The present cross-linguistic study deals with the relevance of principles of information organization in adult second language acquisition. It looks at typological features of information structure that allow speakers to organize and shape the flow of information when carrying out complex tasks, such as giving a description, and pinpoints factors that lead to the selection of linguistic form. At the focus of our attention are means used in reference introduction, such as existential and locational constructions, the morphosyntactic forms of expressions applied in reference maintenance, and word order. The cross-linguistic comparison shows that the options found in the expression of these functions in German, English, and Romance languages (French, Italian, and Spanish) follow distinct patterns in that the linguistic means used reflect unifying principles of a typological nature. These principles are perspective driven and are associated with patterns of grammaticization. Structures in language that reflect core principles in information organization may be difficult to acquire because learners have to recognize clusters of form-function relations that range over different domains. The nature of the analyses required is described for learners of German with English and Spanish as their source languages. The interlanguages (ILs) of these speakers show a high degree of compatibility with German in formal syntactic terms and are near native in many respects, but the levels at which the IL and target language diverge can be linked to fundamental principles of organization underlying information structure. Although the stage of acquisition is advanced, the languages still retain core principles in information structure typical of those found for English and Romance languages.

The VILLA project ("Varieties of Initial Learners in Language Acquisition: Controlled classroom input and elementary forms of linguistic organisation") studies the very first phases of the process of language acquisition and establishes a tight link between learners' achievements in different domains of linguistic knowledge and the input they received. Novice adult and child learners with five different native languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian) were exposed to fourteen hours of input in Polish that was provided in a communicative classroom setting. Whereas the exposure conditions and the content of the input were kept constant for all learner groups, the age of the learners and the amount of metalinguistic information provided was varied between groups. Acquisition of different target language properties (phonology, morpho-syntax, discourse-pragmatics) was observed longitudinally through a series of tasks and experiments repeated over time. The paper presents the methodological set-up of the project and summarizes first results.

Référence électronique Marzena Watorek, « Construction du discours par des apprenants de langues, enfants et adultes »,