Resumen de Variation and second language grammars

Robert Bayley, Dennis Richard Preston

• Using sociolinguistic methods, variationists have successfully modeled many of the numerous factors that constrain L2 speakers’ use of variable linguistic forms. However, variationists have been less successful in developing a psycholinguistic model to account for variation in the grammar. In this paper we first describe early studies of L2 variation. Then, using examples from L1 English and L2 and bilingual Spanish, we present a three level psycholinguistic model to account for L1 and L2 variation constrained by social factors only at Level I, by linguistic factors at Level II and change over time at Level III.