The present volume provides a cross-linguistic perspective on the development of tense-aspect in L2 acquisition. Data-based studies included in this volume deal with the analysis of a wide range of target languages: Chinese, English, Italian, French, Japanese, and Spanish. Theoretical frameworks used to evaluate the nature of the empirical evidence range from generative grammar to functional-typological linguistics. Several studies focus on the development of past tense markers, but other issues such as the acquisition of a future marker are also addressed. An introductory chapter outlines some theoretical and methodological issues that serves as relevant preliminary reading for most of the chapters included in this volume. Additionally, a preliminary chapter offers a substantive review of first language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. The analysis of the various languages included in this volume significantly advances our understanding of this phenomenon, and will serve as an important basis for future research.

The present volume provides a cross-linguistic perspective on the development of tense-aspect in L2 acquisition. Data-based studies included in this volume deal with the analysis of a wide range of target languages: Chinese, English, Italian, French, Japanese, and Spanish. Theoretical frameworks used to evaluate the nature of the empirical evidence range from generative grammar to functional-typological linguistics. Several studies focus on the development of past tense markers, but other issues such as the acquisition of a future marker are also addressed. An introductory chapter outlines some theoretical and methodological issues that serves as relevant preliminary reading for most of the chapters included in this volume. Additionally, a preliminary chapter offers a substantive review of first language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. The analysis of the various languages included in this volume significantly advances our understanding of this phenomenon, and will serve as an important basis for future research.

Tense, aspect and mood have attracted much attention in the areas of both first and second language acquisition, but scholars in the two disciplines often fail to learn from each other. Western European languages have also been the focus of most studies, but there would be lessons to learn from less studied languages. This volume offers new insights on tense, aspect and mood by bringing together the findings of first and second language acquisition, and comparing child and adult, monolingual and multilingual learning processes that are approached from various theoretical points of view. In addition, it spans over a wide range of less studied languages (Bulgarian, Hebrew, Korean, Russian), and Western European languages are studied from new angles.

As one of the first books in child second language acquisition (SLA), this book focuses on the core area of tense-aspect morphology, reporting on three L1-Italian children learning L2 English vs. three L1-English children learning L2 Italian. An innovative longitudinal/bidirectional research design, where two languages represent both source and target, show effects of language transfer in learners that, because of their age, still have potential to become native-speakers of the target. An unusual feature of this book is that relevant studies of acquisition of L2 Italian, some heretofore only in Italian, are reviewed, incorporated into the study and made available to a more general audience. Though the main focus is on child SLA, crucial comparisons to both first language acquisition vs. adult SLA are presented. This approach will thus be of interest more generally to readers in first and second language acquisition and child development.

The expression of temporal relations, notably through tense and aspect, is central in all processes of communication, but commonly perceived and described as a major hurdle for non-native speakers. While this topic has already received considerable attention in the SLA literature, it features less prominently in recent corpus-based studies of learner language. This volume intends to close this gap. It shows which additional insights into the area of tense and aspect in learner language can be gained using corpus data, addressing the following questions: In which ways do corpus-based studies complement work based on other methods?; How can a corpus-based approach inform theories on the acquisition of tense and aspect specifically, and of language acquisition in general?; Are results language-specific or can universal principles be established?; How pervasive are effects of mode/register within learner corpus data?; What role does native and non-native input play?; Which methodological challenges come to the fore when using corpus data instead of elicited data?; How can the notion of "target(-like)" performance be operationalized for corpus material?; Which implications do the findings from the learner corpora have for the teaching and learning of the target language? Originally published as special issue of International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 4:2 (2018)

This volume explores the acquisition of tense and aspect by adult second language learners of nine target languages. The author focuses on the association of form and meaning in leaders' emerging system of temporal expression. The book provides a survey and synthesis of studies from five perspectives: the meaning-oriented approach, acquisitional sentences, the aspect hypothesis, the discourse hypothesis, and the effect of instruction. In addition, original longitudinal and cross-sectional studies on the acquisition of English by the author illustrate each of the perspectives and explore the importance of research design and analysis in acquisition research.

Recent developments in linguistic theory, as well as the growing body of evidence from languages other than English, provide new opportunities for deeper explorations into how language is represented in the mind of learners. This collection of new empirical studies on the acquisition of Spanish morphosyntax by leading researchers in the field of language acquisition, specifically contributes to the characterization of the L1 / L2 connection in acquisition. Using L1 and L2 Spanish data from children and adults, the authors seek to address the central questions that have occupied developmental psycholinguists in the final decades of the previous century and that will no doubt continue engaging them into the present one.