Input Matters in SLA

Thorsten Piske is affiliated with the University of Education in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. His research focuses on first and second language acquisition and on bilingual education. He is well known for joint work with James E. Flege on factors affecting degree of foreign accent in a second language. He has done research on the production and perception of first and second language speech sounds and on the effectiveness of bilingual programs in kindergartens and primary schools.

Currently at Newcastle University in England, Martha Young-Scholten works on morpho-syntax and phonology. She is well known for joint work with Anne Vainikka on uninstructed adults’ development of morpho-syntax in German. Prosodic structure, orthographic input and the phonological awareness of low-literate immigrant adults are some of the lines of research she pursues in the second language acquisition of phonology.