First Language Influence and Fossilization in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

Abstract

While a considerable amount of second language acquisition (SLA) research has focused on the acquisition process itself, another strand of research has specialized in investigating the fossilization of specific linguistic features. Han’s (2009) Selective Fossilization Hypothesis (SFH), an analytic model that seeks to account for both the acquisitional and fossilizable potential of linguistic features, is a unique attempt to make sense of fossilizable forms by probing into factors purportedly promoting fossilization in the acquisition process.