This paper has two main objectives: (a) to put the vast body of research on Swedish as a second language (SSL) into one coherent framework; and (b) to test the predictions deriving from processability theory (Pienemann, 1998a (Pienemann, , 1998b for Swedish against this empirical database. We will survey the 14 most prominent research projects on SSL covering wide areas of syntax and morphology in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. This survey is the first to be carried out for Swedish,

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... nd it will bring the body of two decades of research into one unified framework. We proceed in the following steps: First, a brief summary of processability theory is given. Then the theory is used to generate a unifying framework for the development of the specific L2 grammatical system (Swedish). Finally, the new framework is tested in the above-mentioned empirical studies.