Nonnatives Outperformed Natives: Spanish Determiners as Cues for Gender Assignment of Novel Nouns

Presenter Information

Danny MelendezFollow

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-SGnune” 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.


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Oct 17th, 5:00 PM Oct 17th, 5:30 PM

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-SGnune” 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.