Two different conceptions about speech processing were examined in two experiments. Experiment 1 used a comprehension task to test native speakers of a VO language (Spanish) learning an OV language (Basque). The results provided strong support for the idea that the configurational properties of sentences play a crucial role in language processing (in particular for the Interruption Hypothesis, Slobin, 1971), as opposed to the idea that it is the grammatical relations holding between elements of a sentence that affect the relative difficulty of processing (as claimed by the Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis, Keenan & Comrie, 1977). Experiment 2 tested native speakers of a VO language (English) learning another VO language (Spanish). Experiment 2, while failing to provide support for either of the hypotheses raised a a very interesting theoretical issue: the idea that when parameters have to be reset in L2 learning acquisition is hindered to a considerable extent.

Much research interest has focussed on the use of expansions in adults' speech to children, and on the ways in which their use may facilitate a child's grammatical development. A detailed investigation of such phenomena in their interactional contexts reveals a wider range of functions to be identifiable than is suggested in the literature. This paper takes a conversation analytic approach to an investigation of 'redoing' sequences (adults' expansions and repeats) in conversations between an adult and a child of 1;6, and explores two ways in which redoing sequences are involved in the initiation of repair.

It is seen that redoings may serve to acknowledge a child utterance and confirm its appropriacy. At the same time, they may initiate phonetic repair on that utterance. Acknowledgements and confirmations from an adult (which may take the form of redoings) are expected by the child. The child is seen to treat an absence of confirmation as an indication of some kind of trouble in her or his prior utterance. In this way, the withholding of a confirmatory redoing by an adult prompts the child to effect self-repair.