Review of Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax

Abstract

The goal of this book is to combine data-driven findings in the area of Arabic language acquisition with a focus on the order of acquisition, developmental stages and learning patterns of linguistic structures of Arabic. The author starts with research questions on the variables involved in learning Arabic including the developmental path, the role of transfer, the effect of instruction, and other factors involved. Methodologically, the book draws on a pool of longitudinally collected oral data from 9 learners of Arabic and a cross-sectional sample of 109 learners with different native languages including English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. Data were elicited through information gap activities and picture description tasks. Based on analyses from this data, chapters are systematically developed to address topics in separate chapters for discussing the acquisition of specific target features.