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Language acquisition without an acquisition device

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2011

William O'Grady
William O'Grady*
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USAogrady@hawaii.edu
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Abstract

Most explanatory work on first and second language learning assumes the primacy of the acquisition phenomenon itself, and a good deal of work has been devoted to the search for an ‘acquisition device’ that is specific to humans, and perhaps even to language. I will consider the possibility that this strategy is misguided and that language acquisition is a secondary effect of processing amelioration: attempts by the processor to facilitate its own functioning by developing routines of particular sorts.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 116 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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