Language Processing and Second Language Development: Processability Theory Book

	Acknowledgements
	Preface: A brief overview
1	Explanatory issues in SLA	1
1.1	Introduction: The thematic focus	1
1.2	Outline of the proposed theory	4
1.3	Three competing approaches	14
2	Language processing and language acquisition	39
2.1	Introduction: The wider context	39
2.2	Explaining SLA through processing strategies	45
2.3	Limitations of the strategies approach	49
2.4	Grammatical encoding	54
2.5	Processing procedures for the acquisition of L2 grammar	73
3	Processing procedures and the development of grammar	89
3.1	Reasons for implementing processability into a theory of grammar	89
3.2	A Sketch of Lexical-Functional Grammar	93
3.3	Word order revisited	98
3.4	Lexical, phrasal and inter-phrasal morphemes	111
4	Empirical and theoretical issues in processability theory	117
4.1	A test case: German morphology	118
4.2	Dynamic systems and acquisition criteria	131
4.3	Form-function relationships and processability	154
5	Cross-linguistic validity and on-line evidence	165
5.1	Typological plausibility	166
5.2	English as L2	169
5.3	Swedish as L2	182
5.4	Application to Japanese	207
5.5	Evidence from on-line experiments: the procedural skill hypothesis	215
6	Hypothesis space	231
6.1	Introduction	231
6.2	Interlanguage variation and the developmental problem	234
6.3	Teachability is constrained by processability	250
6.4	Effects of formal intervention on IL variation	264
6.5	Task variation: The steadiness hypothesis	273
6.6	Developmental dynamics and Generative Entrenchment	308
7	Epilogue	331
	Notes	337
	References	341
	Author index	359
	Subject Index	363