G540:
The Acquisition of German as a First and as a Second Language (3 cr.)

Spring 2003

Instructor:	
Rex A. Sprouse; Ballantine Hall 661;
855-3248;
rsprouse@indiana.edu

Texts:		
Ellis, Rod (1997) Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford
University Press. ISBN: 0-19-437212-X.

Foster-Cohn, Susan H. (1999) An Introduction to Child Language
Development. New York: Longman. ISBN: 0-582-08729-5.

Hawkins, Roger (2001) Second Language Syntax: A Generative
Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. ISBN: 0-631-19184-4

articles on reserve in BH 643
instructor-generated handouts

Prerequisites:	None. In particular, neither knowledge of German nor
any specific background in linguistics is a prerequisite for this
course.

This course introduces students to some of the basic phenomena
associated with native and nonnative language acquisition and to
some of the recent scholarly literature on the acquisition of German
as a first and as a second language, primarily focusing on the
acquisition of clause structure. In the process, the course also
treats broader theoretical and methodological issues in first and
second language acquisition research, including the following:

(1)	What stages do children and adults go through in the
acquisition of languages in general and in the acquisition of German
in particular?

(2)	To what extent does clause structure in early child German
and in nonnative German obey the same principles as the adult native
German clause structure?

(3)	In precisely what ways do early child German and nonnative
German differ from adult native German?

(4)	Which elements of the native language grammar transfer to
the initial state of second language acquisition?

(5)	Can we identify systematic differences between adult
classroom learners and adult contact learners?

(6)	What can the study of child nonnative learners tell us about
language acquisition?

The course grade will be based on three equally weighted criteria:
three short written assignments
class participation and exposé
course paper