Dynamic Model of Language Acquisition and SLA Study

Abstract

The basic thesis of the dynamic model of language acquisition is that the course of language development and the outcome are “affected by the grammars at the non-initial stages of language development in a way that cannot be properly characterized in terms of the output-oriented theories” (Kajita, 1977, 2000). After the brief introduction of the fundamental claim of the dynamic approach, I present some examples of English and Japanese to show that initially unlikely syntactic constructions are made available by non-initial properties of the grammars. I also suggest that the dynamic approach can explain more adequately the cases of L2 learners' misuse. In particular, the dynamic model explains that L2 learners cannot use some discourse-related particles in earlier stages of L2 acquisition, even if their L1 grammar has the same property concerning the sentence-final discourse particles. More importantly, it also explains that they come to be able to use them properly at the subsequent stages earlier than the other learners whose L1 grammars do not contain the discourse-related particles.