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

Chapter 2

Theoretical Background

2.0. Introduction

This chapter provides the necessary theoretical background for this text on the acquisition of Japanese as a second language (L2) morphosyntax within the framework of processability theory (PT henceforth; Pienemann, 1998b). Section 2.1 gives a historical overview of second language acquisition (SLA) research that both illuminates how the previous approaches contributed to the architecture of PT and permits an evaluation of its descriptive and explanatory adequacy as a theory of SLA. The approaches/models reviewed here include the contrastive analysis hypothesis (e.g., Lado, 1957), error analysis (e.g., Richards, 1971; Selinker, 1972), morpheme studies (Dulay & Burt 1973, 1974; Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982) and creative constructionism, and Krashen’s (1976, 1978, 1982, 1985) monitor model. In addition, this section reviews the historical and theoretical predecessors of PT (Pienemann 1998b), the multidimensional model (Clahsen, 1980; Clahsen et al., 1983; Meisel et al., 1981; Pienemann, 1980), and what Larsen-Freeman