| The present study was designed to contribute to the understanding of second language processing by considering the routines, patterns, and creative constructions employed by three Korean children learning English as a second language in a public nursery school in Austin, Texas. The specific questions addressed in the present study were as follows: (1) What routines, patterns, and creative constructions did the subjects use? (2) What was the proportion of routines, patterns, and creative constructions for each child over time? (3) What trends were evident in the development of selected grammatical morphemes over time for the three subjects? (4) What interaction was evident between (a) the children's use of routines, patterns, and creative constructions and (b) the children's "language learning style characteristics" and "social style characteristics?".;Five major conclusions resulting from this investigation were as follows: (1) Routines and patterns that occurred as single units for the children before they recognized them as combinations of units played a significant role in the children's second language acquisition. Not only did these ready-made constructions permit the children to maintain social relationships with second language speakers, but they also constituted important linguistic input for the children's development of the second language. (2) In the three children's increase in the use of patterns their language development was evident. The children were moving from heavy dependence on wholly unanalyzed routines to increased use of partly analyzed patterns. (3) Although all three of the children were heavily dependent on routines and patterns, the three used them differently. One child was heavily dependent on routines, while another child relied on patterns and the third child used both routines and patterns. (4) The linguistic environment had much to do with the children's rapid learning of routines and patterns. The children employed the routines and patterns that were recurrent in the speech of the children and teachers at school. (5) Finally, the change in the children's development of the second language did not occur abruptly in a short time period. By the end of the study, the quantity and quality of the children's creative constructions based on their rule formation were very limited. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.). |
