Nonnatives Outperformed Natives: Spanish Determiners as Cues for Gender Assignment of Novel Nouns
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Second language acquisition, Applied linguistics, Bilingualism and multilingualism, Psycholinguistics.
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Start Date
17-10-2024 5:00 PM
End Date
17-10-2024 5:30 PM
Abstract
Nonnatives Outperformed Natives: Spanish Determiners as Cues for Gender Assignment of Novel Nouns
Montrul, Mason and Armstrong (2024) reported that L1 English learners of L2 Spanish were more accurate than heritage and native speakers at recalling the gender of Spanish-like novel nouns when trained via bimodal (textual and auditory) input. This study seeks to replicate this finding via auditory input alone. The research question is whether adult L2 learners of Spanish can use Spanish determiners as gender assignment cues via auditory input, and whether differences are observed between L2, L1 and HS. To date, 45 participants (15 L1; 15 English L1-Spanish L2; and 15 HS) were trained on 16 Spanish-like novel nouns (same as in Montrul et. al. 2024): half masculine, half feminine and within each gender group, half transparent and half non transparent word ending (–a, –o). Nouns were presented auditorily, 8x, via carrier sentences (1) with gender cues in determiners.
(1) María trajo el “nune” verde
María brought-3PS the-M-SG “nune” green
María brought the green “nune”
A Timed Elicited Production Task was administered post-training. Participants saw each novel noun with a color adjective (e.g. nune rojo/a) in black font on a white screen for 2 seconds. Participants had to compute gender agreement by orally producing a DP, as in (2).
(2) El “nune” roj-o
The-M “nune” red-M
The red “nune”
As in Montrul et. al. (2024), the L2 group outperformed the L1 and HS groups at recalling gender overall (figure 1). They were also more accurate with feminine (figure 2), and non transparent nouns (figure 3). A GMM confirmed an effect on feminine (β= 2.07, SE = 0.48, z =4.28, p= β= 1.36, SE = 0.45, z = 3.02, p= 0.007) and nontransparent feminine nouns (β= 1.36, SE = 0.45, z = 3.02, p= 0.007). Results challenge deficit accounts that posit inability to acquire L2 features not instantiated in L1 grammars (e.g., Hawkins, 2009), while aligning with lexical and inflectional accounts emphasizing variability in L2 gender agreement stemming from lexical gender assignment issues (Prévost & White, 2000; Grüter, et. al., 2012; Hopp, 2013). The role of repetition, proficiency, blocking (e.g., Arnon & Ramscar, 2012) and memory are discussed.
Keywords: L2 Spanish, word learning, grammatical gender assignment, grammatical gender agreement, oral production, auditory input.
References
Arnon, I., & Ramscar, M. (2012). Granularity and the acquisition of grammatical gender: How order-of-acquisition affects what gets learned. Cognition, 122(3), 292-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.10.009
Grüter, T., Lew-Williams, C. & Fernald, A. (2012). Grammatical gender in L2: A production or a real-time processing problem? Second Language Research, 28(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312437990
Hawkins, R. (2009). Statistical learning and innate knowledge in the development of second language proficiency: Evidence from the acquisition of gender concord. In A.G. Benati (ed.), Issues in Second Language Proficiency, 63-78, Bloomsbury Academic.
Hopp, H. (2013). Grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition: Relations between lexical and syntactic variability. Second Language Research, 29(1), 33-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312461803
Montrul S, Mason SA, Armstrong A. (2024) The Role of Language Experience in the Acquisition of Spanish Gender Agreement: A Study with Nonce Nouns. Languages 9(2), 45. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020045
Prévost, P. & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second language research, 16(2), 103-133. https://doi.org/10.1191/026765800677556046
Figures
Figure 1. Proportion of Correct Responses on Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group.
Figure 2. Proportion of Correct Responses on the Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group and noun gender.
Figure 3. Proportion of Correct Responses on Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group, noun gender and noun transparency.
Nonnatives Outperformed Natives: Spanish Determiners as Cues for Gender Assignment of Novel Nouns
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Nonnatives Outperformed Natives: Spanish Determiners as Cues for Gender Assignment of Novel Nouns
Montrul, Mason and Armstrong (2024) reported that L1 English learners of L2 Spanish were more accurate than heritage and native speakers at recalling the gender of Spanish-like novel nouns when trained via bimodal (textual and auditory) input. This study seeks to replicate this finding via auditory input alone. The research question is whether adult L2 learners of Spanish can use Spanish determiners as gender assignment cues via auditory input, and whether differences are observed between L2, L1 and HS. To date, 45 participants (15 L1; 15 English L1-Spanish L2; and 15 HS) were trained on 16 Spanish-like novel nouns (same as in Montrul et. al. 2024): half masculine, half feminine and within each gender group, half transparent and half non transparent word ending (–a, –o). Nouns were presented auditorily, 8x, via carrier sentences (1) with gender cues in determiners.
(1) María trajo el “nune” verde
María brought-3PS the-M-SG “nune” green
María brought the green “nune”
A Timed Elicited Production Task was administered post-training. Participants saw each novel noun with a color adjective (e.g. nune rojo/a) in black font on a white screen for 2 seconds. Participants had to compute gender agreement by orally producing a DP, as in (2).
(2) El “nune” roj-o
The-M “nune” red-M
The red “nune”
As in Montrul et. al. (2024), the L2 group outperformed the L1 and HS groups at recalling gender overall (figure 1). They were also more accurate with feminine (figure 2), and non transparent nouns (figure 3). A GMM confirmed an effect on feminine (β= 2.07, SE = 0.48, z =4.28, p= β= 1.36, SE = 0.45, z = 3.02, p= 0.007) and nontransparent feminine nouns (β= 1.36, SE = 0.45, z = 3.02, p= 0.007). Results challenge deficit accounts that posit inability to acquire L2 features not instantiated in L1 grammars (e.g., Hawkins, 2009), while aligning with lexical and inflectional accounts emphasizing variability in L2 gender agreement stemming from lexical gender assignment issues (Prévost & White, 2000; Grüter, et. al., 2012; Hopp, 2013). The role of repetition, proficiency, blocking (e.g., Arnon & Ramscar, 2012) and memory are discussed.
Keywords: L2 Spanish, word learning, grammatical gender assignment, grammatical gender agreement, oral production, auditory input.
References
Arnon, I., & Ramscar, M. (2012). Granularity and the acquisition of grammatical gender: How order-of-acquisition affects what gets learned. Cognition, 122(3), 292-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.10.009
Grüter, T., Lew-Williams, C. & Fernald, A. (2012). Grammatical gender in L2: A production or a real-time processing problem? Second Language Research, 28(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312437990
Hawkins, R. (2009). Statistical learning and innate knowledge in the development of second language proficiency: Evidence from the acquisition of gender concord. In A.G. Benati (ed.), Issues in Second Language Proficiency, 63-78, Bloomsbury Academic.
Hopp, H. (2013). Grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition: Relations between lexical and syntactic variability. Second Language Research, 29(1), 33-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312461803
Montrul S, Mason SA, Armstrong A. (2024) The Role of Language Experience in the Acquisition of Spanish Gender Agreement: A Study with Nonce Nouns. Languages 9(2), 45. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020045
Prévost, P. & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second language research, 16(2), 103-133. https://doi.org/10.1191/026765800677556046
Figures
Figure 1. Proportion of Correct Responses on Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group.
Figure 2. Proportion of Correct Responses on the Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group and noun gender.
Figure 3. Proportion of Correct Responses on Gender Assignment in the Elicited Production Task by group, noun gender and noun transparency.