| Interest in second language acquisition and second language pedagogy have been on the increase in recent years. Many researchers have explored the possibility that second language is learned in the same way that first language is learned. Results of this research have formed the rationale for many different approaches to teaching second language, which vary depending upon how one believes second language is acquired, that is, whether it is an entirely different process from acquiring a first language or not. Among the more recent developments in second language programs is the immersion program.;This work looks at the immersion program from a novel perspective. Using the literature on second language acquisition, it was hypothesized that learners in immersion programs are guided in the acquisition process by principles of Universal Grammar, and are sensitive to violations of these principles. It was also hypothesized that learners would be less sensitive to violations of language-specific rules of grammar than to violations of Universal Grammar, since language-specific features are neither a part of Universal Grammar, nor a part of the learner's first-language competence. To test this hypothesis, four features of the grammar of fifth-graders enrolled in a US Spanish immersion program were investigated.;It is shown here via subject scores on two tasks (a judgment task and an imitation task) that subjects of this study were more sensitive to violations of principles of Universal Grammar than to violations of second-language specific features of syntax. |
