THE ACQUISITION OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES BY LEARNERS OF GERMAN AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN A BILINGUAL ENVIRONMENT IN GERMANY: A STUDY OF ITALIAN AND TURKISH CHILDREN

This study was an investigation of how individuals acquiring German as a second language in a natural bilingual environment develop syntactic structures. Its main goal was to ascertain whether there were indications that systematic psycholinguistic processes are involved in the second language (L2) acquisition of syntax.;The study attempted to discover whether forms and structues relating to the V-S structure/rule were used by the learners in an ordered pattern of steps over time. That is, the study attempted to establish whether a consistent developmental sequence was associated with the acquisition of the target V-S structure/rule. It was reasoned that if a consistent developmental sequence could be identified and described, this would provide useful empirical bases for understanding systematic psycholinguistic processes in L2 acquisition.;Four Italian and four Turkish immigrant workers' children aged 7-9 were studied over a five-month period. They had been in Germany for 6-8 months at the outset of the study. Data were collected in individual tape-recorded interviews in the German language. The method of data collection involved the Elicited Imitation (EI) technique, in which each child repeated prepared sentences containing the target V-S structure/rule. Written transcriptions of the tape recordings were the basis for the analysis of the data.;The analysis of the learners' sentence repetitions entailed the identification, description, and classification of those forms and structures which had implications for the acquisition of the target structure/rule. An exhaustive set of coding categories which accommodated all such forms and structures emerged. Using the coding categories, various additional analyses were performed to ascertain whether the forms and structures occurred in a consistent developmental sequence.;Groups of children with unrelated first language (L1) backgrounds (Italian and Turkish) were studied with respect to the language forms and structures which they used as they progressed toward the acquisition of one specific German syntactic structure/rule. This rule was the verb-subject (V-S) structure/rule together with its grammatical alternate, the subject-verb (S-V) structure/rule. The V-S structure/rule specifies that, in a declarative sentence, the subject directly follows the inflected verb of the main clause. The S-V structure/rule specifies that the subject directly precedes the inflected verb of a declarative main clause.;The analyses revealed that there was indeed a consistent developmental sequence for the acquisition of the target V-S structure/rule. The sequence was such that relatively early in the course of acquisition the learners evidenced specific and systematic omission of the S and/or V constituents. As an intermediate step in the sequence, many learners applied the S-V structure/rule. This systematic error involving incorrect use of the dominant ordering for the subject and verb in German seemed to be an indication of systematic psycholinguistic processes in L2 acquisition.;The use of the S-V structure/rule as an intermediate step in the developmental sequence occurred predominantly with Italian children. The difference between the Italian and the Turkish children in the use of the structure/rule may not necessarily be due to differences in L1 background, however. It may have been related to methodological factors and/or individual performance factors.;The results are compared with those of other studies and interpreted in terms of L1 transfer and L2 overgeneralization. The implications of the study for classroom instruction of foreign languages and future research are also discussed. The finding that there is a developmental sequence for the acquisition of the V-S structure/rule appears to contribute to contemporary language acquisiton research by providing evidence of creative and rule-governed process in L2 acquisition.