| This research endeavor seeks to examine the acquisition of English by Arabic native speakers and the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic (Arabic) by English native speakers. It explores the theory of Universal Grammar (UG) and its relationship to the acquisition processes of first (L1) and second language (L2). Particularly, it employs a principles and parameters approach to UG, as realized in Chomsky's (1981) Government and Binding theory. It investigates whether or not advanced adult L2 learners as a foreign language have access to UG principles and parameters; specifically, the Subjacency and the Empty Category Principles, and the Null Subject Parameter are tested. In addition, the study researches whether or not there is a difference between perception and production tasks in measuring UG principles/parameters. Moreover, it discusses the nature of UG-based acquisition studies and comments on UG properties that considered in such studies.;For data collection, two testing instruments are utilized, a perception (grammaticality judgment) task, and a production (question formation) task. These tasks are constructed in English for the English Experiment (EE), and in Arabic for the Arabic Experiment (AE). For each experiment, two groups (controls and subjects) are given the two tests. The subjects are 60 male adults who are advanced learners of English in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (for the EE), and 34 male/female adult advanced learners of Arabic in the USA (for the AE). The collected data are tabulated, and descriptive statistics, Regression, and Chi-square are computed for data analysis.;The study reports that UG is still accessible to adult L2 learners but its accessibility is partly hindered by late acquired linguistic, cognitive, and socio-psychological components. In comparison, child L1 learners can directly access Core grammar (UG) while adult L2 learners access core grammar through late acquired peripheral components. Among other things, the study also reports some factors that may condition functional computation of components in the bilingual mind/brain. |
