper sets up a conception of FLA to work on the basis of innate knowledge. Special emphasis is put on the content of Input as well as the realization of UG in terms of principles and parameters. Following SLA is scrutinized more closely with respect to the acquisition process and differences concerning the preconditions of both FLA and SLA before turning to the discussion of the major positions in linguistic research.