Swain (1985) pointed out the need for increased modified output in the classroom in order to encourage learners to engage in more syntactic processing and, thus, make more form-meaning connections. Research in content-based instruction (CBI) (Musumeci, 1996;Pica, 2002) has revealed few occasions of pushed modified output from learners. Therefore, one questions whether CBI classes are effective in promoting and developing not only content knowledge, but also form-function abilities, specifically in the expressive skills. Second language (L2) learners from a 3rd semester university-level content-based geography course (N = 43) completed 2 (or 3) production tasks at the beginning and end of the regular semester. The findings revealed that learners made significant improvements in both content knowledge and functional linguistic abilities. However, it is possible that that latter still has room for improvement.

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This study examined the extent to which 40 students enrolled in upper level foreign language literary/cultural studies content courses showed evidence of incidental language learning over the course of a semester. Students completed a cloze passage and provided both writing and speaking samples at the beginning and end of the semester. In addition, they completed questionnaires related to their goals and perceived development, and instructors were interviewed and observed at various intervals throughout the semester. Instructors' focus was primarily on the content; focus on language was secondary and dealt with incidentally. Some positive evidence of language learning was found, but was mostly limited to students' writing. Speaking abilities, on the other hand, showed little evidence of significant improvement, and global proficiency, as measured by the cloze test, improved in some cases but not in others. Thus, there is some evidence for incidental language learning, but the question remains whether more could have been accomplished. It is suggested that an approach that more intentionally integrates content and language may meet the needs of a greater number of learners and maximize the potential for more language development.

Researchers propose that L2 learners acquire the abstract features of agreement at relatively low levels of L2 proficiency (Bruhn de Garavito, 2003a, 2003b). However, some argue that there is also evidence for the use of default forms in learners' errors (McCarthy, 2007, 2008), and that these may be predicted based on the morphological underspecification hypothesis (MUSH). Studies in Italian child L1A (e.g., Pizzuto & Caselli, 1992) and Italian adult L2A (e.g., Banfi & Bernini, 2003) have found evidence for the use of such variability and for defaults, in particular 3rd person singular forms. Similar results have been found in studies on the acquisition of L2 verbal inflection in other languages, including Spanish (McCarthy, 2007). Other views (e.g., the MSIH) propose instead that inflection is generally correct and that defaults surface as nonfinite/ bare forms not inflected ones (e.g., Prévost & White, 2000). This present study examined the acquisition of verbal agreement in both comprehension and production by 85 university-level L2 learners of Italian. By analyzing accuracy rates, evidence was found for the acquisition of agreement morphology even at low levels of proficiency, particularly in comprehension. Although error rates were generally low, patterns emerged whereby certain persons of the verb (especially the 3rd person singular) were used as defaults to replace other forms. It is argued that results provide support for no impairment in adult L2A in general, and for the MUSH in particular.