Grammatikerwerb vor und nach der Pubertt

The author presents a longitudinal study on verb placement in children who spontaneously learned German as a second language. It compares the position of the verb in main and subordinate clauses in two half-sisters whose mother tongue is Russian, and who came to Germany at the ages 8 and 14, respectively. The study shows that children and adolescents differ substantially in how rapidly they can achieve stable masteryin the target language.