Learning Japanese as a Second Language: A Processability Perspect ...

after the historical review. This section covers key components of PT, including Levelt’s speech generation model (1989) and lexical functional grammar (LFG). This review of PT shows how psychological factors in language processing constrain speech production when learning a second language. This will help demonstrate how the acquisition of procedural skills is linguistically manifested in L2 developmental stages.

Chapter 2 also looks at one of the PT-generated hypotheses: DMTH. The chapter summarises DMTH as well as some competing approaches to cross-linguistic influence in learning second languages. The chapter concludes with a literature review of earlier studies of Japanese L2 that are most relevant to this study. This includes Japanese L2 studies where PT or its precursor predictive framework were applied as well as studies related to acquisition of Japanese L2 syntax and morphology.

Chapter 3 presents a brief description of the typological characterisation of Japanese morphosyntax, followed by a set of hypotheses on the application of PT to Japanese L2. The structures covered in the hypotheses include verbal morphology as well as syntactic structures, which has mainly to do with word order distribution across stages and the assignment of topic functions. Information unification and functional assignments are the key principles for determining PT stages. This text illustrates how these principles work for Japanese L2 morphosyntactic structures with LFG formalisation. The chapter also includes predictions relating to cross-linguistic influence and L1 transfer in the initial stages of syntax in Japanese L2.

Chapter 4 presents the research questions and methodological design of the empirical studies. The main objective of the investigation was to identify the developmental stages in learning L2 Japanese. But there were specific questions to be answered: Are the hypothesised developmental stages valid across speakers of different L1 backgrounds? Is the developmental path followed by learners in the longitudinal studies also observed in the cross-sectional study? This chapter first summarises the research questions and then discusses the methodology of the empirical studies. This includes types of data, the method of data collection, and information about the informants. The chapter closes with a description