Issues in Applied Linguistics

This paper builds upon the Competition Model to create a broadframework that can inform a connectionist approach to second language acquisition research. After adopting three types ofexplanationsfor second language acquisition and outlining criteriafor evalu- ating theories, the paper summarizes the Competition Model, a theory that utilizes those threetypesofexplanations. Thepaperthensummarizesfindingsregardingthelongitudinal developmentofpasttimeexpression. Toaccountforthesepatterns,thepaperintroduces additional constructs that are consistent with the Competition Model. Integrating "the competition offormsfor expressing functions" with the notion of "cumulative complexity" (Brown, 1973), these new constructs are combined in the Sign-based, Connectionist, Envi- ronmentalist, and Compositionist (SCEC) Framework. The past time patterns are inter- preted as manifestations of expansions in neural connectivity and modifications of connec- tion strengths, changes that result from the associative learning that occurs during the processing of a large number of exemplars.